What to Expect From Abbas (Part 1)

By Barry Rosenfeld

Mahmoud Abbas

Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, has been working for the last several years to gain international recognition of a Palestinian state without forming a peace agreement with Israel.

If he succeeds at this it will leave Israel without any guarantees of security nor will the Zionist homeland have gained anything in return. An independent Palestinian state of any type will become a launching pad for further attacks against Israel as the Palestinians continue toward their ultimate goal of domination of the entire biblical homeland. This is evidenced by the fact that every so-called map of the Palestinian state as displayed in PA classrooms and in all public logos, shows only one state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and that state is not Israel.

On November 29th, 2012, due to the Palestinian Authority president’s efforts, the United Nations with its 193-members voted 138 to 9, with 41 abstentions, to recognize Palestine as a “non-member observer state.” While this fell short of granting the country independence it did provide it with several privileges as a state including the right to join the International Criminal Court and other international treaty bodies. (Washington Post)

Consequently in the midst of the recent Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, on April Fools’ Day, Abbas moved to join 15 UN and other international bodies. At a PLO meeting in Ramallah Abbas formally requested membership in the international organizations for the “State of Palestine,” ostensibly in reaction to Israel’s refusal to release a fourth round of Palestinian prisoners, some of them Arab Israelis. (Times of Israel)

Included in the 15 was the Geneva Conventions which articulate the laws of war. The Palestinians joined 14 treaties and conventions, and one United Nations organization, the request having been approved by UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon. (Al Jazeera)

“We [Palestinians] have not only signed these [agreements], but we have become officially bound by them now,” Randa Siniora, the Director General of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), told Al Jazeera in late April. Most of the memberships became official in May.

Israel responded by formally cancelling the release of the prisoners, most of whom are Palestinian Israelis, and imposing financial penalties in the form of withholding tax levies collected by Israel on the Palestinian Authority’s behalf.

To be continued ….