Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas delivers a speech at P.A. headquarters in Ramallah, May 5, 2020. Credit: Flash90.
Please, Mr. Abbas, return the billions of dollars to the American people so we can give them to a more grateful recipient.
In a recent speech before the Turkish parliament, Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas honored the assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, praying for his soul and calling him a “martyr.”The organization Haniyeh led is an American-designated terror organization that perpetrated the worst massacre against Jews since the Holocaust and is still holding eight Americans captive, among an unknown number of other surviving hostages. Those kidnapped have been raped, male and female, tortured and executed while in custody.
Two parts of Abbas’s speech were troubling and illuminating regarding the next American administration’s Middle East policy. If the next president’s objective is to advance our security interests by stabilizing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we must examine how U.S. taxpayer dollars are used or misused by those who divert monies to support or incentivize terrorism—including the Palestinian Authority.
According to a recent article published by the Council of Foreign Relations, the United States is “the largest single country humanitarian donor to the Palestinian people.” The U.S. has handed over $5 billion to the Palestinians since the P.A. came into existence 30 years ago.
How have the Palestinians thanked America?
This spring, Abbas disparaged his major benefactor, saying Washington “has violated all international laws and abandoned all promises.” According to Axios, he wants to “reevaluate” relations with America. Please, Mr. Abbas, return the money to the American people so we can give it to a more grateful recipient.
America is at war with radical Islamism, whether we acknowledge it or not. Our Middle East experts have claimed for years that the P.A., as opposed to the more religiously oriented Hamas, is a secular alternative for the Palestinian people. This has not been true for a very long time.
Here are Abbas’s words at a Palestinian university: “In the name of Allah, the Merciful and Compassionate … Allah the Supreme spoke the truth. We will continue to stand firm and carry out Ribat [religious war for Muslim control] in Jerusalem and its surroundings until Judgment Day. Then the believers will rejoice in the victory of Allah.”
The language of the P.A., the PLO, and Fatah, all headed by Abbas, has been blatantly Islamist, as well as anti-American, despite being portrayed as secular by everyone from the media to the halls of Congress and mainstream think tanks.
This month, Abbas said, “We are implementing Sharia Law—Victory or Martyrdom.” There should be no doubt that the P.A. is immersed in jihadist rhetoric and to burnish its image, it needs to resort to public support of Hamas, eulogizing its terrorists and leaders.
Dead Palestinian terrorists are called “martyrs” by the P.A. and it pays those martyrs’ families hundreds of millions of dollars a year to reward and incentivize more terrorism against Israeli civilians. Funding them is in direct violation of American law. The Taylor Force Act, a bipartisan piece of legislation, was supposed to end funding to the P.A. until it stops this hideous practice.
The P.A. diverts this money to Hamas terrorists, including those who have committed acts of terror in Gaza since Oct. 7. American taxpayer money has rewarded terrorists who have our fellow citizens’ blood on their hands.
The Biden administration cannot ignore the Palestinian president saying: “America is the Plague, and the Plague Is America.” Is this any different from Iran saying “Death to America”?
It is hard to understand how anti-Israel progressives are silent about the P.A. presiding over a society of misogyny and killing LGBTQ Palestinians, which should offend every American’s sensibility. I guess the designated victim can do no wrong.
Yet, in the “day after” scenario wished for Gaza, a so-called reformed P.A. is expected to rule Gaza, Judea and Samaria and eventually become the governing body for the Biden administration’s desired Palestinian state.
Too many American presidents have put their heads in the sand, parroting the international community’s desire for a two-state solution, without peeking behind the curtain to see that the P.A., Fatah and PLO are not secular, do not want to reconcile with a Jewish state, and are corrupt and hated by the Palestinian people, making them likely to fail, paving the way to an Iran-dominated Palestinian state.
The P.A., since its founding over 30 years ago after the Oslo Accords, never prepared its people to accept a Jewish state as a neighbor. Its school curriculum is blatantly antisemitic and echoed in mosques, speeches and P.A. media. Is this in American interests or a foundation for regional stability? Palestinians under the control of the authoritarian Abbas government overwhelmingly supported Hamas’s actions on Oct. 7.
To move towards Palestinian self-sufficiency on a path to independence, America needs strategic patience instead of pushing for immediate solutions. The latter is a poor strategy that has sabotaged our diplomatic initiatives for more than half a century.
The P.A. is, at best, a temporary tool to confront Hamas, which would be more than happy to again throw Fatah, PLO and P.A. leaders off 10-story buildings as they did in the 2007 coup in Gaza.
So, how should we respond to Abbas’s continual disrespect for the United States, support for terrorism and jihadist rhetoric?
Our next administration needs to stop whitewashing the P.A. If new leadership cannot be found, the U.S. must be willing to wait as long as it takes for real change without forcing premature resolutions that are bound to fail.
Our problem is failing to acknowledge that this is not about an occupation of Judea and Samaria but about Israel’s very existence. The “nakba” would never have happened if the Palestinians and Arab states had accepted two states for two peoples instead of starting a war to exterminate Jews in their indigenous homeland.
America can be helpful when we realize the core issue is the dominant Palestinian view that Israel has stolen all of the land from the “River to the Sea.” We must deal with this reality instead of sweeping it under the rug. Begin by helping Palestinians from the ground up economically, allowing them to develop a realistic horizon and vision for Palestinian independence.
Scapegoating is a Palestinian national sport. America the “plague” is just another variation, allowing incompetent leadership to deflect attention from its failures. The only question is, will the U.S. ignore the insults as we usually do or will we put our foot down and begin insisting on civil behavior towards us as a beginning towards ending the indoctrination of hate and the worship of violence these leaders promote for their own citizens?
Dr. Eric R. Mandel is the director of MEPIN, the Middle East Political Information Network, senior security editor of The Jerusalem Report and a contributor to The Hill and The Jerusalem Post. He regularly briefs member of Congress and their foreign policy advisers about the Middle East.