Syrian TV host: "When they talk about [the US] imposing a solution, we know that it will be deficient."
Member of Fatah Central Committee Abbas Zaki: "You can relax. We find ourselves united for the first time. Even the most extreme among us, Hamas, or the fighting forces, want a state within the '67 borders. Afterward, we [will] have something to say, because the inspiring idea cannot be achieved all at once. [Rather] in stages."
[Official Syrian Satellite TV Channel, Dec. 23, 2013]
The "phased plan" to destroy Israel was spelled out by the PLO in 1974, and has never been rescinded.
And there is evidence that Mahmoud Abbas subscribes to it as well.
The 1974 plan states, in part:
The Palestine Liberation Organization will employ all means, and first and foremost armed struggle, to liberate Palestinian territory and to establish the independent combatant national authority for the people over every part of Palestinian territory that is liberated. This will require further changes being effected in the balance of power in favor of our people and their struggle.
...Any step taken towards liberation is a step towards the realization of the Liberation Organization’s strategy of establishing the democratic Palestinian State specified in the resolutions of the previous Palestinian National Councils.
...Once it is established, the Palestinian national authority will strive to achieve a union of the confrontation countries, with the aim of completing the liberation of all Palestinian territory, and as a step along the road to comprehensive Arab unity.
Yasir Arafat mentioned his support for the phased plan immediately before the Oslo accords, in a speech broadcast on Jordanian TV, where he said "[the agreement] will be a basis for an independent Palestinian state in accordance with the Palestinian National Council resolution issued in 1974... The PNC resolution issued in 1974 calls for the establishment of a national authority on any part of Palestinian soil from which Israel withdraws or which is liberated."
As PMW points out:
These statements coming from Abbas Zaki are significant because he is a senior Palestinian official and a very close associate of Mahmoud Abbas. He was sent to Syria as Mahmoud Abbas' personal representative a few months ago and has spoken at public events representing Fatah.
There have been similar statements made by other senior Palestinian Arab officials in recent months, as the PMW article notes.
What about Mahmoud Abbas himself? Does he subscribe to the phased plan? Is his ultimate goal to destroy Israel as well?
On his homepage, Abbas has a section of books and articles he has written. These include his infamous Holocaust denial book.
One of the books listed is called "Zionism: Beginning and End."
It is a twisted history of Zionism from Abbas' perspective, with chapter titles like " “What Jews Themselves Have Done Against Zionism” and “Zionism and Antisemitism – Two Sides of the Same Coin.”
Here is the last paragraph of the book:
Zionism began as an alien thing and it will end as an alien thing. It seemed to us (i.e. Palestinians) as a predestined matter, and its end has become a predestined matter. Both the Jews and us are its victims. We and the Jews will guarantee its destruction, so we will live after it as we have lived before it in a wide homeland full of resources which are enough for everyone and grants everyone wellness, love and equality.
While Abbas wrote this in 1977, there was a second printing in 2011 and it is featured on his own homepage, today.
Does it sound like Abbas supports a two state solution, or that he views it as a means to an end using the Phased Plan of his hero, Yasir Arafat?
The answer is obvious to everyone except those who choose to shut their eyes.
As far as I can tell, most of Abbas' writings listed there have never been translated into English. It is high time that this be done, and the world can read what this honored world leader really thinks.
(h/t Ibn Boutros)