The Problem With Mahmoud Abbas
Jeff Jacoby is a Boston Globe columnist.
His column is distributed by the New
York Times Syndicate. His e-mail
address is jacoby@globe.com
in the future. Since the P.A. is the largest
employer in the West Bank and Gaza, the
threat carries a great deal of weight.
"Physical intimidation has also played
a role. ... On Wednesday [Jan. 5], shots
were fired at [candidate Bassam ell
Salhi's offices in Ramallah."
Surely this isn't what President Bush
had in mind when he said in his semi-
nal June 2002 address on the Arab-
Israeli war that the United States would
support the creation of a Palestinian
state if the Palestinians would first
"build a practicing democracy, based on
tolerance and liberty." Nor can Abbas,
who spent decades at Arafat's side and
who has been unyielding in his refusal
to crack down on Palestinian gunmen
and bombers, be what Bush meant
when he insisted that Palestinians "elect
new leaders, leaders not compromised
by terror." So why has the administra-
tion bent over backward to support the
election and given its blessing to Abbas?
On Dec. 29, the State Department
transferred $23.5 million to the
Palestinian Authority — a mark, said
Assistant Secretary of State William
Burns, of American "confidence in the
direction of the PA.'s reform pro-
gram." The absurdity of such confi-
dence was made clear one day later,
when Abbas brazenly campaigned with
members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs
creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.
Canada Lee, one of the most promi-
nent black actors of the 1940s, and
Congressman Adam Clayton Powell,
Jr., of Harlem — the first African
American to represent New York in
the U.S. House of Representatives —
were supporters of Bergson's Jewish
statehood campaign.
At one Bergson group rally in 1948,
Rev. Powell and the Irish American
lawyer Paul O'Dwyer stood backstage
and watched while an ineffective
speaker sought vainly to raise funds
for Jewish statehood. "Powell became
impatient," O'Dwyer later recalled,
"and whispered to me, 'This guy is
blowing it.
" 'Paul, I think this calls for a
Baptist minister and an Irish revolu-
tionary. You handle that microphone
over there and I'll handle this one.'
"In unison, we rose and in unison
we took the microphones gently away
from [the speaker]. We collected
$75,000 from the crowd that night."
During that same period, Walter
White and the NAACP worked closely
with the Bergson group to help bring
about the desegregation of Baltimore
theaters, which restricted African-
Americans to less desirable seats.
In 1946, Bergson ally Ben Hecht,
one of the most prominent screenwrit-
ers in Hollywood, authored a
Broadway play called A Flag is Born,
to rally American public sympathy for
the Jewish rebels battling the British
for control of Palestine. On the eve of
the staging of Flag at the Maryland
Theater in Baltimore, the Bergson
group and the NAACP joined hands
to pressure the theater management to
abandon its discriminatory seating
policy— "a tradition-shattering victo-
ry," as White called it.
A decade before the famous black-
Jewish alliance in the civil rights
movement, prominent blacks and
Jews joined hands to support the
Bergson group's campaigns to create
a Jewish army, rescue Holocaust
refugees, and establish a Jewish state
— and, in the process, helped deseg-
regate Baltimore's theaters. On the
occasion of Martin Luther King Jr.'s
birthday (Jan. 15), that early collab-
oration between Jewish Americans
and African Americans is worth
remembering. ❑
Boston
T
he outcome of Sunday's election
for president of the Palestinian
Authority was never in doubt.
Mahmoud Abbas, Yasser Arafat's long-
time accomplice — the two men co-
founded Fatah, the largest terrorist fac-
tion within the PLO, in 1965 — was
always going to win in a landslide.
The three other candidates were
never going to get more than a sliver
of the vote. That they got any votes at
all was impressive, given the virtual
news blackout on their campaigns by
the Fatah-controlled Palestinian media
and the bullying of anyone tempted to
support them.
The New York Sun described some
of the arm-twisting on Dec. 31:
"One of the reasons none of the three
candidates has received much support is
intimidation by the P.A. People are afraid
to be seen even reading their campaign lit-
erature,' says one Palestinian ... The mes-
sage that the people have received from
various leaders of the P.A. is that if they
vote for a candidate other than Mr. Abbas,
they will either lose jobs they already have
in the P.A. or will not be hired by the P.A.
.
"foreign minister," Nabil
Brigades in Jenin. A picture of
Shaath, declared that between
Abbas riding on the shoulders
the Palestinian Authority and
of Zakaria Zubeidi — a notori-
the other groups, "there are
ous terrorist and one of Israel's
no differences over the objec-
most wanted men — was pub-
tives."
lished around the globe.
And what are those objec-
Yet when U.S. Secretary of
tives? About that, Abbas has
State Colin Powell was asked
been explicit. In recent
about it, he shrugged. The photo JEFF
weeks, he has promised to
is "disturbing," he conceded, but
JACOBY
shelter terrorists from Israeli
"I don't think it reflects Mr.
Special
Abbas's overall approach to gov-
Commentary arrest and vowed that there
will be no P.A. crackdown on
eming."
Palestinian terrorism. He hews
No Moderate
unswervingly to Yasser Arafat's hard -
line positions — an Israeli retreat to
Please. The embrace of Zubeidi was no
the 1949 borders, Jerusalem as the
anomaly. Abbas is sometimes described
Palestinian capital, the elimination of
as a "moderate" opposed to terrorism,
but his opposition is purely tactical. He every Jewish settlement, the disman-
tling of Israel's security fence, and no
has no moral problem with blowing up
limit on the "right of return" — code
buses and cafes; he simply thinks such
for the abolition of Israel as a Jewish
methods are, for now, counterproduc-
state.
tive. Two weeks ago, Abbas hailed
Abbas is no moderate. His election
Palestinian gunmen in Gaza, but urged
is not a step toward peace. What was
them to stop firing rockets at Israeli
true in Afghanistan and Iraq is true in
towns. Because deliberately targeting
the Palestinian Authority as well:
civilians is wrong? No. "Because this is
Without regime change, freedom and
not the proper time for such actions."
democracy are impossible. Just as the
Hardly the words of a moderate.
Again and again, Abbas has expressed defeat of the Taliban and Baathists
were a prerequisite to elections, so the
his solidarity with violent extremists.
dismantling of the corrupt Fatah
Last month, he traveled to Damascus
autocracy is essential to Palestinian
to meet with some of the region's most
reform. President Bush got it right in
implacable terror groups, including
2002: The Palestinians need "new
Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular
leaders ... not compromised by terror."
Front for the Liberation of Palestine-
They still do.
General Command. Afterward, Abbas'
❑
0
0
o.
THE ISSUE
While the free election of
Mahmoud Abbas as president
this week furthers the democra-
tization of the Palestinian
Authority, the development is
also beneficial for Israel.
BEHIND THE ISSUE
The democratization of
Palestinian society will make it
likely that violence will be less
utilized as an external tool —
no two democracies have ever
made war against each other. In
addition, a freely elected
Palestinian government will
have the mandate and legitima-
cy to be able to return to the
neg 0 otiating 0 table where Israel is
prepared to peacefully resolve all
outstanding (and difficult) issues.
2005
Mahmoud Abbas casts his ballot in
Ramallab last Sunday.
-- Allan Gale, Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit
1/13
2005
29