15 Days to Go – Abbas Still Up a Tree

By Sherwin Pomerantz

1 day and two weeks to the opening of the 66th Regular Session of the UN General Assembly on September 13th and the vote to grant the Palestinians statehood. The Palestinian Arab leadership remains up the tree that they have climbed with no indication that they are even close to finding the ladder.

Let me share with you some telling events over the past day or so.

Larry Derfner, the Jerusalem Post op-ed writer (who was once a nice Jewish kid from Los Angeles) after penning that despicable piece on his website justifying killing of Israelis by Palestinians when they see no other alternative protest available to them has now posted an apology (see http://israelleft.com/2011/08/26/apology/). In his apology he says:

"I didn’t mean to say anything “good” about Palestinian terror against Israelis – I see nothing good in it whatsoever, and I thought I made that clear, but I see now that I didn’t. I wrote that because of the occupation, Palestinians are “justified” in attacking, even killing Israelis, that they have the “right” to do so. Later on I stressed that I didn’t want them to kill my countrymen, and that I would do anything necessary to stop it. "

"What I mean is this: The occupation does not justify Palestinian terror. It does, however, provoke it. Palestinians do not have the right to attack or kill Israelis. They, do, however, have the incentive to, and part, though not all, of that incentive is provided them by the occupation. I believe that if Israel gives the Palestinians their independence, we have enough military power to neutralize whatever leftover incentive they would have to attack us. So my purpose with regard to Palestinian terror against Israelis is not to legitimize it, God forbid, but to end it."

The original post is no longer on his blog but not sure that the apology is complete given the second paragraph, but you can judge for yourselves,

Early this morning Israel once again saw the ugly face of terror as a 20-year old Palestinian Arab from Nablus/Shechem hijacked a taxi in Tel Aviv and tried to ram it into a nightclub full of teenagers having an end of summer bash. Fortunately, this time, no one was killed as the police were alerted and blocked the entrance to the club, although eight people were injured (one seriously), all of whom were security personnel. Of course, as in the terror attack on the Egyptian border last week, no condemnation of the event from the Palestinian Arab leadership was forthcoming

In this morning’s papers PA Chairman Abbas is quoted as saying that he is prepared to withdraw the application to UN for Palestinian statehood if Israel is prepared to come to the negotiating table as long as two conditions are met. First, that we agree to the 1967 borders as the basis for an eventual peace agreement (no mention being made of land swaps of course) and second, that Israel ceases all construction in Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem. The building issue, you will recall, was a gift presented to Abbas by President Obama as previously negotiations were always possible even though building was going on in the settlements. But when President Obama made the cessation of building a condition, Abbas, of course, could demand no less and he has remained with that demand.

Yet the ladder that he is seeking to climb down from the precarious perch in which he has placed himself now seems to have just two rungs, neither of which Israel is likely to reinforce. Nevertheless, perhaps Abbas himself realizes that at the end of the day, both Israel and the Palestinians need the support of the US as we both move forward, while forcing the hand of the US to veto a Palestinian state in the Security Council will not inure to the long term benefit of the Palestinian Arab population. Concurrently, Israel is restraining itself in the response to the increasing terrorism and rocket attacks in a parallel attempt not to rile the US administration. As I write this the Israeli and Egyptian security forces are massed on their shared border given that intelligence reports indicate an imminent Islamic Jihad terrorist attack in the south. Welcome to the bad old days in Israel.

Last night I heard someone describe the Palestinian leadership’s march to the UN as similar to Thelma & Louise’s rush to the end of the cliff in their 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible. Hopefully Abbas and his people will not follow their example but will find the brake pedal in time!