Abbas denounced
B’nai Brith International and Australia’s B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) have denounced Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’ disavowal of signed peace agreements with Israel in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly.
Dvir Abramovich
Abbas painted a picture of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that was divorced from reality and used it as grounds to pull his administration from its commitments with Israel. On a day when he was called up to the U.N. rostrum as the head of state of the “State of Palestine”—and when the United Nations made the Palestinians the only people to have their flag flown there in advance of the establishment and admission of an actual state—Abbas said he was declaring “that we cannot continue to be bound by these [past] agreements and that Israel must assume all of its responsibilities as an occupying power.” He added that he would escalate Palestinian pursuit of membership in international organizations, which have been exploited as propaganda tools against Israel.
ADC Chairman Dr Dvir Abramovich and Dan Mariaschin, Executive Vice President of B’nai B’rith International have jointly stated: “The statement by Abbas shows the true face of the PA. Abbas appropriates the trappings of statehood, refuses its obligations, and shifts these to Israel rather than engaging in genuine peacemaking with the Jewish state. Yet the PA cannot achieve its objectives by fiat or by manipulating the United Nations and its agencies.
Abbas and his Palestinian peers must recognize Jewish statehood and respect the basic rights of Israelis if the Palestinians’ political goals are to concretely materialize.
In a 40-minute speech before the General Assembly, Abbas again directed inflammatory rhetoric and mistruths at Israel while avoiding his responsibility for the current state of relations between the two sides.
Abbas demanded full recognition at the United Nations and rebuffed the direct bilateral negotiations with Israel that the U.N. itself long insisted upon as the only legitimate path to progress.
Abbas invoked recent violence at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, rehashing his revisionist narrative of developments at the site, obfuscating its essential Jewish history and escalating efforts to prevent Jewish visits there. Abbas claimed that Palestinians are “working to spread the culture of peace.”
This week, though, Palestinian rioters armed with stones and firebombs mobilized to prevent non-Muslims from entering Temple Mount, even though Israel has for decades explicitly protected Islamic privilege there. Abbas asserted that a two-state solution requires unconditional international recognition of a Palestinian state that does not yet exist.
However, he failed to acknowledge that the terrorist group Hamas, which violently seized control of the Gaza Strip from him, remains fervently committed to Israel’s destruction and continues its utterly unprovoked and indiscriminate attacks on civilian communities inside Israel.
If the PA were serious about peace, its officials would be sitting down with the Israeli government to negotiate a lasting, comprehensive peace rather than pursuing symbolic victories and senseless confrontation at the United Nations.”
Ben Elijah stated that there should have been a Palestinian state and the “occupation ” lifted.
Certainly, the Oslo agreement is muribund, but what Elijah fails to mention in his eagerness to accuse Bnai Brith of falsehood, is the fact that in 2008 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered to create a Palestinian state in Gaza, half of Jerusalem and nearly all of the West Bank. This was looked upon positively by USA, Russia, the European Union and that bastion of fairness and freedom,the United Nations.
Mr. Abbas refused to even acknowledge that offer which has never been improved upon. Some people believe that he was fearing for his own life
by action of the hostile Hamas which still adheres to the dictum that Israel
has to be destroyed.
Trust Bnai Brith to toe the line of falsehood. There should have been a Palestinian state and the occupation lifted according to the Oslo accord. Instead, Israel has continued to expand settlements and demolish Palestinian homes and unleash terror through armed settlers. The Oslo agreement is dead in the water and Abbas stated the fact of the matter.