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Contents:
In Gaza, Hamas and the PA Are at Each Other’s Throats Again: Avi Issacharoff, Times of Israel, Jan. 11, 2014— By the end of last week, dozens of houses throughout the Gaza Strip were flooded by rainwater.
Hamas, Palestinian Authority Step Up Human Rights Violations: Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute, Jan. 9, 2014— As Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas pursues his efforts to convince the international community to support the establishment of a Palestinian state, his Palestinian Authority [PA] and Hamas continue to show disregard and contempt for human rights.
Stop Giving Palestinians a Pass: Dennis B. Ross, New York Times, Jan. 4, 2014— The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, insists on using international institutions to pressure Israel, even after he was rebuffed in the United Nations Security Council, where he sought a resolution mandating Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The Dream Palace of the Arab: Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal, Jan. 5, 2015 — A decade ago, I wrote an op-ed on the election of Mahmoud Abbas to the Palestinian presidency following the death of Yasser Arafat. It ran under the headline “From Strong Man to Good Man.” Mark that one down in the annals of lousy political judgment.
Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood Have Their Sights on the West Bank and Jordan: Pinhas Inbari, JCPA, Dec. 23, 2015
US aid to PA Should Not Reward Terrorists: Elliott Abrams, Israel Hayom, Dec. 25, 2015
Israeli Group Files War Crimes Suits Against Palestinian Leaders: Ari Lewis, Times of Israel, Jan. 5, 2015
The Fundamental Breach of the Oslo Accords by the PA: Amb. Alan Baker, Arutz Sheva, Jan. 5, 2015
IN GAZA, HAMAS AND THE PA ARE AT EACH OTHER’S THROATS AGAIN
Avi Issacharoff
Times of Israel, Jan. 11, 2015
By the end of last week, dozens of houses throughout the Gaza Strip were flooded by rainwater. Three babies froze to death. The humanitarian conditions continue to be bad, perhaps the worst in the past two decades, due to the withholding of the salaries of PA and Hamas employees. And yet, amid all the tumult, Hamas (the same organization that condemned the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris) found the time to clash with the Palestinian Authority and Fatah. It started before the last rainfall, with a visit of the Palestinian unity government ministers to Gaza that ended in bitter disappointment for the residents there. Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk promised that all disputes between Hamas and the PA were resolved. However, immediately afterward, a PA statement declared that nothing had been decided. From there on, things began to deteriorate quickly. The transfer of authority at an Israel-Gaza checkpoint is a case in point. Up until last week, Hamas administered its own checkpoint, called Arba-Arba (4-4), a kilometer south of the official Palestinian checkpoint near the Erez Crossing with Israel. The official checkpoint, which is called Hamsa-Hamsa (5-5), has been manned by PA representatives working under the Palestinian Civil Affairs Ministry. According to the arrangement, Hamas would check every Palestinian arriving from or leaving to Israel, as would the PA.
Last week, though, Hamas decided to open another checkpoint at Hamsa-Hamsa and erected a makeshift office there staffed by members of Hamas. The PA then decided to evacuate the site, and since then, only patients seeking urgent medical care in Israel or the West Bank are allowed to cross at Erez. Meanwhile, Hamas has launched a comprehensive campaign to arrest Fatah members in the Gaza Strip. Over the weekend, several ATMs were smashed in several branches of the Bank of Palestine — intended as a warning to the PA lest it seek to pay the salaries of PA employees without paying the workers of the Hamas government as well. In addition, a bomb went off next to the home of Ihab Bsiso, the spokesman for the nominal Hamas-Fatas unity government who currently resides in the West Bank (and is originally from Gaza), and the offices of a PA media company were torched. Residents of Gaza told The Times of Israel that the situation was similar to the one that immediately preceded the 50-day summer conflict. They meant that just like then, there have no salary payments, Hamas has demolished and closed down ATMs to prevent the payments to PA workers, and the humanitarian situation is in decline. With that, Hamas has told the press in no uncertain terms that it is not seeking confrontation with Israel. At this juncture, when the transfer of construction building materials into the Gaza Strip is advancing, as are the exports of produce, it’s doubtful Hamas has any real interest in another war. The Gaza organization’s problem is primarily with the PA, which is not prepared to take dramatic steps so long as Hamas won’t give up its leadership of the Strip.
