U.S.-written speech isolates Abbas in Palestine

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The article that follows these comments appeared in today's New York
Times.

The US and Israeli ruling capitalist classes have differences in their
tactical and strategic position and requirements.  When those
differences come into play, Israel's total military and economic
dependence on U.S. imperialism (a dependence far more absolute and
profound than that of most semicolonial societies, which are
subordinated to and exploited by imperialism --as are workers and
farmers in Israel-- but not bankrolled and maintained by it) means
that Israel must yield or can be forced to yield.

But on one issue the Israeli and US rulers are and have long been in
basic agreement.  The Palestinian national movement must be defeated
and crushed.  That is the issue that is leading to the isolation among
the Palestinian forces of the U.S. and Israeli-favored Prime Minister
Abbas. Washington and Tel Aviv demand that the Palestinian authority
help them to smash the national movement NOW in the name of fighting
terrorism, as a precondition to obtaining something that would be
called a "viable" Palestinian state.

The resistance to this course comes not just from Hamas and Islamic
Jihad but from Fatah and almost all other Palestinian groups.  Despite
his very conciliatory policy, Arafat resisted and avoided carrying out
this all-out assault, which was viewed by Washington and Tel Aviv as a
major objective of the Oslo pact. Such an assault cannot be won by
Palestinian forces alone, and would leave a "viable" Palestine a
completely helpless dependency of Israel.

Arafat's course since the mid-1980s has been based on offering Israel
massive concessions and policing the movement in hopes of obtaining
some kind of state, while trying to maintain a degree of Palestinian
unity necessary to deal in order to have some power behind him in
dealings with Israel. Arafat, who is a bourgeois collaborationist but
is nobody's fool and also nobody's puppet or Quisling, is aware  that
without a Palestinian movement, there is no chance of obtaining a
Palestinian state that would be worth much even to most of the
Palestinian bourgeoisie.

And so Arafat became a "burned out case" in the eyes of the U.S.
imperialists and Israel who are looking for a Palestinian figurehead
who will open the war against the Palestinian people that they demand
as the price of "peace" and a "state."  It remains to be seen whether
Abbas can or will fill that bill.

Of course, Hamas is correct to reject the unconditional statement that
Jews have suffered "throughout history." Their spokesman's response,
as cited by the Times, just about hit the nail on the head: "Mr. Abu
Shanab said that, while Jews had suffered in the Holocaust, Israelis
were responsible for their own suffering because they displaced
Palestinians, beginning with the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. 'They caused
all of this trouble,' he said. 'Why didn't he talk about the suffering
of his people?'" US imperialism and the Israeli rulers are responsible
for ALL the suffering in Palestine, including those killed in the
suicide bombings.

Both the United States and the Israeli rulers are committed today,
each for their own reasons,  to maintaining Israel as a
colonial-settler, martial, anti-Palestinian (i.e., Zionist) state in
the Middle East.  Both require the crushing of the Palestinian
movement to advance their overall regional strategies.
Fred Feldman


New York Times May 7
Hamas Breaks Off Talks on Stopping Attacks on Israel
By JAMES BENNET
GAZA CITY, June 6 ? Leaders of the militant Islamic group Hamas broke
off cease-fire talks today with Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas of the
Palestinian Authority, saying he had failed the Palestinian people in
a speech at a meeting with Israel by demanding an end to the armed
uprising and expressing compassion for Jewish suffering.

The rejection from Hamas came a day after Yasir Arafat, the
Palestinian leader, implicitly criticized Mr. Abbas as having failed
to win any concessions from Israel. It was the strongest sign yet that
his rivals sensed that the prime minister's limited popular support
was collapsing, and that, threatened by his goals, they wanted to give
him a shove.

"He does not deserve to be the prime minister of the Palestinian
people," said Ismail Abu Shanab, considered by other Palestinian
officials to be one of the more tractable political leaders of Hamas.
"Palestinians are sacrificing, Palestinians are suffering, and all
this was wrapped up and put in the trash. Everybody is angry at the
speech."

At the meeting, held just two days ago in the Jordanian port of Aqaba,
the Bush administration intended to strengthen Mr. Abbas. But some of
his allies said that the meeting had weakened him, and that it might
even politically destroy him.

Nothing has changed for the Palestinians since the meeting; Israeli
blockades are in place, two armed members of Hamas were killed in the
northern West Bank today, and tanks and armored vehicles operated in
the northern Gaza Strip.

Ministers in Mr. Abbas's government said that Hamas leaders were
pouncing on his perceived stumble, but that they would ultimately
agree to talk again with him about a cease-fire with Israel. Mr. Abu
Shanab and two other top political leaders of Hamas, interviewed
separately in their homes here, rejected any further discussions
unless the prime minister backed away from his speech at the meeting,
which was drafted by the Bush administration and amended in
negotiation with Mr. Abbas's aides.

"He used the Israeli sentences," said Dr. Mahmoud Zahar, also of
Hamas. "Mahmoud Abbas is weak. He has to correct, or leave."

All three Hamas men, who met twice with Mr. Abbas before the meeting
to negotiate a cease-fire with Israel, said they thought Mr. Arafat
was also unhappy with the prime minister. "Even Arafat said that
Sharon gave us nothing," Mr. Abu Shanab said, referring to the Israeli
prime minister, Ariel Sharon.

