Palestinians: Abbas Chooses Hamas Over Peace with Israel

by Khaled Abu Toameh
January 30, 2020 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15506/abbas-chooses-hamas-over-peace

Translations of this item:

Polish

Hamas and Iran have no plans to boost the economy in the Gaza Strip. They also have no intention of creating jobs for thousands of unemployed Palestinians.
"After years of no progress, the donor community is fatigued and reluctant to make additional investments so long as the governance structure in Gaza is run by terrorists who provoke confrontations that lead to more destruction and suffering." — From the "Peace to Prosperity" plan.
In fact, the wording of Trump's plan is quite compatible with the position of Abbas and his PA officials in the West Bank.
By forging an alliance with Hamas, a terror group that does not recognize Israel's right to exist, Abbas is already signaling his readiness to join forces with those who oppose any peace process with Israel. Such an alliance effectively places Abbas on the side of Iran and its Hamas and PIJ proxies.
Abbas and Hamas may renew their relations in the near future, but it will be the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip who will suffer, condemned by their leaders to poverty and misery.
In their response to the "Peace to Prosperity" plan, Palestinian leaders have once again succeeded in what they do best: taking any hope for the wellbeing of their people and driving it straight into the ground.

Instead of welcoming President Donald Trump's peace plan, designed to give the Palestinians a prosperous future, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected and denounced it as the "deal of shame" and "slap of the century." Pictured: Abbas denouncing the peace plan in Ramallah on January 28, 2020. (Photo by Abbas Momani/AFP via Getty Images)

US President Donald Trump's "Peace to Prosperity" plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians offers hope to the two million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, which has been ruled by Hamas for more than a decade.

Instead of welcoming the plan, designed to give the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip a prosperous future, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected and denounced it as the "deal of shame" and "slap of the century."

Worse, Abbas has chosen to renew his ties with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the two Iranian-backed groups that are opposed to his policies and have regularly condemned his policies and decisions.

Abbas, in other words, is acting not only against the interests of his people in the Gaza Strip, but also against himself by engaging the same groups that have long been seeking to undermine his rule.

By rejecting Abbas Trump's plan, Abbas is denying the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip the chance of improving their living conditions.

Hamas and Iran have no plans to boost the economy in the Gaza Strip. They also have no intention of creating jobs for thousands of unemployed Palestinians. The only plan Hamas, PIJ and their patrons in Tehran have is one that will bring more suffering and bloodshed to the Palestinians. That, however, does not seem to bother Abbas, who is now seeking to appease Hamas and PIJ.

As the Peace to Prosperity plan accurately points out:

"The people of Gaza have suffered for too long under the repressive rule of Hamas. They have been exploited as hostages and human shields, and bullied into submission. Hamas has failed the people of Gaza and has diverted money belonging to the Palestinians of Gaza, including funds provided by international donors, to attack the State of Israel, instead of using these funds to improve the lives of the people of Gaza. Under the leadership of Hamas, the residents of Gaza have suffered extreme poverty and deprivation. After years of no progress, the donor community is fatigued and reluctant to make additional investments so long as the governance structure in Gaza is run by terrorists who provoke confrontations that lead to more destruction and suffering."

The plan further requires Hamas and PIJ to disarm and calls for the return of Abbas's PA to rule the Gaza Strip.

In fact, the wording of Trump's plan is quite compatible with the position of Abbas and his PA officials in the West Bank.

In 2014, Abbas held Hamas responsible for the failure of the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of Israel's Operation Protective Edge, which was in response to the launching of rockets towards Israel.

In 2018, Abbas held Hamas responsible for the bombing of the convoy of former PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in the northern Gaza Strip and threatened to take punitive measures against the terror group. He also repeated his demand that Hamas allow the PA to assume its full responsibilities over the Gaza Strip -- exactly as Trump's plan envisages.

Last year, Abbas stepped up his attacks against Hamas by accusing it of working for Israel, and not the Palestinians. He also accused Hamas of obstructing Egyptian efforts to achieve reconciliation with his ruling Fatah faction and end the split between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Abbas's animosity to Hamas has even prompted him to oppose Israeli gestures to help the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by initiating various projects to improve the infrastructure there and create job opportunities.