The potential of an escalation with Israel exists, but it’s possible that right now, the danger is more immediate in the West Bank. Israel’s decision to freeze the transfer of tax funds to the PA — in response to Mahmoud Abbas’s move to join the International Criminal Court — is preventing the payment of salaries to its workers, primarily in the West Bank, but in Gaza as well. These salaries are the dominant driving force of the Palestinian economy in the West Bank, and withholding the funds only exacerbates the crisis. It’s conceivable that the PA will ultimately find a temporary solution, perhaps by borrowing the money from one of the Gulf states. But if the funds continue to be withheld, it will certainly not quell the tensions. Among the Palestinian public, animosity toward Israel is only getting worse, and the PA’s motivation to cooperate with Israeli security forces is faltering. For now, the security cooperation has been upheld, despite threats to call it off following the death of a Palestinian official after a demonstration in early December, but in the long term, Israel has many causes for concern, even as elections here loom.
HAMAS, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY STEP UP HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
Khaled Abu Toameh
Gatestone Institute, Jan. 9, 2015
As Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas pursues his efforts to convince the international community to support the establishment of a Palestinian state, his Palestinian Authority [PA] and Hamas continue to show disregard and contempt for human rights. Both the PA and Hamas know that they can continue to violate the human rights of their people because the international community simply does not care about Palestinians who are being targeted by their own governments. The international community cares about human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip only when Israel could be held responsible.
The same applies to most foreign journalists covering the Israeli-Arab conflict in general, and Palestinian affairs in particular. They too prefer to look the other way when Palestinians complain of human rights violations by the PA and Hamas. These journalists often avoid asking representatives of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority about their mistreatment of their people. The journalists are either too afraid to anger Palestinian leaders or they simply do not think that such stories are worth reporting, as they lack an anti-Israel angle. There is no shortage of stories about the ways the PA and Hamas are targeting Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But these stories hardly make their way to media outlets in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe. The journalists based in Jerusalem and Ramallah, like the American and EU government officials, close their ears and eyes when they are brought to their attention.
The same foreign journalists who turned a blind eye to Hamas's war crimes against Palestinians, especially during the last war with Israel (Operation Protective Edge), are now ignoring what the Islamist movement is doing to Fatah leaders. Last week, Hamas authorities arrested several Fatah leaders in the Gaza Strip and stripped them to their underwear, forcing them to stand in the cold for several hours. According to Palestinian writer Hisham Sakallah, Hamas interrogators also severely beat the Fatah officials with plastic hoses. Sakallah said that the Fatah officials included Nahru al-Haddad, Ziad Matar, Eyad Hils, Raed Ayyad, Hamdan al-Umsi, Nayef Khwaiter, Sa'di Hils, Mohamed al-Waheidi, Eyad Ramadan, Lutfi Mahani and Radwan al-Shantaf. Some of the Fatah officials, according to the writer, had previously spent many years in Israeli prison for security-related offences. "You can still see the bruises on their bodies," Sakallah said. "They were subjected to harsh torture." Sakallah said that the Hamas interrogators further humiliated the Fatah officials by calling them with women's names. This is a routine practice in Palestinian Authority and Hamas jails that is designed to "insult" male detainees. "It's shameful to call them with women's names," the writer said. "The Fatah leaders are real men who spent many years in Israeli prisons. Indeed, this is very humiliating. All those who were arrested are respected figures."
