The Palestinian Authority has just shown what it thinks of the 1,500 Hamas murderers who were killed during the recent attack on Israeli civilians. Starting now, it intends to lavish large monthly sums, for life, on the families of those who died after torturing and murdering Israeli civilians. And the Bidenites, instead of cutting all aid to the PA, as it is supposed to do under the Taylor Force Act, if the PA continues with its “Pay-For-Slay” policy, that rewards past, and incentivizes future, terrorism against Israel, have been increasing their aid to the PA. Furthermore, by meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman, Antony Blinken continues to legitimize that monstrous regime, and allows Abbas to believe that he still has the Americans fooled about his real views and intentions. What Blinken ought to have done is to have refused to meet with Abbas until he denounced, by name, Hamas, and denounced, too, the precise atrocities that Hamas members had committed — the decapitation of babies, the murder of hundreds of small children, some of them killed in front of their parents, while parents were often killed in front of their children, the rape and murder of Jewish girls, the torture and then beheading of captured soldiers, whose bodies were then mutilated. This is what Abbas, at a minimum, should be asked to do if he expects any aid from Washington.
Instead, Blinken thanked Abbas for his efforts “to further calm” the region. “Antony Blinken meets with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Amman,” by
October 13, 2023:During their meeting, Blinken reiterated “the United States’ unequivocal condemnation of the abhorrent terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israel” and “detailed U.S. efforts to coordinate with partners to prevent the conflict from widening,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a readout.
But what Blinken did not do is demand that Abbas issue a similar “unequivocal condemnation.”
“The Secretary extended his condolences to the families of Palestinian civilian victims of this conflict, and reiterated that Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s legitimate right to dignity, freedom, justice, and self-determination,” Miller said.
If the Gazans are to have any chance of leading lives of “dignity, freedom, justice, and self-determination” in the Strip itself, they will have to be freed from the despotism, corruption, and cruelty of Hamas, by having that terror group crushed, once and for all, and that is exactly what Israel is trying to do. They will be the unintended beneficiaries of Israel’s victory over Hamas.
Blinken also thanked Abbas for his efforts to “further calm” the region and he “reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to cooperation with the Palestinian leadership and people on efforts to ensure security for all,” Miller added.
But Abbas did not try to “calm” the region in the last week. For five days, Abbas condemned not the original attack by Hamas, but only the Israeli response to that attack. He spoke on the phone with Antonio Guterres, secretary general of the UN, whom he asked “to intervene immediately to stop the current Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, particularly in the Gaza Strip.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz described Abbas’ silence about Hamas as “shameful.” The Americans said nothing. All over the West Bank — in Jenin, Nablus, Jericho, and Ramallah — the people in the Palestinian Authority territories celebrated the child-murderers and mass-rapists of Hamas.
Finally, on Thursday, October 12, Abbas issued the following statement: “We reject the practices of killing civilians or abusing them on both sides because they contravene morality, religion and international law,” according to the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA. He made morally equivalent the child-murderers and torturers and rapists of Hamas and the IDF soldiers who are only trying only to prevent them from continuing their atrocities. Abbas tried to make the world believe that Israel deliberately kills civilians (it does not) and of abusing them (it does not). Neither then, nor since, has Abbas condemned Hamas by name.
Yet here is Antony Blinken, still trying to pretend that Abbas is a fit interlocutor, even an admirable fellow with a “calming” presence, a force for good. Has Blinken forgotten what Mahmoud Abbas said on October 8, when the full horror of the attack was known: “The Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves against the “terror of settlers and occupation troops”? He was praising Hamas, not condemning it, as everyone in the civilized world did.
And by meeting with Abbas, and praising him, Blinken semaphored to the world the misinformation that the Palestinian president has denounced the atrocities of Hamas. He never has, and he never will. On October 15, he came close, but faltered: “Hamas critique removed from Palestinians’ Abbas comments on Israel attack,” Reuters, October 15, 2023:
The Palestinian Authority’s official news agency published comments on Sunday by President Mahmoud Abbas that criticized Hamas over its actions but later removed reference to the militant group without providing an explanation….
The original WAFA report on Abbas’ call included the line: “The president also stressed that Hamas’ policies and actions do not represent the Palestinian people, and the policies, programs and decisions of the (Palestine Liberation Organization) represent the Palestinian people as their sole legitimate representative.”
The change was not explained. But the reason for it was clear. Now we are told by the Bidenites that Abbas has really and truly denounced Hamas. Has he? The Palestinian news agency WAFA published Abbas’ supposed “denunciation” of Hamas, made by him not in an official statement, but in a remark Abbas made in the course of a phone call to Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan dictator. Does that statement sound to you like a firm denunciation of Hamas for its barbarism? Not at all. Abbas merely said that “Hamas’ policies and actions do not represent the Palestinian people.” The words “murder,” “rape,” “killings,” “kidnappings,” “atrocities” nowhere appear. He’s merely stating what he’s said many times before, that not Hamas, but the organizations that he, Mahmoud Abbas, leads — the PA, Fatah, and the PLO — are the “sole representatives” of the Palestinians. That’s not a denunciation of Hamas. But that’s what the Bidenites want you to think it is.
Several hours later, the phrase was adjusted to read: “The president also stressed that the policies, programs, and decisions of the PLO represent the Palestinian people as their sole legitimate representative, and not the policies of any other organization.”
This second version cancels the first. Even that first version’s mild criticism is gone, and the very word “Hamas” has been omitted from this later version. We are left only with this: “The policies, programs, and decisions of the PLO represent the Palestinian people as their sole legitimate representative.” There’s not a word of criticism directed at Hamas.
The Bidenites want us to believe that Mahmoud Abbas has denounced Hamas and therefore deserves our support, financial and diplomatic. Don’t believe them. He’s done nothing of the kind. Instead, he’s removed the word “Hamas” from his mildly critical remarks. And he has just put 1,500 Hamas killers on the “Pay-For-Slay” payroll, the surest sign of his approval. Some journalist must take it upon himself to visit the rais in his Ramallah palace and ask him just one question: “Do you denounce Hamas as a terror organization that decapitates babies, subjects young girls to mass rape and murder, kills grandmothers, tortures, cuts off the heads of, captured soldiers and then mutilates their bodies?”
His answer should prove instructive.