Palestinians: Laughing Their Heads Off

by Khaled Abu Toameh
March 14, 2016 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7606/palestinians-incitement-biden

Translations of this item:

As in any comedy, there is a clown, and Biden was played for a fool by a Palestinian Authority leadership that finds that it pays to point its finger at Israel.
Here is a dirty little secret: the Palestinian attackers were not driven to murder Jews because of "settlements" and "checkpoints."
Check their Facebook accounts: what fueled their hatred were the lies they had been fed for the past few years by President Abbas and other Palestinian leaders. Palestinian media outlets and spokesmen vomit poison against Israel.
And so the curtain rises on another act of the ceremonial, make-believe theater of the Middle East. In Abbas's sneaky script, it is about settlements. In reality, it is about the refusal of the Americans to read, speak or even translate Arabic.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Ramallah last week, and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and his top officials are laughing their heads off.

Why not laugh? Biden arrived in the region hoping to persuade the Palestinian leaders to issue a "condemnation" of the reign of terror, which they continue to describe as a "popular and peaceful uprising." This in itself reeks of gallows humor.

But what Biden got was even funnier, from the point of view of Abbas and his friends.

The Palestinian president offered "condolences" over the killing of a U.S. citizen in Jaffa the previous day: "The President [Abbas] offered his condolences over the killing of the US citizen, while stressing at the same time that the occupation authorities have killed 200 Palestinians over the past five months," according to a statement released by the PA leadership in Ramallah.

Abbas's crocodile tears were shed for Taylor Force, a West Point graduate from Texas who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian during a rampage on the Jaffa beachfront promenade. Abbas is doubtless also upset because Israel has killed Palestinian stabbers and shooters.

Just before Biden arrived in Ramallah, Abbas's Fatah faction praised the murderer of Force, calling him a "martyr." But Fatah was quick to delete the posts to avoid embarrassing the Palestinian leadership during Biden's visit.

It seems that the murder of an American visitor is condemnable, but the murder of some 34 Israelis since last October, including a pregnant woman and civilians, is somewhat less so.

Where was the condemnation of the wounding of nine Israelis in the attack that killed Taylor Force? Where was the condemnation of the attacks the took place on that very day in Jerusalem and Petah Tikva?

But Abbas explained everything to Biden: Israel was in fact fully responsible for the "violence and bloodshed" because of the "occupation" and "settlements."

Here is a dirty little secret: the Palestinian attackers were not driven to murder Jews because of "settlements" and "checkpoints."

Check their Facebook accounts: what fueled their hatred were the lies they had been fed for the past few years by President Abbas and other Palestinian leaders, concerning Jews "desecrating" Islamic holy sites and plotting to destroy them. No checkpoint snags, no settlement issues, no protests against construction of new apartments in Jerusalem for Jewish families.

Many of these Palestinians went for Israeli blood because they have been taught -- by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and other Palestinian groups -- to hate Israel. And they do not give a damn whether that Jew lives in Jaffa or in the West Bank. They also do not give a damn if some of their victims are Arabs.

Yet the comedy continues. Biden is reported to have urged Abbas and the Palestinian leadership to stop the anti-Israel incitement in their official media and on social media. Abbas vehemently denied that this incitement was taking place, and indeed, explained that the US leader had gotten things mixed up entirely: it was Israel that was guilty of incitement against the Palestinians.

While Abbas was busy offering his condolences for the killing of the U.S. citizen, his ruling Fatah faction was busy glorifying Palestinian assailants who killed Israelis.

In one instance, Fatah published an announcement inviting Palestinians to mark the 38th anniversary of the "martyrdom" of Dalal Al-Mughrabi.

Al-Mughrabi was a Fatah member who participated in the 1978 Coastal Road massacre in Israel, in which 38 civilians were killed, including 13 children.

The condolence message was also long enough for Fatah to praise Palestinian assailants, including Abdel Malek Abu Kharoub, who carried out a recent shooting attack in Jerusalem. In a post on its official Facebook account, Fatah hailed Abu Kharoub as a "hero and martyr."

Of course neither Biden nor any of his advisors and aides saw these posts. They prefer to continue burying their heads in the sand and pretending that once the "peace process" is revived, everything will be fine.

So it is business as usual for Abbas and crew. As in any comedy, there is a clown, and Biden was played for a fool by a PA leadership that finds that it pays to point its finger at Israel.