The Fatah leaders were arrested for trying to organize celebrations in the Gaza Strip marking the 50th anniversary of their group's first terror attack against Israel. Hamas has banned such celebrations in the past, out of fear that Fatah would use them as a "show of strength" in the Gaza Strip. Osama al-Qawassmeh, a Fatah spokesman in the West Bank, said that the Hamas interrogators also urinated and poured cold water on the detainees "to rid them of their nasty smell." Qawassmeh said that the Hamas practices were "unimaginable and worse than those committed by the fascists against humanity." He said that in addition to the torture, Hamas interrogators also cursed (former Fatah and PLO leader) Yasser Arafat. The Fatah spokesman added: "The Hamas gangs are not Palestinians and they have no connection to our history, values and national and Islamic morals. Even the devils are unable to do such things." However, Qawassmeh did not say whether Fatah would file any war crimes charges against Hamas with the International Criminal Court or any international human rights organization.
In fact, it is hard to see how Fatah could file charges against Hamas when their representatives are part of a "national consensus" government with Hamas. If Fatah believes that the "Hamas gangs" are not Palestinian, why then did their leaders sign a unity agreement with the Islamist movement several months ago? Yet while the Palestinian Authority is accusing Hamas of human rights violations, its own security forces in the West Bank are continuing to crack down on freedom of expression. During the past two weeks, the PA has summoned for interrogation more than 20 Palestinians over their postings on Facebook. Most of those summoned for interrogation are university students suspected of posting comments in favor of Hamas or criticizing the PA on their Facebook accounts. In recent weeks, Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank have arrested more than 25 university students on charges of criticizing Palestinian leaders in Ramallah or voicing support for Hamas and other groups. Some of the detainees are reported to have gone on hunger strike to protest against their incarceration. Earlier this week, Palestinian security officers in the West Bank beat Palestinian journalist Muaz al-Amleh after he posted critical remarks against a Fatah official on social media.
Again, these are not the type of human rights violations that the international media and human rights organizations care about. Had the unfortunate journalist been attacked by Israeli soldiers, his story would have won the attention of his Western colleagues and probably the UN Security Council. The increased human rights violations by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority come at a time when PA President Mahmoud Abbas says he is determined to pursue his effort to file war crimes charges against Israel with the International Criminal Court. It also comes at a time when Abbas says he will go back to the Security Council to seek support for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Abbas wants the world to support the creation of a dictatorship where people are arrested and intimidated for expressing their views in public. He is also asking the world to support a Palestinian state where Hamas is torturing Palestinians and stripping them down to their underwear. If Abbas cannot do anything to protect his own loyalists in the Gaza Strip, how exactly does he intend to persuade the world that he is capable of leading his people toward independence and freedom? Meanwhile, it would be a good idea if Abbas rushed to file war crimes against Hamas, before Hamas makes similar accusations against him. It would also be a good idea if the international community and media stopped turning a blind eye to the suffering of Palestinians at the hands of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
STOP GIVING PALESTINIANS A PASS
Dennis B. Ross
New York Times, Jan. 4, 2015
The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, insists on using international institutions to pressure Israel, even after he was rebuffed in the United Nations Security Council, where he sought a resolution mandating Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Mr. Abbas has now announced that he will turn to the International Criminal Court — a move that will produce Palestinian charges and Israeli countercharges but not alter the reality on the ground. A European official I met recently expressed sympathy for the Palestinians’ pursuit of a Security Council resolution. I responded by saying that if he favors Palestinian statehood, it’s time to stop giving the Palestinians a pass. It is time to make it costly for them to focus on symbols rather than substance.
Since 2000, there have been three serious negotiations that culminated in offers to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Bill Clinton’s parameters in 2000, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s offer in 2008, and Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts last year. In each case, a proposal on all the core issues was made to Palestinian leaders and the answer was either “no” or no response. They determined that the cost of saying “yes,” or even of making a counteroffer that required concessions, was too high. Palestinian political culture is rooted in a narrative of injustice; its anticolonialist bent and its deep sense of grievance treats concessions to Israel as illegitimate. Compromise is portrayed as betrayal, and negotiations — which are by definition about mutual concessions — will inevitably force any Palestinian leader to challenge his people by making a politically costly decision. But going to the United Nations does no such thing. It puts pressure on Israel and requires nothing of the Palestinians. Resolutions are typically about what Israel must do and what Palestinians should get. If saying yes is costly and doing nothing isn’t, why should we expect the Palestinians to change course?
