by Khaled Abu Toameh
- The truth,
however, is that neither the Palestinian Authority leadership nor the
Palestinian people is ready for statehood. And the responsibility for that
fact lies squarely with the ruthless and failed Palestinian leaders.
- The Palestinian bid to obtain UN
recognition of a Palestinian state comes at a time when the PA appears to
be losing control over some parts of the West Bank, where gunmen belonging
to several groups have replaced the Palestinian security forces... [and]
are responsible not only for terrorist attacks against Israel, but also
the growing scenes of anarchy and lawlessness....
- Abbas himself has long been praising and
glorifying Palestinians who carry out terrorist attacks....
- Abbas, who is unable (and unwilling) to
rein in a few hundred gunmen in two major Palestinian cities in the West
Bank, wants the United Nations, its member states and the rest of the
world to believe that he is ready to run a state of his own.
- If Abbas cannot send his officers to
confiscate an M-16 rifle from an unruly gunman in Jenin or Nablus, how can
he be trusted to prevent the future Palestinian state from turning into a
launching pad for regional terrorism?
- Abbas wants the UN to grant the Palestinians
the status of full member state, but cannot provide any guarantees that
the aspired-for state would not be turned into a terror entity that is
armed and funded by Iran's regime and its proxies.
- Abbas wants the UN to recognize
"Palestine" as a state when he literally has no control over
half of the Palestinians... If Abbas dares to go to the Gaza Strip, Hamas
will hang him at the entrance to the area on charges of
"collaboration" with Israel.
- Abbas is seeking full UN recognition at a
time when he continues to block general elections for the PA, arrests and
intimidates his political opponents, refuses to share power with other
Palestinians and muzzles freedom of expression.
- More than they need a state, the
Palestinians need good leadership. They need to rid themselves of the
corrupt leaders who have deprived them of international aid and led them
from one disaster after the other since the early 1970s, when the PLO was
expelled from Jordan for undermining the kingdom's sovereignty.
- [T]he Palestinians' biggest tragedy by far
has been failed leadership and more failed leadership. It radicalizes them
toward Islamic fundamentalism and deprives them of elections, freedom of
expression and international aid. The UN member states would be doing a
great service to the Palestinians if they asked Abbas about the absence of
freedom of speech and a functioning parliament under his regime.
- They would also be doing the Palestinian
people a huge service if they asked Abbas about torture in Palestinian
Authority prisons and the continuing crackdown by his security forces on
human rights activists and journalists. And they should definitely ask him
what measures he has taken to end financial and administrative corruption
in the PA.
- These issues are more pressing for the
Palestinians than another worthless document by the UN recognizing a
fictitious Palestinian state that is already marked by the intrusion of
other brutal radical Islamist dictatorships.
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