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Ignoring the Obvious about Abbas

(Commentary) Jonathan Tobin - According to the New York Times, peace between Israel and the Palestinians is merely a matter of American pressure on the Jewish state to force it to make the concessions that will magically end the conflict. In its Aug. 10 editorial, the Times agrees that it is too bad that the Israelis won't concede every point to be negotiated in advance of the talks and that the White House has come to understand that efforts to hammer Israel in the past year and a half have been both diplomatically unproductive and politically disastrous. But the editorial warns Abbas that he's wrong if he thinks time is on his side. Abbas' greatest fear is getting into real peace negotiations because he knows he can't make peace with Israel, no matter what the terms of the agreement or where the final borders might be drawn. Ehud Olmert offered him an even sweeter deal in 2008 than the ones offered to Arafat, and he wouldn't even talk about it. What the Times fails to understand is that it is precisely because of the power of Hamas and the weakness of Abbas, who rightly understands that the dynamics of Palestinian politics forbid any agreement that would recognize the legitimacy of Israel, there is no chance that the PA leader will ever accede to their wishes.
2010-08-12 08:37:56
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