| ...thus guaranteeing utter chaos in the West Bank the day in the near future when he dies of old age’s ills. |
The Paleostine Liberation Organization reelected the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...as its leader, the group said early Friday, giving the Paleostinian Authority president fresh backing amid an international uproar over remarks deemed anti-Semitic.
The decision to keep Abbas as the head of the PLO’s Executive Committee came at the end of a four-day meeting by the Paleostinian National Council in Ramallah, the first such summit in decades. Abbas has led the PLO since the death of Yasser Arafat in November 2004.
Talk has ramped up recently over a possible replacement for the 82-year-old statesman. A move by the National Council Thursday to grant the 115-member Central Council authority to assume the political body’s powers is expected to help clear the way to appointing a successor to Abbas and resolve the decade-long rift with the rival Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", party ruling Gazoo.
A statement by the council at the close of the meeting early Friday also condemned the US for plans to move its embassy to Jerusalem, rejected a peace plan being formulated by the Trump administration, and called for the Executive Committee to rescind the PLO’s recognition of Israel.
Abbas has come under fire for a Monday speech at the start of the meeting in which he appeared to blame Jews for the Holocaust, saying it was the Jews’ "social function," including money lending that caused animosity toward them in Europe. He also portrayed the creation of Israel as a European colonial project, saying "history tells us there is no basis for the Jewish homeland."
The comments have been derided as anti-Semitic and have led to renewed calls for Abbas to back away from the Paleostinian leadership.
On Wednesday, PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat
...negotiated the Oslo Accords with Israel. He has been chief Paleostinian negotiator since 1995. He is currently negotiating with Israel to establish a de jure Paleostinian state...
, a top Abbas apparatchik, claimed Abbas’s words had been distorted, condemning accusations against him.
Abbas did not address the furor during a short speech at the closing session, according to a transcript from the official Paleostinian news agency WAFA released early Friday.
In a closing statement from the National Council, the Paleostinian National Assembly accused Israeli and American officials of orchestrating a campaign to accuse Abbas of anti-Semitism as a diversionary tactic.
Abbas touched on a number of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories during what he called a "history lesson," as he sought to prove the 3,000-year-old Jewish connection to the Land of Israel is false.
He said his narrative was backed by points made by Jewish writers and historians, the first being a theory often criticized as anti-Semitic that Ashkenazi Jews are not the descendants of the ancient Israelites.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Abbas’ remarks were "the pinnacle of ignorance" and that the Paleostinian leader was "again reciting the most disgraceful anti-Semitic slogans."
The Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial said in a statement that Abbas’ speech was "replete with antisemitic tropes and distortions of historical facts" and accused the Paleostinian president of "blatantly falsifying history to the point of accusing the Jewish victims as being responsible for their own murder."
The UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East grinding of the peace processor, Nickolay Mladenov, said in a statement that "leaders have an obligation to confront anti-Semitism everywhere and always, not perpetuate the conspiracy theories that fuel it."
"Denying the historic and religious connection of the Jewish people to the land and their holy sites in Jerusalem stands in contrast to reality," he said.
US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman on Tuesday censured Abbas, referring him by his nom de guerre and saying he had "reached a new low."