In Arabic, a language in which Western leaders are perhaps not fluent, Palestinian media outlets and spokesmen vomit poison against Israel. Condemnation of attacks on Israelis would be rather unlikely in such a drama.

And so the curtain rises on another act of the ceremonial, make-believe theater of the Middle East. In Abbas's sneaky script, it is about settlements. In reality, it is about the refusal of the Americans to read, speak or even translate Arabic.

Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist, is based in Jerusalem.

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Related Topics: Israel, Palestinian Authority

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Comment on this item

20 Reader Comments

Herb Grossman • Mar 14, 2016 at 19:01

If a majority of Arabs were like him, the Middle East and Israel would be a paradise to live in. If he were in politics rather than journalism, he would be Israel's favorite politician, Jew or Arab, and hopefully some day he will enter it.

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steven L • Mar 14, 2016 at 17:53

The West wants to impose on the Jews a deadly deal with masses of psychopaths. In other words they are pushing for a 2nd HOLOCAUST.

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Job's Comforter

steven L • Mar 18, 2016 at 15:03

Yes, sadly, you are correct. Whether that is what the West wants to happen it would happen if Israel was to give in to Western demands. Many in the West refuse to look Islam in the face and recognise it for the evil ideology it is; some know what the outcome would be but have decided that Israel is the fly in the Middle East ointment.

Israel must keep her resolve never to give in. It is hard to see how the future will unfurl for Israel. As Europe becomes more Islamised foreign policies will change and attitudes towards Israel will harden drastically. If Europe does in time fall to Islam as it quite probably will and if America stays in the grip of the Obamaesque left, it would seem that Israel's future is bleak indeed. Israel might have to force the West's hand by acting in her own interests regardless of what the West wants. The West hopefully would be drawn in to support Israel. It's not guaranteed though. It's a mess.

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Sharon • Mar 14, 2016 at 15:56

"In reality, it is about the refusal of the Americans to read, speak or even translate Arabic."

There is no such refusal to misunderstand the Arabic used---there are ample translations all over the Internet in fact. The refusal is in BELIEVING the content of the posts to which Mr. Toameh refers. As long as many Americans choose to believe what they "want" (the Palestinian victimhood narrative) rather than what "is", this tragic comedy will continue...

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Ora • Mar 14, 2016 at 15:35

I disagree with Khaled Abu Toameh when he says, "In reality, it is about the refusal of the Americans to read, speak or even translate Arabic." I am sure they have experts who can read it and translate it and the Americans know exactly what is going on. After all, Snowden showed that they can monitor private communications and the media all over the world. The trouble is that they prefer the role of the three monkeys, "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil". The man in the White House can't even bring himself to say the words Islamic and terrorism in the same sentence. This being the case, why should Abbas risk being seen by the Palestinians as uttering a word of condemnation.

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Tommy Atkins

Ora • Mar 14, 2016 at 17:43

It's time for the powers that be to leave Israel to settle this festering sore of "Palestine" once and for all. If the USA and the West will not behave in an honest and sensible fashion they should all just go home and leave Israel to do what she must do. Give Israel the support she needs and stop meddling and using the Israeli/Palestinian never ending merry-go-round as a means of scoring political points and advancing the West's, rather obscure, agenda. It seems that over the decades the Western powers have done more harm than good and probably prolonged a situation that should have been settled many years ago. Stop pandering to Palestine and Islam, tell it the way it is and let Israel settle it. It will happen in the end, everyone knows it. There will never be a voluntary settlement as long as Islam has a pathological hatred of Israel and Jewry.

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Ora

Tommy Atkins • Mar 16, 2016 at 18:03

Mr. Atkins, you contradict yourself. On one hand you say, "[A settlement]... will happen in the end, everyone knows it." On the other hand you say, "There will never be a voluntary settlement as long as Islam has a pathological hatred of Israel and Jewry." This hatred comes from the Koran, where Muslims are taught to hate and kill Jews and other "infidels". This hatred will never end because it is part of their religion. There may be some moderate Muslims, in fact there may be a lot of moderate Muslims but their leaders are not. As long as Palestinian children and adults are taught to hate Jews, there will never be peace. Arabs began killing Jews in what is now Israel long before the establishment of the state. The notorious slaughter of the Jews of Hebron in 1929 is just one example of this.

