Muslim Leader in Israel: Mahmoud Abbas Lashes Out at USA

Anti-American Rant Gives Trump Cause to Cut Funding of Muslims in Israel [aka Palestinians]

1-17-18, Caroline Glick, Breitbart [Excerpt*] -- U.S. leaders from George W. Bush to Barack Obama and from Condoleezza Rice to John Kerry, all insisted that the Israel so called ‘Palestinian’ [Muslim] leader Mahmoud Abbas is the one who will make an historic deal with Israel. Abbas is approaching his 83rd birthday and is also approaching the 14th year of his four-year term of office. Abbas has repeatedly refused to stand for reelection since his four-year term ended in 2009.

 A short list of all the outrageous things Abbas has said and done that should have earned him no favor with the USA or Israel:

• Since taking office a year ago, Pres Trump met with Abbas three times.  On 1-14-18 Abbas cursed Trump saying that  "the U.S. President’s house should be destroyed.” He called Trump’s anticipated Middle East peace plan “a slap in the face, we will slap back.” He has declared “dead” the signed 1993 peace agreements he and his colleagues in the Palestine Lib. Org. (PLO) signed with Israel. And he pledged: “We will not accept American leadership of a political process involving negotiations.”
• He also attacked U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman in lurid, antisemitic language:  “U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman is a settler who is opposed to the term ‘occupation.’ He is an offensive human being, and I will not agree to meet him anywhere. They requested that I meet him and I refused, not in Jerusalem, not in Amman, not in Washington.”
• Abbas then threatened U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley: “She [Haley] threatens to hit people who hurt Israel with the heel of her shoe, and we’ll respond the same way.”
• About Israel and the Jews he said: “Israel, is a colonial project that has nothing to do with Jews. Europeans wanted to bring the Jews here to preserve their interests in the region. They asked Holland, which had the world’s largest fleet, to move the Jews.”
• In his Ph.D. thesis he wrote for a Soviet university controlled by the KGB in the 1960s ... he denied the Holocaust.
• Speaking to European lawmakers, Abbas said, “Certain rabbis in Israel have said very clearly to their government that our water should be poisoned in order to have Palestinians killed.”

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Why is Abbas cursing Trump and his senior advisors? Why is he recycling anti-Jewish blood libels from the 12th century and announcing that the deals he signed with Israel and the peace process as a whole are dead?

The simple answer is that Abbas is acting as he is because he is certain that he can. This is how he has always acted. There is nothing new in his speech. And he doesn’t think that he will suffer any consequences for behavior. He expected President Trump to disregard his statements and continue to bankroll his terror-supporting regime in the name of “the peace process,” or “humanitarian assistance” just as Bush and Obama did.
 
Big mistake.

Tuesday, the Trump administration informed UN that it is withholding “for further consideration” $65 million of its $370 million annual contribution to UNRWA’s budget. So far this hold on a fraction of U.S. funding is the only substantive policy step the Trump administration has taken. Its other moves have been declaratory. They have signaled the beginnings of a new U.S. policy towards the Islamic regimes in Israel of Abbas, the PLO and the Palestinian Authority, but the new policy has not yet been articulated, let alone felt on the ground. The partial funding postponement to UNRWA is notable, but not significant enough to make clear that the U.S. is serious in its policy shift.
 
If no further practical, indisputable steps are taken to translate President Trump’s stated positions into a clear move away from the past 25 years of unconditional American support for the Palestinians, Abbas will be empowered to continue to treat him and his administration with the same contempt he exhibited towards Obama and Bush.

Pray that Trump is different.
 
*Excerpted and adapted; full original report here: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/01/17/caroline-glick-abbas-antisemitism-trump-cut-funds/
 
*Caroline Glick, an IDF veteran and graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, is a world-renowned journalist and commentator on the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy. Read more at www.CarolineGlick.com.

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