Senior Abbas advisers such as Azzam al-Ahmed have also been launching scathing attacks on Hamas. Ahmed even used the same words as the Trump plan when he accused Hamas of "kidnapping" the Gaza Strip and holding its people hostage.

Abbas evidently shares the same views of the Trump plan regarding the Gaza Strip and Hamas. He too has endorsed an Egyptian proposal to disarm Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip to pave the way for the return of his PA there.

Yet, Abbas now seems to be moving in the opposite direction of his declared policy. On the day Trump released his peace vision, Abbas invited Hamas representatives to an "emergency" meeting of the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah to discuss ways of thwarting the plan.

The Hamas representatives invited by Abbas included Ayman Daraghmeh, Nasser Eddin al-Shaer, Samir Abu Eisheh, Ahmed Atoun, Omar Abdel Razek and Ali al-Sartawi.

Hamas leaders have welcomed Abbas's move and invited him to visit the Gaza Strip as soon as possible to discuss ways of working together to foil Trump's "plot."

Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, said in response to Abbas's initiative that the Palestinians are "united in confronting Israel with one rifle and one revolution."

Shortly before the unveiling of the Trump vision, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh phoned Abbas and offered to cooperate in efforts to foil the plan.

Abbas has also decided to dispatch a delegation of his Fatah faction to the Gaza Strip next week to hold talks with Hamas and other Palestinian groups about devising a joint strategy to thwart the Trump plan.

Abbas has threatened to renounce all signed agreements with Israel in response to the Trump plan, which he claims is aimed at "liquidating the Palestinian cause."

By forging an alliance with Hamas, a terror group that does not recognize Israel's right to exist, Abbas is already signaling his readiness to join forces with those who oppose any peace process with Israel. Such an alliance effectively places Abbas on the side of Iran and its Hamas and PIJ proxies.

In addition, Abbas's repeated threats to halt security coordination with Israel is tantamount to committing suicide. The security coordination benefits Abbas much more than it benefits Israel. Abbas knows that without Israel's presence in the West Bank, he and his government would be eaten alive by Hamas.

Abbas and Hamas may renew their relations in the near future, but it will be the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip who will suffer, condemned by their leaders to poverty and misery.

Remarkably, without showing a trace of irony, Abbas is rejecting a plan to disarm his own enemies who expelled his government from the Gaza Strip in 2007 and have since been killing, arresting and persecuting his loyalists.

In their response to the "Peace to Prosperity" plan, Palestinian leaders have once again succeeded in what they do best: taking any hope for the wellbeing of their people and driving it straight into the ground.

Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

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Related Topics: Israel, Palestinian Authority

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Comment on this item

13 Reader Comments

Timothy • Feb 4, 2020 at 10:21

Let us remember, when Arafat died they found over $200 million in US aid in his Swiss accounts..... many so-called allies have been complicit in the murder of the innocent, the self imposed misery of the Palestinians, and the terror upon Israelis. And the UN has helped.

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Andrew Blackadder • Jan 31, 2020 at 01:33

Israel, Gaza, West Bank, three very small states in the exact same region of the World and yet only ONE has a 21st infrastructure and a Hi Tech civilization that adds to the World at large, only ONE allows everybody within that country equal rights regarding religion, men/women, and the right to love whomever they wish to love, only ONE country can people criticize the policies the Government passes and can even publicly denounce such policies without fear of being thrown in Prison...
Question: Which country would this be ?.

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Yochanan Ezra ben Avraham • Jan 31, 2020 at 00:54

It is morally repugnant, unjust and unacceptable to reward Palestinian terrorism with sovereignty over Jewish territory! It is an affront to the victims of Palestinian terrorism that these Arabs are rewarded with statehood when they do not meet the definition of statehood and are unwilling to live in peace and security with their neighbors...!

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Rebecca A. Logue • Jan 30, 2020 at 21:51

For years, Hamas has ruled the Gaza strip, having edged out the previous terror group, Hezbollah. Since then, despite hundreds of thousands of dollars of aid to the Palestinians there and in refugee camps elsewhere, nothing has changed for the better anywhere. For years, the same starving people in ragged clothing have been shown in camps where they might have a tin roof or tent roof. In Gaza itself, journalists photograph the same people in the same plight over and over and the narrative is always the same: it's Israel's fault. Gaza just fired forty missiles! So what? Israel BOMBED them afterward. Civilians were hurt! [That's a representation of how the story is always framed, not what happened recently].
I recently saw a story that Israel received aid from the US. I can't verify that. But the story also showed what Israel did with the money: they improved here, they built there...
Where are the improvements done for the Palestinians? Why do UN and Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders have the same story? Money trickles down to the camps. They are hanging on by their fingernails. Israel's fault?

