Day: June 27, 2024

Former KGB Agent and Terrorist leader Mahmoud Abbas Presents Himself as the Answer to ‘The Day After’ in Gaza

by canadaman2020

Everyone wonders what will happen “the day after” in Gaza — that is, after the IDF completes its mission of dismantling Hamas. Will the rich Arab states of the Gulf finance and mentor a government of technocrats? Will the Israelis, against their better judgment, keep the IDF in Gaza and try to rule as a true army of occupation until such time as a suitable Arab replacement can be found? Today, the most likely candidate to take over Gaza is Mahmoud Abbas, despite the fact that his corrupt rule over the Palestinians in the West Bank has led them to wrack and ruin. Eighty percent of the people he now rules over want Abbas to resign. But the Bidenites are still counting on Abbas to take over Gaza. They are painting him as a “moderate,” deliberately overlooking his failure to condemn the Hamas atrocities on October 7 and his continued support of terrorists with his “Pay-For-Slay” policy. More on this forlorn hope can be found here: “It’s Springtime for Mahmoud Abbas,” by Ilan Berman, The National Interest, June 21, 2024:

…Although the radical Islamist group ranks as the PA’s chief political rival (having wrested control of the Gaza Strip from Fatah in June 2007), its October terror rampage against Israel—and the ensuing Israeli military offensive—has been nothing short of a boon for the PA. Israel has made the dismantlement of Hamas a cardinal strategic objective, naturally raising questions about what “the day after” in Gaza might look like if the terror group is dislodged from power. 

Suggestions on that score have abounded, ranging from a U.S.-led stabilization force to a “multinational authority” to administer Gaza, at least in the near term. But the one that seems to have gained the most traction is perhaps the least creative: to simply allow the PA to extend its ambit over the Gaza Strip as well. Thus the Biden administration, which before October 7 had deemed the PA unfit to govern Gaza, has steadily gravitated toward the notion as the conflict has dragged on with no end in sight.

For his part, Abbas is working hard to capitalize on the present moment. His government has announced that it is prepared to provide a “political solution” to the current situation in Gaza, post-ceasefire. And at the recent Gaza Emergency Humanitarian Response Conference in Jordan earlier this month, the PA proposed an ambitious three-stage recovery plan encapsulating its vision for the enclave. 

That plan is extensive—and expensive. The first phase alone, focused on a six-month “emergency response” period, would cost a whopping $1.3 billion. The money, naturally, would come from international donors, and the PA would administer it to create “social protection and housing provision, as well as health, education and infrastructure programs”—things that the West Bank itself needs significant help with, and international oversight over. 

In other words, the Palestinian Authority is asking the international community to empower one failed state to rebuild another….

Mahmoud Abbas has a long track record of massive corruption and mismanagement. He and his two sons Yasser and Tarek have managed to amass a business empire worth $400 million, with money stolen from the sums given by donors to assist the Palestinians living within the Palestinian Authority. Does anyone think he would behave any differently if put in charge of Gaza, given the enticement provided by the enormous sums that will be sent to help reconstruct the Strip?

Abbas also has a record of colossal mismanagement, for instead of competent technocrats, like Arafat before him he appoints people purely on the basis of their loyalty to him. He is also 88 years old, with a history of heart trouble (he’s demanded to be treated only by Israeli doctors, one of whom has made unpublicized house calls on him in Ramallah), but has made no provision for a successor. Finally, he is despised by the rulers in the family monarchies of the Gulf. The UAE has pushed back angrily against Abbas’ condemnation of the UAE’s taking part in the Abraham Accords. The Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in 2018 told a group of Jewish leaders at a meeting in New York that, tired of hearing Abbas’ constant complaints, he had told Abbas that “in the last several decades, the Palestinian leadership has missed one opportunity after the other and rejected all the peace proposals it was given. It is about time the Palestinians take the proposals and agree to come to the negotiations table or shut up and stop complaining.” MbS also told Abbas directly “to take whatever deal the Americans offer.” Relations between Abbas and the rich Arab rulers in the Gulf have not improved since then.

Instead of installing Abbas to rule Gaza “the day after,” the Bidenites ought to be consulting with the Arab governments of the Gulf, especially those of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, that one assumes will be paying for the reconstruction in Gaza. Under no circumstances should non-Arab states pay for any of that rebuilding. They should, as bankrollers of the reconstruction, have a major say in the formation of a government of apolitical Arab technocrats, including non-Palestinians, who will be chosen strictly for their occupational competence and financial integrity. Such an arrangement might at last allow the Gazans to enjoy the benefits of good government, something denied them under the long misrule of the terror group Hamas.

Mahmoud Abbas Presents Himself as the Answer to ‘The Day After’ in Gaza