That’s why European leaders who fervently support Palestinian statehood must focus on how to raise the cost of saying no or not acting at all when there is an offer on the table. Palestinians care deeply about international support for their cause. If they knew they would be held accountable for being nonresponsive or rejecting a fair offer or resolution, it could well change their calculus. Unfortunately, most Europeans are focused far more on Israeli behavior and want, at a minimum, to see Israel’s continuing settlement policy change. But turning to the United Nations or the International Criminal Court during an Israeli election is counterproductive. It will be seen in Israel as a one-sided approach, and it will strengthen politicians who prefer the status quo. These candidates will argue that the deck is stacked against Israel and that the country needs leaders who will stand firm against unfair pressure.
Why not wait? If a new Israeli government after the elections is prepared to take a peace initiative and build settlements only on land that is likely to be part of Israel and not part of Palestine, there will be no need for a United Nations resolution. If not, and the Europeans decide to pursue one, it must be balanced. It cannot simply address Palestinian needs by offering borders based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps and a capital in Arab East Jerusalem without offering something equally specific to Israel — namely, security arrangements that leave Israel able to defend itself by itself, phased withdrawal tied to the Palestinian Authority’s performance on security and governance, and a resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue that allows Israel to retain its Jewish character.
In all likelihood the Palestinians would reject such a resolution. Accepting it would require compromises that they refused in 2000, 2008 and 2014. There is, of course, no guarantee that the next Israeli government would accept such a resolution. But the Israelis are not the ones pushing for United Nations involvement. The Palestinians are. And if their approach is neither about two states nor peace, there ought to be a price for that. Peace requires accountability on both sides. It’s fair to ask the Israelis to accept the basic elements that make peace possible — 1967 lines as well as land swaps and settlement building limited to the blocks. But isn’t it time to demand the equivalent from the Palestinians on two states for two peoples, and on Israeli security? Isn’t it time to ask the Palestinians to respond to proposals and accept resolutions that address Israeli needs and not just their own?
Bret Stephens
Wall Street Journal, Jan. 5, 2015
A decade ago, I wrote an op-ed on the election of Mahmoud Abbas to the Palestinian presidency following the death of Yasser Arafat. It ran under the headline “From Strong Man to Good Man.” Mark that one down in the annals of lousy political judgment. Maybe it’s because I had recently spent some years working in Jerusalem—watching up close as Arafat bombarded Israelis while bamboozling Westerners—that I felt optimistic about the Palestinian future. Maybe it was because I was too taken with the promise of Arab democracy, and with the notion that those elevated to power through a ballot wouldn’t rule by the bullet.
Or maybe I was simply impressed by Mr. Abbas himself, with his grandfatherly mien and progressive rhetoric. “We need clean legal institutions so we can be considered a civilized society,” I heard him say at one well-attended rally in Ramallah, just a day before the election. Also: “We won’t allow any illegal weapons.” And: “We need to make the law the leader in this country, and nobody can be above the law.” That sounded about right: rule of law; a clampdown on violence; an emphasis on institution building; the end to the toxic cult of personality. All that was needed was a leader who would implement the change, along with the people who would accept it.
But Mr. Abbas was not that leader. And Palestinians were not those people. A year after Mr. Abbas’s presidential victory, Hamas won a parliamentary victory. People who are in the business of making excuses for Palestinians—and the apologists are legion—sagely explained that the vote for Hamas wasn’t a public endorsement of a terrorist group sworn to Israel’s annihilation, but rather a vote against the corruption of Fatah, Mr. Abbas’s party. As if the two propositions could not both be true. As if Palestinians were unaware of Hamas’s intentions. As if a vote against venal officialdom palliated a vote for violent ideologues.