Mr. Abbas, whose background is as a negotiator, not a politician,
approached the meeting with the goal of reviving an all but dead
relationship with the White House, Palestinian officials said. His
speech enhanced his international credibility, but at a seemingly high
price, so far, in domestic support.

>From Israeli jails, Palestinian prisoners from several factions issued
a statement on Thursday night attacking the meeting and announcing a
boycott of any talks with Mr. Abbas's government. Israel says it
cannot relax its military measures until Mr. Abbas begins acting
against terrorism. Today, Israeli security officials said an unarmed
but wanted Palestinian militant was discovered during a checkpoint
search of a Palestinian ambulance.

The Hamas men all criticized a statement by Mr. Abbas that "we do not
ignore the suffering of the Jews throughout history."

Mr. Abu Shanab said that, while Jews had suffered in the Holocaust,
Israelis were responsible for their own suffering because they
displaced Palestinians, beginning with the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
"They caused all of this trouble," he said. "Why didn't he talk about
the suffering of his people?"

Mr. Abbas spoke of Palestinian suffering after the Israeli occupation
of the West Bank and Gaza Strip began in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
But even his allies said he slighted the predicament of refugees of
the 1948 war, though he is one himself.

Some of Mr. Abbas's allies were urging him to soften his condemnation
of all Palestinian violence and restate his commitment to a
Palestinian capital in Jerusalem. Mr. Abbas renounced violence
"against the Israelis wherever they may be," but Palestinians
overwhelmingly regard violence against Israeli soldiers and settlers
as legitimate resistance to occupation.

"Let me find the right words," said Dr. Ziad Abu Amr, the minister of
culture, pausing when asked about Mr. Abbas's speech. "The speech was
not balanced enough, and that created a lot of disturbance and concern
among Palestinians."

Dr. Abu Amr has been Mr. Abbas's chief negotiator with Hamas. He said
he was close to an agreement before Wednesday's meeting. "As usual,
the American pressure was counterproductive," he said. "They got the
man to say what they wanted him to say, but they didn't consider the
implications on the ground."


Dr. Abu Amr spoke in front of the legislative building here, plastered
with hundreds of posters of Mr. Arafat left from a rally yesterday.
"Yasir Arafat is the Past, Present, and Future," read one banner.

The Bush administration has refused for a year to deal with Mr.
Arafat, and it has welcomed Mr. Abbas as his replacement. Some
Palestinian officials say Mr. Arafat, who remains far more popular
than the prime minister he reluctantly appointed, has been left with
little incentive to support Mr. Abbas or the peace process.

Mr. Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen, was delighted with his
reception from President Bush, and some Israeli commentators also
hailed his speech. But Palestinians were distressed by it, as well as
by the more cautious, lawyerly remarks of Mr. Sharon.

Mr. Arafat and Palestinians generally dismissed Mr. Sharon's one
immediate concession, to begin dismantling some "unauthorized
outposts," the dozens of encampments of trailers set up by West Bank
settlers in recent years. They were also not impressed by his stated
support for an eventual, limited, Palestinian state.

All the Hamas leaders and Palestinian officials said they did not
think their dispute with Mr. Abbas's government would lead to armed
conflict. But fundamental differences in goals that were muted during
the conflict are resurfacing as Mr. Abbas seeks to end it. Mr. Abbas
wants to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with
its capital in Jerusalem, while Hamas wants to put an end to Israel.

Israeli security officers and Palestinian officials say Hamas has been
feeling some pressure since the war in Iraq ended and the United
States began pushing Hamas sponsors in Iran and Syria to cut off
support for it. Further, Mr. Abbas's security minister, Muhammad
Dahlan, who was behind a crackdown on Hamas in 1996, has been
reconstituting Palestinian security forces in Gaza with help from the
C.I.A.

But today, Hamas leaders who had seemed tense and defensive during
recent visits were almost ebullient. Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantisi sat on a
sofa with three cellphones and another telephone by his side, fielding
interviews on them as he watched Arabic satellite news. Told that Mr.
Abbas intended to return to Gaza on Saturday or Sunday in hopes of
talking to Hamas, Dr. Rantisi shrugged and said, "Never mind."

"No one can accept the words of Abu Mazen," he said.

Dr. Zahar of Hamas dismissed the notion that Mr. Dahlan presented a
threat. "Dahlan is a very weak man," he said. He said that Hamas had
given him an image of strength by not resisting the crackdown in 1996.
This time, he said, Hamas would not permit its weapons to be
confiscated.

Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian foreign minister, said in a telephone
interview that Mr. Abbas had been more forthcoming toward Israel in
his speech than Mr. Sharon had been toward the Palestinians. "As a
result, there is, somewhat, public criticism of the speech, and Hamas
caught that and thought it could strengthen its hand," he said.

He said he hoped Hamas would return to cease-fire talks, but he
acknowledged that the new peace process "will endanger Hamas as we
know it now."

"No self-respecting state would accept a situation in which there are
militias and illegal arms," he said. "This situation cannot last.
Hamas has to make up its mind. If it wants to survive as an ideology,
it will have to move into the political arena."