Posted on 04/27/2011 5:23:02 AM PDT by SJackson
Fed up with the stalled peace talks, the Palestinian leader defies Israel and vents about Obama.
We’re somewhere over the Mediterranean, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, is trying to get inside the head of Barack Obama. “We knew him before he became president,” he’s saying, struggling to understand what happened to the man who had seemed more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause than any of his predecessors. “We knew him and he was very receptive.” Around us, Abbas’s closest aides are shuffling papers or typing on laptops, while his bodyguards lounge on long corduroy couches. Saeb Erekat, the ubiquitous adviser, is writing talking points for Abbas’s meeting the next day with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. A man with a sidearm is shoveling pumpkin seeds into his mouth. In a space the size of two living rooms, most of the 20-odd passengers are puffing on cigarettes, and so is Abbas. At 76, he smokes more than two packs a day.
Abbas is about as affable as politicians come—even hawkish Israelis like Ariel Sharon have said so. But occasionally, he can deliver a shot of scathing criticism, usually followed by a grandfatherly smile. A week earlier, he told me bluntly that Obama had led him on, and then let him down by failing to keep pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a moratorium on settlement building in the West Bank last year. “It was Obama who suggested a full settlement freeze,” Abbas explained. “I said OK, I accept. We both went up the tree. After that, he came down with a ladder and he removed the ladder and said to me, jump. Three times he did it.”
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
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It was Obama who suggested a full settlement freeze,” Abbas explained. “I said OK, I accept
American diplomacy courtesy of the fool on Pennsylvania Ave.
Though it's been more or less known, I believe this is the first statement by a participant that all the settlement nonsense which destroyed any hope of continued talks was an American, not palestinian, objective.
Fed up with Obama— tell Mr. Abbas to take a freakin’ number. We get a shot at him first.
We both went up the tree. After that, he came down with a ladder and he removed the ladder and said to me, jump. Three times he did it.”
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Some Moslem ritual ???
Wouldnt simple handshake be less painful ???
“We knew him before he became president,”
And the Arabs were so sure that their fellow Muslim would create a Palestinian state that they funneled millions to BO’s campaign through all those anonymous computerized donations. That’s why he didn’t accept taxpayer funding and its restrictions and oversight.
To keep the money coming for his billion dollar ‘12 campaign, he’ll promise them their goal of a Palestinian state will be a priority after his re-election, when he will be free to ram through his entire agenda because he won’t have to worry about re-election.
The survival of the USA hangs on next year’s election. The Senate must not go Democrat and Obama must not be re-elected.
“We knew him before he became president,”
Why would they have dealings with him before he became President??
I find that statement to be very interesting...
The Palis want the whole bundle. The Jews are willing to give most BUT NOT ALL. Let's not forget this is, after all, a negotiation, and it isn't all or nothing.
To promise the Arabs everything was false to begin with.
When the new administration starts in January of 2013, God Willing, let them be frank about it. The Palestinian state may begin on Gaza and the West Bank, but no doubt the Jews’ claim to some of that land is historic and right.
The TRUTH: What the Palis really want is EVERYTHING. Not just the West Bank, but every stone in Israel. A single Jew in charge without a Muslim dominating is a grave humiliation against Islam, and like a cartoon of Moohamhead, a woman not wearing her perscribed veil and burka, or a Christian burning a Koran, is worth going nuts over: killing and dying for it, if it get's you your way.
Quite intimately, I'm sure.
This man is STILL AT WAR with Israel's Jews
The 0 is complex according to simple minded Milbank. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2711081/posts
The ritual is Palestinians continually negotiating with everyone but Israel. Abbas thinks if he agreed with Obama that Israel will just give in. But the world doesn’t work that way. Palestinians always seem to be negotiating with everyone except the one people who can give them what they want. If they declare independence, who will provide their currency (they use Israeli currency now). Who will be their trading partners? Where will they ship from (the West Bank will have no border with anyplace except Israel)? Who will provide their electricity, their water, their sewage? Everything they have received from the Oslo agreement will be threatened if they go it alone because going it alone means the Oslo agreement has been breached.
If you read the whole article you see Abbas’ passive aggressive style. He said he wants the UN to pass a resolution declaring the 1967 borders for a Palestinian state, but he doesn’t want to confront Israel over it. He says he won’t wait around 18 months, meaning he is willing to quit his office once the UN speaks. This is all a veiled threat, he is saying give us what we want or deal with the consequences. It is a risk to Israel, because if the UN votes and he leaves office it creates the opportunity for chaos, because there will be mixed messages and expectations that cannot be met left in perpetuity for both Israel and the Palestinians.
He really is a sincere friend of the Palestinian cause, but a stupid one. A smart enemy is better than a stupid friend. A good war is better than a bad peace, the latter often/nearly always leading to a bigger and badder war.
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