So it has been with the rest of Mr. Abbas’s serial fiascoes over the decade, culminating in his failed bid last week to force a vote in the Security Council over Palestinian statehood. In 2005, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, leaving Mr. Abbas in charge and giving him a chance to make something of the territory. Gaza dissolved into civil war within months. In 2008, Israel offered Mr. Abbas a state covering 94% of the West Bank, along with a compensatory 6% of Israeli territory and a land bridge to Gaza. Mr. Abbas never took up the offer. Last March, President Obama personally offered Mr. Abbas a U.S.-sponsored “framework” agreement. Again Mr. Abbas demurred. The following month, Mr. Abbas signed a “reconciliation” pact with Hamas. War came by summer. Now Mr. Abbas has moved to have “the state of Palestine” join the International Criminal Court, chiefly in order to harass and perhaps arrest Israeli military officers and politicians spuriously accused of war crimes. The gambit will fail for the simple reason that two can play the game.
So why does Mr. Abbas persevere? Because, as the late Fouad Ajami knew so well, the pleasures of dreaming are better than the labors of building, just as the rhetoric of justice, patrimony and right is so much more stirring than the fine print and petty indignities of compromise. Mr. Abbas consistently refuses a Palestinian state because such a state is infinitely more trivial than a Palestinian struggle. Becoming is better than being. So long as “Palestine” is in the process of becoming, it matters. Once it exists, it all but doesn’t. How many times will some future president of an established Palestinian state get to visit the White House?
This explains why a Palestinian state—a reasonably peaceful and prosperous one, at any rate—is deeply in Israel’s interest. And why no Palestinian leader will ever accept such a state on any terms. After the endless stream of Palestinian rejections—from the 1947 U.N. partition plan to the “Three No’s” of the 1967 Khartoum Resolution to Arafat’s refusal to make a deal at Camp David in 2000, one begins to sense a pattern. Palestine can never hope to compete with Israel except in the sense that the fantasy of Palestine will always have an edge on the reality of Israel.
Over a beachfront lunch yesterday in Tel Aviv, an astute Israeli friend had the following counter-fantasy: What if Western leaders refused to take Mahmoud Abbas’s calls? What if they pointed out that, in the broad spectrum of global interests, from Eastern Europe to the South China Sea, the question of Palestinian statehood ranked very low—on a par with, say, the prospect of independence for the Walloons? What if these leaders observed that, in the scale of human tragedy, the supposed plight of the Palestinians is of small account next to the human suffering in Syria or South Sudan? In that event, the Palestinian dream palace might shrink to its proper size, and bring the attractions of practical statecraft into sharper focus. Genuine peace might become possible. Don’t hold your breath.
Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood Have Their Sights on the West Bank and Jordan: Pinhas Inbari, JCPA, Dec. 23, 2015—The failure of the reconciliation efforts between Fatah and Hamas has given rise to a new phenomenon, not seen in the past: Hamas directly threatening Fatah that it will take over the West Bank.
US aid to PA Should Not Reward Terrorists: Elliott Abrams, Israel Hayom, Dec. 25, 2015—The omnibus appropriations bill recently passed by Congress contains an interesting provision regarding the support for terrorists and their families by the Palestinian Authority:
Israeli Group Files War Crimes Suits Against Palestinian Leaders: Ari Lewis, Times of Israel, Jan. 5, 2015—Israeli legal group Shurat HaDin, the Israel Law Center, filed lawsuits on Monday at the International Criminal Court (ICC) against three Palestinian Authority leaders for alleged war crimes, terrorism and human rights offenses, following PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s move last week to join the court and seek to prosecute Israel.
The Fundamental Breach of the Oslo Accords by the PA: Amb. Alan Baker, Arutz Sheva, Jan. 5, 2015— 1. The peace negotiation process as set out in the Oslo Accords was intended to lead to peace between Israel and the Palestinian People and mutual recognition of each other’s "mutual legitimate and political rights" (Preamble, Oslo I and Oslo II).
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