Mahmoud Abbas: Story Of A Big Traitor – OpEd

During his years in office as the acting Palestinian Authority chief, Mahmoud Abbas adroitly demonstrated that he has all the qualities of an unconditional and unquestionable traitor.

By turning his back to the national interests of the Palestinian nation and conspiring with the Israeli regime to help them confiscate the Palestinian lands and plunder their rights, Abbas proved that he cannot be a meritorious and faithful representative for the people of Palestine.

The frequent accusations Abbas directs at the democratically-elected government of Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, shows that he is quite afraid of the resurgence of anti-Israeli sentiments among the Palestinian nation and that’s why he has tried his best to extinguish the revolutionary attitude of the Hamas government which has so far refused to recognize the legitimacy of Israel and considers resistance the only viable and effective option in confrontation with Israel.

During the past years, several incidents took place which revealed that Abbas is more of an Israeli agent rather than being the representative of the Palestinian nation. While 8,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom are women and children, are being kept in the prisons of Israel, Abbas flagrantly took the side of the only Israeli inmate kept by Hamas in Gaza Strip and called for his immediate release last year. During a joint press conference with German President Christian Wulff on November 30, 2010, Abbas called on Hamas to immediately release Gilad Shalit and allow him to return to his family, “From the beginning, we have called for the return of this prisoner to his family.”

Shortly after Abbas made this unbelievable comment, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum reacted and responded to him wisely. He said that Abbas’ call to Hamas for the release of captured Israeli soldier is an “indication that the prisoners’ issue is not on the president’s agenda, it was a call for the good of the occupation and not for the national cause.”

The position of Abbas, however, is about to weaken in the light of the Islamic awakening which is sweeping the Middle East. The PA chief who is quite unpopular among the Palestinian nation and has made obvious his disloyalty to them is now being lambasted by different groups of people in Palestine.

Speaking to Fars News Agency on March 6, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council Sheikh Hamed al-Beitawi said that the Palestinian nation will not keep mum about PA’s betrayals and its continued atrocities against the Palestinian combatants, which, he said, are done in security cooperation and coordination with Israel.

“Those who have betrayed and plotted against Palestine as dictated by the US and the Zionist regime will not remain unaffected by the wind of change gusting through the Arab region,” al-Beitawi said.

However, a most revealing and exhaustive analysis of Abbas’ disloyalty to the people of Palestine and his failure in satisfying their demands was given by Aimee Kligman, a journalist with the Examiner magazine. In a 2009 article, she analyzed Abbas’ active lobbying to postpone the UN vote on the findings of South African Judge Richard Goldstone on the Gaza War at the turn of 2009.

Kligman refers to a subtle point with regards to the investigation of Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza War and the reasons why the UN vote on the Goldstone report was put off.

“Various media outlets reported that the action was the result of ‘intense US pressure’, however, unnamed sources have another version of the events. It would appear that at the time of the Israeli offensive on Gaza which began last December and lasted nearly a month, when the world began to call for a cease fire, Israel may have been taking its cues from Mahmoud Abbas.”

Kligman further says that the Gaza War in which more than 1,400 Palestinian civilians were killed was somewhat favorable to Abbas, the quisling de facto chief of the Palestinian Authority, because he could perfidiously get rid of his main political rival, namely Hamas, which the people of Gaza Strip love very much. Despite taking a humanitarian stance on the Gaza War which totally devastated the infrastructure of the Gaza Strip, caused irreparable damages to the region and claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent people, Abbas was in fact quite pleased to see that Israel attacked his political arch foe. By protracting the Gaza War, Abbas could pretend that Hamas is unable to take care of the critical situation and defend the citizens of Gaza Strip.

“The Israel offensive against Hamas in Gaza may have served a secondary purpose for Abbas. Get rid of Hamas leadership at any cost, in order that his authority not be challenged. He allegedly told the Israelis to continue with the offensive despite international calls for a ceasefire. Thus, when the vote at the UN came up, Israel may have put the pressure on Abbas to ‘nix’ the report, or be exposed. What would you do?”

However, what Kligman described is not the whole story. Abbas’ treason is a fact which will be registered on the annals of Palestine’s history and every conscious Palestinian citizen will be aware of.

In February 2006, Radio Islam reported that in a treacherous agreement with the Palestinian Authority, Israel transferred a certain amount of weaponry and ammunition to Abbas to enable him to defeat Hamas. According to Israel’s senior Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad, “Israel’s transfer of a limited amount of weapons and ammunition to the Palestinian Authority’s presidential guard will enable PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to contend with Hamas.”

The transfer, which was recommended by defense officials and approved by the then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and then Defense Minister Amir Peretz, would allow Abbas to “carry out the courageous decision he made and contend with Hamas,” said Gilad.

Lo and behold, we all know that Abbas is a big traitor. Reports published by Ha’aretz in August 2009 show that Abbas and his Prime Minister Salam Fayyad are guarded by Israel’s Shin Bet Security Agency during some of their trips around the West Bank.

It’s time for the Palestinian people to draw an end to the era of the treacherous alliance of Abbas and Israel. They should know, and of course know that Abbas does not deserve to represent them in the international community. They should know, and of course know that Abbas is the big traitor.

This article first appeared at Press TV and is reprinted with the author’s permission