Abbas: Israeli Political Instability Is Responsible For Utter Refusal Of Palestinians To Ever Accept Jewish State. Or Something.
Kind of bold from a guy who's got about a month and a half left in power:
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that the only reason Israel and the Palestinians haven't reached a peace agreement is because of Jerusalem's internal problems. In an interview with the London-based daily Asharq Alawsat, Abbas said that he was ready to negotiate with any prime minister elected by Israel in 2009. The Palestinian leader expressed his disappointment with Hamas for preventing Gazan pilgrims from making Hajj to Mecca. He went on to compare the terrorist organization's takeover of the Strip to a Shi'ite sect that attacked Mecca in the 10th century.
Cute. "Hamas = Iran = Shiite" has one of Fatah's preferred slams for a while now. Which is what you'd expect since it's mostly true. Plus Abbas has now taken to openly mocking the moronic activist tools who are pretending that their "Free Gaza" nonsense is anything but pathetic moral exhibitionism. Good times all around.
But this nonsense - that Israeli political instability is undermining the peace process - is getting a bit tired. I flagged it back in October as "a new meme... that blames the collapse of the peace process on Livni's decision to call elections" and pointed out that the actual cause is Palestinian infighting. And then former peace process diplomats came out and said that - obviously - internal Palestinian politics are making negotiations impossible.
None of which stopped Rice from giving Abbas the bump-set that he needed for this idiotic diplomatic spike earlier this week.
So just for the record: Abbas is unable to make a peace deal and Hamas is unwilling to make peace. Maybe that's the result of decades of Israeli settlement activity that soured the Palestinian public on negotiations. That's not it, but whatever. Right now the Israeli election has nothing to do with the failure of the peace process. It just doesn't.
Come on. There has to be a limit to dumb and flat out false arguments. There has to be.
References and previously after the jump...
References:
* Abbas: Israeli issues preventing deal [JPost]
* Hamas Closer Than Ever To Political Takeover Of West Bank, Palestinian Authority [MR]
* Iran: Of Course Sunnis And Shiites Cooperate, Iran Will Never Abandon Hamas [MR]
* Abbas: "Free Gaza" a joke, PA pays 70,000 Gazans [Elder]
* Israel Politics Roundup - Kadima Polling Outside The Margin, Ahead Of Likud In Upcoming Election [MR]
* Abbas To Lead Fatah-Hamas Unity Govt Through 2010 (Plus: Zero Agreement On Any Peace Process Issue) [MR]
* Former Peace Process Diplomats To Obama: Renewed Peace Process Guaranteed To Fail [MR]
* Rice: Failure Of Peace Process Is Israel's Fault (Plus: The Two Dogmas Of Foreign Policy Faux Sophistication) [MR]
* Palestinian Cleric: We'll Wage Jihad Against Jewish "Apes And Pigs" Until "Their Annihilation"
Previously:
* Obama's Perfect Choice For UN Ambassador
* Indyk: Of Course Obama Is Going To Pressure Israel
* Moderate Western-Trained Palestinian PM: Not So Much With This Jews And Jerusalem Thing
