• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Mahmoud Abbas Plans to Ask Biden to Move Embassy Back to Tel Aviv

Nov 13, 2020 10:00 am By Hugh Fitzgerald 5 Comments

Mahmoud Abbas is planning to ask Joe Biden to move the American embassy back to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem. The request has no chance of being granted; Biden has already said that while he would not have moved the Embassy himself, he will not now move it out of Jerusalem.. But Abbas figures that when he’s turned down, Biden will be snookered into thinking he now owes Abbas something. The report on Mahmoud Abbas’ pressing request is here: “Report: Abbas Plans to Ask Biden to Return US Embassy to Tel Aviv,” i24 News, November 8, 2020:

Ramallah is planning to ask President-elect Joe Biden to immediately relocate the US embassy in Jerusalem back to Tel Aviv and rescind the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital…

Citing Palestinian Authority senior adviser Nabil Shaath, the Hebrew-language daily said that President Mahmoud Abbas has already sent covert communications to Biden stating that he is willing to return to US-brokered peace talks with Israel….

Moreover, Shaath said that his government will demand the United States reopen the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington, which has been shuttered since 2018 and renew American aid to Ramallah via the United Nations refugee agency UNRWA.

My, how the PA’s cup of demands runneth over. Abbas and his cronies apparently think they would be doing the Americans a great favor by deigning to return to peace – or “peace” – talks with Israel, and that they can set all sorts of conditions beforehand. They “will demand” that the Americans reopen the PLO office in Washington; they “will demand” that the new administration ignore the past four years of American discussions with both Israel and the PA, and return to where the talks “left off” during the deeply anti-Israel Obama Administration; they “will demand” that the Americans send money to the PA in Ramallah, where President-For-Life Mahmoud Abbas will be waiting to take his customary cut, via UNRWA. It would be nice to think that the Americans will ignore all those outrageous demands. Unfortunately, the Biden Administration had already said it would do all those things – and said it even before the PA issued its demands. When it comes to the Palestinians, our media-proclaimed president-elect is eager to please.

On Sunday, Abbas extended his congratulations to Biden following his election victory over US President Donald Trump, saying he was looking forward to working with the new administration “to strengthen the Palestinian-American relations and to achieve freedom, independence, justice, and dignity for our people, as well as to work for peace, stability and security for all in our region and the world.”

“Freedom, independence, justice, and dignity” — yes, aren’t those the very words that come to mind when you think of the PA and Hamas? The “freedom” of the Palestinian leaders to rob their people blind. The “independence” that comes with living off foreign aid for your entire existence. The “justice” that lands any Palestinians critical of their corrupt leaders in jail. The “dignity” that results from being permanently on the international dole and, with begging bowl in hand, constantly asking for more.

Abbas’ message, however, was only delivered some 15 hours after Biden was declared president and most world leaders had sent their congratulations.

Given how elated the Palestinians were with Biden’s victory, it’s curious that Abbas waited so long to congratulate Biden. Perhaps he and his cronies were busy formulating, as part of their congratulatory statement, those non-negotiable demands that need to be met before they will agree to return to American-brokered talks with Israel.

Biden has a strange record on the subject of the American Embassy move to Jerusalem. He was an enthusiastic backer of the Jerusalem Embassy Act that Congress passed in 1995; the vote in the Senate was 95-3 in favor. Yet in the quarter-century since, he did not object when Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama invoked a six-month waiver of the application of the law, and reissued the waiver every six months on “national security” grounds. In April of this year, as a candidate in the Democratic primary, Biden said that the U.S. Embassy in Israel would remain in Jerusalem if he’s elected, even as he called President Donald Trump’s decision to move the diplomatic base from Tel Aviv “short-sighted and frivolous.”

Why did the embassy move, that Biden had supported with such ardor in 1995, now seem to him in 2020 to be “short-sighted” and “frivolous”? It was neither of those things. The Embassy move was carefully meditated by Donald Trump and his Middle East advisers, to take Jerusalem permanently off the table of negotiations. Trump, unlike his three predecessors, was courageous enough, “far-sighted” enough, and serious (not a bit “frivolous”) enough, to right a historic wrong. Jerusalem had been the capital of the Jewish people for 3000 years. In 1995 both houses of Congress, representing the will of the American people, voted overwhelmingly to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem. President Trump, instead of doing as Clinton, Bush, and Obama had repeatedly done, by finding excuses (those “six-month waivers”) that allowed them to slither away from their duty to implement the Jerusalem Embassy Act, Trump went ahead and moved the Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He had been warned by political cassandras that all hell would break loose in the Muslim world, but he ignored them. And he was right: there were a handful of very small and very brief demonstrations and then…nothing.

