Haaretz
Tevet 22, 5765
No one doubts the
courage of Mahmoud Abbas.
In the blood-soaked course of the
Intifada, the professorially unglamorous Abbas, 69, gained sudden world
stature as a lone voice for moderation in Israeli-Palestinian relations,
and as the most likely partner for peacemaking in a post-Arafat
epoch.
Now, however, an abrupt re-invention has vaulted Abbas onto
the shoulders of gunmen and into the smiling public embrace of Marwan
Barghouti's wife, in a campaign swing that has him lauding the legacy of
Yasser Arafat, and vowing to protect the very men who head Israel's hit
lists of most-wanted terrorists.
The new Abbas caught the world by
surprise. Israel, for its part, is anything but pleased. Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon's administration had hoped that Abbas could provide a bridge
for a coordinated withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and scattered settlements
in the northern West Bank.
For weeks, however, Israeli officials,
gritting their teeth against saying too much, have wondered if Abbas is
likely to be a partner to peacemaking or to the armed and dangerous. No
matter what, they have said, once elected he will have little time to
decide between them.
First to call for halt to terror
attacks
Hours after Palestinians first used firearms on Israelis at
the outset of the Intifada, Abbas was the only senior Palestinian official
to argue against it, appealing in vain to Yasser Arafat to denounce an
armed uprising.
Later, with the Intifada at its lethal height and
Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades competing for
the title of most civilians killed within Israeli cities, Abbas was the
first Palestinian leader to openly call for a halt to suicide bombings,
ambush slayings and assault rifle drive- by shootings.
Just weeks
ago, in perhaps the most telling incident, Abbas, heir apparent to Yasser
Arafat, was attending a mass gathering to mourn the death days before of
the Palestinian Authority chairman when dozens of Fatah gunmen burst into
the crowded Gaza City tent, denouncing the Abbas as an "agent for the
Americans."
The Fatah men then opened fire, killing an Abbas
bodyguard and a Palestinian security officer.
Abbas, unfazed,
dismissed the shooting as "random" and not in his
direction.
President George Bush, British Prime Minister Tony
Blair, and even Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - blamed by many for having
done far too little to shore up Abbas in an abortive 2003 term as the
first Palestinian prime minister - have all pointed to Abbas as the man
who could restore the withering dream of an independent Palestinian state
alongside Israel.
With Arafat's death and the mainsteam Fatah
movement's anointment of Abbas who, having talked the talk of moderation,
could now walk the obstacle-fraught walk that could lead from
disengagement to restoration of a peace process.
Enter Abbas the
candidate.
Written off by Palestinian political analysts as
devastatingly unpopular and out of step with the Palestinian street, Abbas
took to the campaign trail with a vengeance, taking Israeli officials
aback with a stream of tough talk anchored with adoring references to the
legacy of Yasser Arafat, and unstintingly laudatory praise of
militants.
On Friday, Abbas lit a large torch in the main square of
Gaza City to mark Fatah's 40th anniversary, dated from, the January 1,
1965 date of the group's first attack on an Israeli target, the bombing of
a water tower.
"The one who fired the first shot, the one who lit
the first spark and the first torch 40 years ago, the martyr Yasser Arafat
is alive and we will continue his path," said Abbas, over shots in the air
and cheers.
Himself a refugee from the northern city of Safed,
Abbas has always been known as having negotiating positions at least as
tough as those put forth - or fallen back on - as Arafat
himself.
However, it was the new style as much as the new substance
that had Israeli officials believing that instead of a new partner, they
might be confronting Yasser Redux.
Kicking off his campaign in a
Ramallah speech last month, Abbas declared that peace will not come until
Israel takes down all settlements, returns to the pre-1967 war borders,
accepts a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem, accepts the
return of Palestinian refugees and releases all Palestinian prisoners
including Marwan Barghouti.
Exchanging smiling embraces on a dais
with the wife of Fatah firebrand Barghouti - serving five life terms in a
Be'er Sheva prison for ties to deadly terror attacks - Abbas was only
warming up.
In Jenin, which Abbas pointedly quoted Arafat as having
hailed as "Jeningrad," Abbas found himself on the shoulders of one of
Israel's most-wanted fugitives, local Al Aqsa Martyrs commander Zakaria
Zubeidi, and the recipient of a live-fire endorsement by dozens of
Zubeidi's men, firing into the air.
Press photos showed Abbas
waving in front of a giant poster of Arafat, the hands of the late leader
and his deputy in strikingly similar juxtaposition.
In Rafah at the
weekend, members of the Fatah-born Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militia bore
Abbas to a speech in which the PLO leader declared:
"We will not
forget those wanted by Israel. These are the heroes that are fighting for
freedom."
He picked up the theme at a mass Sunday rally in the
central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah. "We say to our fighting brothers that
are wanted by Israel, we will not rest until you can enjoy a life of
security, peace, and dignity, so you can live in your country with total
freedom," he said.
Abbas vowed not to rest until a independent
Palestinian state was established, settlements were dismantled and
Palestinian refugees were given their rights.
"The principles of
Yasser Arafat, and his sayings, are his will and it is our duty to
implement it," Abbas said.
Shalom slams Abbas
remarks
Israel's initial response to the Abbas campaign platform
came last week. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom was plainly
unamused.
"At a time when there is perhaps a great atmosphere of
hope here in the region and in the world as a whole, harsh statements such
as these are not encouraging," Shalom told Israel Radio of the Abbas
campaign launch in Ramallah. "This speech does not bode
well."
According to Shalom, Israel could not write off Abbas's
remarks as mere campaign rhetoric. "You cannot speak of 'continuing the
struggle in all forms,' or to sell the illusion of the refugees, nor to
speak of Jerusalem in that manner," Shalom said.
Shalom cited a
speech that Arafat gave at the 1993 signing ceremony for the Oslo accords
in Washington. "He gave a very extreme, very forceful speech, whereupon
then-government spokesmen tried to say that this was Arafat's opening
position.
"That opening position remained throughout, and perhaps
became more extreme."
According to Shalom, past statements by Abbas
had been more pragmatic and conciliatory. "Since he entered his post [as
PLO chairman] he has spoken of preserving the legacy of Arafat, which for
us is a legacy of terrorism."
An aide to Abbas, Ahmed Subah, has
been widely quoted recently as saying that the real agenda of the PLO
chief was "ending the Israeli occupation through peaceful negotiations,
attaining security for Palestinian citizens and achieving reform and
development."
In any event, Shalom said, the crucial test of
Abbas's intentions would not be long in coming.
"These things
cannot be ignored," he said of Abbas's campaign rhetoric. "They are very,
very unpleasant. We will do everything that we can at this stage so that
they can hold proper elections.
"However, we expect that the next
day they will enter into real action against both incitement and
terrorism. Otherwise, it will be more or less as it was under Arafat."