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Tommy Atkins

Ora • Mar 18, 2016 at 14:12

You misunderstand me, it is obviously my fault for not expressing myself effectively. I am suggesting that finally Israel will settle it in the only way it can be settled; the Islamic fanatics will have to be effectively and finally defeated. It should have happened years ago. Israel holds back because the West basically requires her to do so.

The evil ideology of Islam will never disappear completely, unless it at some stage either destroys itself or is destroyed from without, but like a gushing oil well, it can be capped and suppressed. I think Israel and the West,obviously a more courageously led West than now,could do this. No one says it will be easy but it has been done before.

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Ora

Tommy Atkins • Mar 18, 2016 at 17:53

Mr. Atkins, I wish I were as optimistic as you are. You claim that the evil ideology of Islam can be capped and suppressed. I wish it were so. Perhaps it can be capped temporarily, though I don't see how. After the Holocaust, anti-semitism was temporarily capped only to burst out again now in full bloom in Europe and to some extent in the United States. As an Israeli, I would like very much for you to be right and me to be wrong!

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Tommy Atkins

Ora • Mar 23, 2016 at 16:35

Of course Islam can be contained and in time, erased, but it will take leaders of a much higher calibre than the West has now. Political correctness and the concept of cultural relativism must be totally rejected and made to be unacceptable because before any fight is started one must have the right weapons and the power to fight to win. Political correctness in all it's forms is a deadly handicap to the West. The European Union must be dismantled and the nation states allowed once more to decide their own policies.

Once this is done there are many policies that can be put in place to stop migrants from entering or wanting to enter Europe. More Mosques must not be allowed and any that are found to be encouraging aggression closed permanently. No concessions can be given to Islam and a zero tolerance policy toward Iran and other Islamic states put in place. Israel must be allowed to settle the Palestinian problem permanently with the full backing of the West.

For centuries the Colonial powers contained Islam and neutralised it. With the will and courage it can be done again, and actually quite easily. The West at present is many times more powerful than Islam. if Europe is to be saved,and Israel ,the time to start is now.

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allan • Mar 14, 2016 at 11:30

America under Obama has basically transformed America into an ideological society and has created deep divisions among Americans. To Obama Islam can do no wrong- Muslims who are "terrorists are not real Muslims. Islam is a religion of peace but no analysis of reality in a historical perspective is under-taken. There are Arab speaking people in "intelligence", I use this term loosely, who can read but they too have their agenda. Why is it that Obama, who believes we are all equal, never holds Muslims responsible for their own actions? Why is the bar of civilization held so low for the slaughter and genocide in the Middle East? With an outstretched hand, Obama promised American support of the Muslim world and apologized for imagined past deeds, and proceeded to allow chaos to reign, through his rose-colored glasses, in the Middle East and North Africa. American isolationism will continue under Clinton [and the Democratic party] who promises to continue Obama's promises [read the Obama Doctrine].

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AmericanMom • Mar 14, 2016 at 11:23

Another great article. You have to wonder if it is stupidity or mendacity that has these politicians from the West having conversations with corrupt/terrorist leaders and thinking that anything they say will be heard or followed. The West and Arab nations give millions to the Palestinians. I am sure the majority is hoarded by the leaders for personal benefit. The rest is used in ways that keep the population in check and to encourage further hatred and violence towards Israel. Why should the Palestinian leadership listen to the West if they are going to keep getting funded in either case.

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Daniel Wohlgelernter • Mar 14, 2016 at 10:56

This is a brilliant and powerful piece that should be widely disseminated.

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jeb • Mar 14, 2016 at 09:27

Election year, a year already marked by antisemitic obfuscations The DNC can not afford to appear to be total failures which is their only accomplishment. Kerry Peace initiatives have become synonymous with genocide and mass murder. Obama has American coalition forces standing aside and allowing a less restricted Russian air campaign proceed with much fewer ROEs, Russian ROEs do not protect human shields, and a number of other restrictions imposed on US forces. Their air strikes have been considered much more successful even though they have fewer planes, and this is giving Assad's air force time to rebuild. It is also acquiring and 100s of T-90 tanks.

Kerry and Obama allowed the knot of Middle Eastern conspiracies and enabled Assad by standing aside for Russia and its principle client Iran.
Instead of "rebel" factions promoting Islamic and democratic reforms." We have been left with a slate of lesser evils. That progress does not issue from. Usually when you defer to the lesser of evils you encourage evil and that is exactly what the Obama, Clinton, Kerry policy has achieved.

