Essay

Guest Column

Historic Visit To Iran?

Like mythical phoenix, Abbas may
rise again by allying with Tehran.

I

n the jagged shadows cast by this month's
congressional vote on the U.S.-brokered
deal to limit Iranian nuclear ambitions,
Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas, ever the
opportunist, plans to visit the
Islamic Republic of Iran this
November.
You can bet the aging presi-
dent of the P.A., which governs
Palestinian-controlled areas of
the West Bank, is eyeing some of
those tens of billions of dollars
Robert
that Iran will receive as part of
Contrib
sanctions and frozen-assets relief
Edit
flowing from the deal between
Iran and world powers.
He knows Sunni Hamas, his Fatah party's
erstwhile "partner" in a never-enacted unity
agreement, is a ghost of the sometimes-proxy
for Shiite Iran it had been. Hamas did itself
no favors, politically speaking, when it sided
in Syria's 4Y2-year civil war with Syrian rebels
against the Iran-backed Assad regime.
Clearly, Abbas sees political opportunity to
bolster the P.A. in the eyes of Iranian authori-
ties at the same time that Hamas, the terrorist
alliance ruling the Gaza Strip, is regrouping.
Notably, Abbas has trivialized the Holocaust,
boosting his image in the corridors of Iranian
power, where the Shoah long has been denied.
Abbas, 80, is savvy enough to realize Iran is
positioning itself via the nuclear deal to claim
Islamic hegemonic control in the Middle East.
He last visited the Persian nation in 2012 as a
delegate to a Non-Aligned Movement summit.
His November visit could be historic. He's
struggling for political traction, hoping the
U.N. General Assembly finds the will to reboot
his dream of Palestinian statehood indepen-
dent of having to negotiate with Israel.

Shifting Course?
Abbas, elected in 2005 following the death of
Yasser Arafat, has managed to avoid having
to run for re-election since
his term ran out in 2009
thanks to political turmoil
in Ramallah. He's rumored
to want out of the hot seat.
The West saw him as a
political moderate by Arab
standards and thus as an
ambassador for the long
Mahmoud
sought, but now near dead,
Abbas
two-state solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The stature of
teaming with Iran could rejuvenate his energy
for politics.
P.A.-Iran relations were never strong.

Iran rejected the P.A. right from the start as
an interim government forged by the 1993
Oslo Accords — a process Israel-hating Iran
loathed. The shaky relationship fell
further in 2002 when Israeli forces
intercepted the P.A.-owned freighter
Karine A in the Red Sea and seized
50 tons of Iranian- and Russian-
made munitions intended for the
P.A.
In recent days, buoyed by Iran's
tense relations with Hamas, P.A.
Executive Committee member
Ahmed Majdalani met with Iranian
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad
Zarif in Tehran. Majdalani delivered
a letter in which Abbas told Iranian
President Hassan Rouhani about the "Israeli
offensives against our people and its holy plac-
es, and the bilateral relations between the State
of Palestine and the Iranian Republic:"
Majdalani later announced that Tehran
and the P.A. envision co-hosting a forum that
inspires global support for the dismantlement
of Israel's nuclear arms program — a pro-
gram the Jewish state has never confirmed or
denied. Even the hint of Israel having nuclear
arms, however, gives it a qualitative military
edge in the tough neighborhood that is the
Middle East.

Ties That Bind
An Aug. 27 news report by JNS.org substanti-
ates friction between Iran and Hamas' political
wing, but also acknowledges continued coop-
eration between Iran and Hamas' Al Qassam
Brigades.
Iran, according to the report, eyes improved
ties not only with Hamas, but also with
other Palestinian terrorist groups like the
Sunni Islamic Jihad, a faction that caused an
uproar by supporting forces opposed to the
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Such
Palestinian ties are important for Iran to be
recognized as the Islamic world's overseer of
resisting Israel's "occupation" of the West Bank
and the eastern sector of Jerusalem — land
Israel won in its 1967 war against Arab invad-
ers.
Expanding on that notion,
Kyle Shideler, director of the
Threat Information Office at
the Center for Security Policy,
a Washington-based right-
wing think tank, told JNS.org
he theorizes that Iran sees
itself aligning all Palestinian
Kyle Shideler
leadership in a common
quest against Israel — with
Tehran as "the patron of Palestinian resistance

at large'
Shideler's take has merit.
Helping the P.A. re-unite Fatah, the politi-
cal party that Abbas heads, with a politically
desperate Hamas, then helping both achieve
Palestinian statehood through the U.N. would
be a crowning stroke in Iran's bid to entrench
itself as the Middle East power broker at the
expense of Sunni archenemy Saudi Arabia.

