NYT: Abbas ‘acutely bitter man,’ gave up on peace

The New York Times in its Friday editorial declared PA President Mahmoud Abbas “an acutely bitter man” who gave up on the peace process with Israel.

The newspaper, previously far more inclined to blame Israel than the Palestinian leadership for the failed diplomatic process, came down hard on Abbas’s announcement in his United Nations General Assembly address Wednesday that the Palestinians no longer see themselves as bound to the Oslo Accords.

“There is no question that Mr. Abbas is an acutely bitter man. At 80, he has effectively given up on ever achieving a negotiated Palestinian state; he is increasingly unpopular among the Palestinians, and the Palestinian Authority he leads effectively controls only the West Bank since Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007,” the editorial said.

The New York Times editorial also downplayed Abbas’s efforts to achieve international recognition of Palestinian statehood.

“His chief preoccupation lately has been on a series of gestures, largely futile, to gain international recognition of a Palestinian state, like the official raising of the Palestinian flag at the United Nations on Wednesday,” it said.

The paper cautioned that it would be “foolhardy” for Abbas to cut “the existing security, economic and civil cooperation with Israel, or to incite the Palestinians to more violence,” while stressing that the PA president’s speech ought not to be “lightly dismissed.”

“Mr. Abbas is among the last of Mr. Arafat’s generation of leaders who led the Palestinians from brutal terrorism to recognition of the state of Israel, and the Oslo Accords represented enormous concessions both by them and by the tough Israeli pioneers Mr. Rabin so nobly represented,” it said.

“There is no point in playing the tedious and useless blame game; Mr. Abbas has certainly made his share of errors and many powerful Palestinian figures long ago turned from negotiation to violence against Israel and Israelis. But the failure of everyone — Palestinians, Israelis and Americans — to build on the promise of Oslo is a tragedy for all.”

Abbas told the UN General Assembly in New York that “so long as Israel refuses to commit to the agreements signed with us, cease settlement construction and release prisoners, Israel has left us no choice but to insist that we will not remain the only ones committed to these agreements.” The immediate ramifications of the announcement were not made clear.

Abbas accused the Israeli government of running “an apartheid regime” in the West Bank. Israel “insists on continuing its destruction of the two-state solution and on entrenchment of two regimes on the ground,” he charged. “An apartheid regime that is currently imposed on the territory of the state of Palestine and against the Palestinian people on the one hand, and another regime of privileges and protection to the Israeli settlers on the other hand.”

In other incendiary accusations rejected by Israel, Abbas, during his speech to the UN on Wednesday, also claimed Israel was allowing “extremists” to enter Al-Aqsa Mosque and permitting the use of live fire against “peaceful” Palestinian demonstrators.

 

The Israeli government rejected the speech as “deceitful” and called for renewed peace talks.

Itamar Sharon, Sara Miller contributed to this report.