This template equally applies to Israel as it faces a persistent and growing Islamist threat that charts its way forward by competing evils.

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Neville • Mar 14, 2016 at 08:14

Why should one expect anything different from Obama's henchman? Since Obama took office the US administration has consistently bent over backwards to appease the PA. He wants to believe everything they say. Most Europeans know where appeasement leads, but the US has failed to learn the lessons of its own appeasement policies during the first and second world wars. Like all playground bullies, the only countries the US attacks are those which are much weaker (eg Iraq and Libya) or are rejected by the rest of the world (Israel). And like all bullies he runs away from those who pose a real threat to world peace (Russia, Iran, North Korea).

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Jeff Page • Mar 14, 2016 at 08:01

'Laughing their heads off'! If only! It's not just the Palestinians laughing at the gullibility of the West's politicians, the whole Muslim world is doing just that, and on a daily basis. The Muslims look at 'human rights' and the humanitarian approach to 'refugees' as a magnificent opportunity to exploit the West, and our humanitarian political class can't see the obvious in their blundering efforts to help save the world as they see it! Just as Frau Merkel has run roughshod over the German people in order to claim her chance of the Nobel Peace Prize, so other Western leaders haven't wanted to be seen to not be doing their bit! The fact that there have been many sexual attacks all over Europe on young girls and women by these 'refugees fleeing conflict', this sort of behaviour seems acceptable to our leaders, the reason of course is quite simple. They themselves are not living in the areas where immigrants are being housed, so don't actually 'witness' any problems. They and their families are protected by high security measures that the people in the towns and cities affected aren't. The political class have also told local authorities and police forces to keep silent and in many cases turn a blind eye to crimes of any nature by immigrants. All this is on behalf of social cohesion and integration, which as we now know, is something that the Muslim immigrants in particular won't want any part of! To think, that many imams and leaders in the Muslim world have publicly condoned the rape of women and girls in the West as a way of 'thinning the indigenous blood'of the countries that they have been given refuge, is a sign that even the most ignorant and stupid person on this earth could fail to spot the dangers and the intent. But somehow, the Wests political class don't seem to be able to read the very obvious message that this conveys to Muslim men in European countries. Are they really so far removed from reality that the politicians can't see what is going on? Maybe it's true that they really do come from another planet, and are simply here on earth to create havoc and slowly destroy our world. Whatever the answer is, their actions are working!

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Mary Krause • Mar 14, 2016 at 07:42

Many are lost in the details of the latest deals & dollars to resolve 40-year or older arguments, rivalries & conquests of nearby land, business & money. Among these are government negotiators, media reporters & the public who read these reports & answer opinion polls. The role of personal rage & the urge to conquer fueling the leaders of these national & sectarian movements is ignored or underestimated.

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Hanna • Mar 14, 2016 at 07:39

Both Joe Biden and Barack Obama have ZERO interest in Middle East problems --- especially those concerning Israel and the Palestinians. Their (Biden and Obama) interest IS their LEGACIES --- any legacy --- and time is running out. Anyone with a little common sense and a little knowledge about Middle East events knows who is right and who is wrong in the Jewish and Palestinian affairs. The real problem is --- ANTISEMITISM IS ON THE RISE, around the world and no one gives a hoot who is right and who is wrong. The Jews had their little "peaceful fun", after the Holocaust, and now it is back to the "normal routine". These are the "simple" facts, period!!! Unfortunately, there are many Jews, especially in the USA who are so ignorant about Jewish history that they don't have a clue about the real facts. And the facts are that someone has to be blamed for the eternal world problems and the Jews have always been and always will be a convenient target. Thank you KHALED ABU TOAMEH and GATESTONE.

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Mickey Oberman • Mar 14, 2016 at 07:26

Now that Biden has loaned his shoulder for Abbas to cry on he will be able to return to the US and tell his boss about all the horrors Israel is committing on the poor "Palestinians". He will be able to tell the president that he got this information first hand from "president" Abbas. Undoubtedly Obama will heap praise upon Biden for this disclosure.

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james hazan • Mar 14, 2016 at 06:24

Abbas plays "the victim" role and puts out his begging hand for more, have Palestinians changed? Of course not, Israel must take some blame, its P.R. dept. stinks. I do not believe Palestinians are more savvy than Israelis, more cunning maybe but not as intelligent. We beat them in war, let's beat them in the media war.

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