Tehran Intrigue
From Iran's jaded perspective, sowing stronger
political bonds with Hamas while better-arm-
ing Fatah would intensify the potential for ter-
ror against Israel arising from both Palestinian
fronts — much to the delight of Iran's Supreme
Leader Ali Khamenei, who has never let up in
despising "the Zionist regime:' Fatah fighters
already are staging with Hamas inside Gaza
for tunnel attacks against Israel, according to
Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch.
Of course, giving Fatah more standing
could work to Iran's advantage in trying to
neutralize Israel diplomatically. The P.A. has
proven superior to Israel at PR, boldly parlay-
ing a drumbeat of anti-Zionist canards in its
schools, mosques, music videos, TV shows,
newspapers, public squares and sports tour-
naments into sympathetic support from the
United Nations and European Union, two
"bastions of diplomacy:'
Don't ignore Abbas' upcoming Iran visit,
warns Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for
research at the Foundation
for Defense of Democracies,
a Washington-based con-
servative think tank, and an
insightful guy who I once
interviewed in Southfield.
"Depending on how it
goes:' Schanzer told JNS.
org, "it may be a sign that
Jonathan
he has fully gravitated away
Schanzer
from diplomacy with Israel
if he invests in his ties to the Islamic Republic:'
If Israeli-Palestinian peace talks weren't
doomed under current Fatah-Hamas leader-
ship, they certainly would be if Schanzer's
instincts prove right.
As Rosh Hashanah 5776 begins at sundown
Sunday, world Jewry must remain vigilant of
not only how the contentious, danger-laden
Iran nuclear deal plays out, but also whether
the United Nations elevates "Palestine:' now a
nonmember observer state, to full statehood
status.
That scenario would dramatically change
Middle East dynamics. In so doing, it would
end any chance of renewed peace talks
between Israel and the Palestine Liberation
Organization — the oversight negotiator for
the P.A. Such talks are the only chance of fos-
tering legitimate and lasting Israeli-Palestinian
peace.

L'shanah tovah tikateivu. This Rosh
Hashanah, may you and yours be inscribed in
the Book of Life for a good year.

❑

What's Next
At JPM?

N

ow that the Jewish
Community Center of
Metropolitan Detroit
has closed its operations in Oak
Park's Jimmy Prentis Morris
Building, the Committee to Save
the Oak Park JCC would like to
thank the donors who have com-
mitted themselves to developing
a future Jewish communal center
at this site, as well as the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit for its considerable effort
to make this happen.
Our committee is a grass-
roots community organization
formed spontaneously at the
Jan. 12 meeting where the clo-
sure of the Oak Park JCC was
first proposed. It has met more
than 100 times since then and
involved hundreds of people in
numerous projects and discus-
sions, created a busy website
(www.savetheoakparkjcc.com )
and Facebook page (www.
facebook.com/savetheopjcc)
and had dozens of contacts
with Federation.
The JN's Aug. 27 edito-
rial correctly points out that
Federation and JCC leaders
didn't invite open feedback
before Jan.12 and strongly
implied that this should be
standard practice from now on.
We agree.
The committee has developed
a working relationship with
Federation based on mutual
respect and understanding.
We expect that we have, as
you say, "gained a say ... in the
visioning of the next-generation
Jewish communal facility in Oak
Park." Accordingly, we will con-
tinue giving voice to the com-
munity's needs and stand ready
to cooperate with the donors
and Federation as the new JPM
project unfolds.

JPM on page 52

September 10 • 2015

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