When Joe Biden voted for the Jerusalem Embassy Act in 1995, he apparently did not think he was being “short-sighted” or “frivolous,” nor did he think that of the other 94 Senators who voted to support the bill. What has happened since to change his mind? Joe Biden needs to explain why moving the Embassy was an excellent idea in 1995 but turned out to be “short-sighted” and “frivolous” in 2020. Or was it simply the case that Joe Biden could not stand to credit Donald Trump for finally doing the right thing, when Clinton and Bush had been too afraid of the Arab reaction, and Obama had been too hostile to Israel, to do so?

There’s another reason why Abbas is asking for Biden to move the embassy back to Tel Aviv, knowing that it won’t happen. He calculates that in turning down his request, Biden will then feel obligated, by way of recompense, to do something to please the rais in Ramallah. And in that calculation Abbas may, unfortunately, be right.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Featured, Hugh Fitzgerald, Israel, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian jihad Tagged With: Joe Biden, Mahmoud Abbas


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Comments

  1. mortimer says

    Nov 13, 2020 at 10:36 am

    BIden will pour gasoline on the Pally dumpster fire and pour millions of taxpayer dollars into building monster homes in Cyprus for Pally big-shots.

    Biden understands payola.

    Reply
    • Uma says

      Nov 13, 2020 at 11:05 am

      Good Evening Sir,
      You are very right.
      Regards
      Uma

      Reply
  2. Charlie in NY says

    Nov 13, 2020 at 10:58 am

    It’s too much to hope for, but before any “peace processing” starts again, the US should itself demand that the Palestinians produce a leader with the legitimacy to negotiate an end-of-conflict agreement on behalf of all Palestinians and the authority to ensure that its provisions are implemented and abided by. Until then, what’s the point? The Sunni Arab countries no longer seek Israel’s destruction. In fact, they require a strong as self-confident Israel as a matter of their own survival. Palestinian leaders need to read that memo. Perhaps Biden needs to read it as well.

    Reply
  3. Walter Sieruk says

    Nov 13, 2020 at 11:50 am

    The weak and ignorant Joe Biden will most likely acquiesce to a request of Abbas to move the US embassy back to Tel Aviv.

    In contrast, President Trump had wisely said “It’s time to officially recognize [the reality of] Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.” Yes, indeed, it’s very much time to recognize Jerusalem as the capital city of the State of Israel, and he then acted on his word and he had done so by good decision of moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem .This bold and wise decision of President Trump to move the US embassy to Jerusalem has greatly offended many of the Muslim clerics . Be they, for example, the imams of Pakistan or the mullahs of Iran.

    Those Muslim clerics with their mind control and their unconscionable ways they manipulate the people from the mosques to be their stooges into a, violent uprising, because of the President’s decision is despicable . Some people of the left will say that the decision of move the US embassy to Jerusalem is “provoking” and it will “incite violence.” This only shows the old saying to be true .Which is that “Evil is always looking for an excuse. “ The fact is President Trump made the right decision and if the Muslim clerics don’t happen to like it ,well then it’s “tough beans.” to them .

    As the Bible informs its readers “The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem … the Lord will be the hope of His people ,and the strength of the children of Israel.” Joel 3:16.

    Reply
  4. Paul J Fishman says

    Nov 26, 2020 at 10:37 am

    President Biden will break relationship with Israel IF he demands the Embassy be moved back to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem and declare Jerusalem as the Palestinian Capitol. American tourist then will be banned from coming to Israel and Palestinian terrorism will rise greatly again.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • janicevanguilder on New study reveals that Muslim religiosity strongly linked to hatred towards the West
  • Boycott Turkey on Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, France and UAE conduct joint military exercises amid rising Turkish threat
  • Yogi on EU Parliament members call for firing of border agency director for preventing illegal migrants from entering Europe
  • Hoi Polloi on Why so many Muslims can’t wait for Biden to get inaugurated
  • Hoi Polloi on EU Parliament members call for firing of border agency director for preventing illegal migrants from entering Europe

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.