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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| PLO chief: Abbas has lost faith in the PA |
| 2009-11-10 |
| [Ma'an] President Mahmoud Abbas has come to the conclusion that the Palestinian Authority is no longer a relevant institution, chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat told the New York Times on Monday. "He really doesn't think there is a need to be president or to have [the Palestinian] Authority," the PLO chief was quoted as saying. Framing the crisis as larger than mere politics, Erekat warned of far-reaching implications. "This is not about who is going to replace him. This is about our leaving our posts. You think anybody will stay after he leaves?" According to Erekat, the president lost faith in the 14-year-old body, itself meant to be temporary, when it became clear establishing an independent state was no longer likely to happen. "I think he is realizing that he came all this way with the peace process in order to create a Palestinian state but he sees no state coming." Without that prospect, Abbas no longer feels relevant, Erekat said. Top officials have agreed that Abbas was not bluffing when he announced his intentions to step down. The president feels he is at an impasse with Israel's right-wing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has refused to agree to a state on the internationally recognized borders, which include East Jerusalem. But Erekat's account stood in contrast to statements Abbas made during a tour of the West Bank a day earlier. He said on Sunday that while "there is no possibility of establishing a Palestinian state while settlements continue," the PA had not abandoned the national objective of establishing a state on the 1967 borders. Azzam Al-Ahmad, a member of Fatah's Central Committee, said on Monday that "the real reason" Abbas has refused to participate in presidential elections he called for 24 January 2010 "was because he was disappointed by the internal [Hamas-Fatah] conflict and by the United States' failure to support Palestinians." Meanwhile, Abbas' spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeina, warned that "the current political vacuum which resulted from the failure of the peace process will soon be filled with violence leading to a serious shake up in the security of the whole region." To avoid this, he said, "the US administration should immediately start exerting pressure on the government of Israel and make them comply with their share of the "peace process," he added, according to the PA's WAFA news agency. Abbas' announcement came last Thursday in Ramallah. Confirming rumors, he said the decision was over Israel's intransigence on settlements and the international community's indifference to it. It also came days after Palestinians were left stunned when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised as unprecedented Netanyahu's offer to limit West Bank construction to some 3,000 additional housing units. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 "the current political vacuum which resulted from the failure of the peace process will soon be filled with violence" As opposed to the violence now? How will they tell the difference? |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-11-10 15:51 |
| #3 Rantburgers lost their faith in the PA back in the reign of Pharaoh Arafish. Actually, we never had any faith in the PA. If the PA folds, then the Oslo Accords are dead, because there is no PA. If that happens Israel is under no obligation to provide power or water to Gaza. BTW, how are those sand-banked sewage lagoons doing? Harvested any more sand from them lately? |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2009-11-10 13:54 |
| #2 ...apply for a TARP loan? Worked for Chrysler. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-11-10 09:40 |
| #1 Of course the Palis need the PA. How else are they going to extort $ billions from the west? |
| Posted by: ed 2009-11-10 01:05 |