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Rebecca A Logue

• Feb 8, 2020 at 17:12

I didn't know this. Perhaps I misunderstood the context and the photos I saw were improvements Israel has made with US aid (which makes more sense!) or the improvements I saw were for the benefit of the military.
As you know, my point still stands. Aid to "Palestine" isn't getting to the people there.

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Maha • Jan 30, 2020 at 12:46

The Arabs of the region remain on the wrong side of modern history, as they have, at least since the time of Mohammed Amin al-Husseini.(The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem) These Arab "leaders" like Abbas seem comfortable with plots and subplots, Islamism and Pan-Arabism, and the word "no" to any concept of peace.
Abbas would refuse any plan that does not announce to the world that Israel is part of Dar al-Islam, and every Jew in the Middle East must submit to Islam, wear a yellow star, or go to the gas chambers that Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, in 1941 had hoped would be the end of the Jewish people.
The stricken people of Gaza will only be free by quietly rising up at midnight, and dispatching their Hamas overlords. I hope for all concerned, they move quickly.

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Alex Baldor • Jan 30, 2020 at 11:24

The Palestinian follow what Abba Eban the past Israeli Foreign minister said that they "never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity". Why should it be different this time?

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Peter Rotberg • Jan 30, 2020 at 08:10

End of the Myth of Moderate Abbas Some dreamers might tell my " Yes .. but -
There is no " but" gentlemen! And their rejection of Trump's plan of the century proves it without a shadow of doubts as did all previous efforts to come to civilized terms with them.
"That which is crooked cannot be made straight" - Holy Bible

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Bisley • Jan 30, 2020 at 07:10

Fatah, Hamas, etc. have no interest in peace, or prosperity. Their concern is maintaining themselves in their positions of power, and assuring their continued prosperity.

Without the continuing hostilities with Israel, and an enemy to focus the anger of their public against, there is no basis for their rule. Peace would put them out of business, and their public would reject their corruption, thievery and tyrannical rule. Any sort of peace will require a leadership who aren't terrorists and thieves.

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eli

Bisley • Jan 31, 2020 at 17:35

Perhaps the similarities with Iran needs mentioning --both use perceived enemy to loot their people. Both use armed conflict to enrich themselves --just look at their foreign bank accounts-- Why does the West keep tolerating this behavior ? Why does the West make it ok to have these two fire rockets at civilians ? Perhaps they have a hatred of a common people that runs deep and over several centuries .

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Mark Rogers • Jan 30, 2020 at 07:07

Doesn't sound if the "thwarting" will be any too difficult: Trump offers Abbas what Abbas wants, and Abbas promptly rejects it.

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Solomon • Jan 30, 2020 at 06:47

It is with gratitude that Abbas must be treated be those who believe in the vision of a greater Israel. The available opportunity for migrant Arabs from neighbouring lands reinvented by Nasser as Palestinians since 1964 is shrinking, most live in misery and poverty whilst the top echelon of their imposed leaders wallow in wealth and luxury. The EU project aligned with Abbas to destroy Israel is failing with a resurgence of Frexit and Nexit . G-d moves in mysterious ways

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Miriam • Jan 30, 2020 at 05:55

Abbas, Fatah, Hamas, Palestinian Jihad, they are all of the same coin.
The only peace they want is the entire piece of Israel. That is why they make the demands that they do. Demands that they know Israel will NEVER accept unless it wants to commit national suicide.
They don't want to see the lives of the Palestinians improved because if it is improved there would be less reason to riot and to be encouraged to go and commit acts of terror.
They also know that they can easily reject "the peace plan" because they will have the MSM, the EU, the Democrats, the UN, the ICC and many NGO's supporting their claims that the "deal" is bad,
They also know there will be increased funding from the EU and other organisations which will be used to line their own pockets! And who will all of the above blame? It's a no brainer.....ISRAELI!! Sad thing is that all the lies will be believed.

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