Abbas 2012: "I don't want to return to Safed." Abbas 2014: "I want to return to Safed"

Mahmoud Abbas has yet again proven that he is a liar extraordinaire, second only to his predecessor.

November, 2012, on Israeli TV (in English):



“… it is my right to see Safed, but not to live there…Palestine for me is the 67 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. This is now and forever. This is now and forever. This is Palestine for me. I am a refugee, but I am living in Ramallah, I believe that West Bank and Gaza is Palestine, and the other parts is Israel.”

When there was withering criticism that Abbas was giving up the fictional "right of return," he "clarified" his remarks:

Clarifying his stance in the Al Hayat interview, Abbas said, “Talking about Safed is a personal position and does not mean giving up the right of return.” Indeed, he went on, “No-one can give up the right of return as all international texts and Arab and Islamic decisions refer to a just and agreed-upon solution to the refugee issue, according to UN Resolution 194, with the term ‘agreed upon’ meaning agreement with the Israeli side.”

“I do not change my position,” Abbas stressed. “What I say to the Palestinians is no different from what I say to the Israelis or the Americans or anyone.”

Now, in an interview last week for an Egyptian newspaper, Abbas is saying that even his "clarification" was a lie:

[Israel] will not allow the return of refugees. There are six million refugees who wish to return, and by the way, I am one of them.

So in 2012 Abbas claimed that he absolutely has no right to return to Safed to live there, and now he says he wants to leave what he called Palestine in the TV interview and return to his childhood home in Safed.

Which is the liar - the 2012 Abbas who said that he has no right to return to his family home, the 2012 Abbas who says that he says the exact same things in English and Arabic, or the 2014 Abbas who tells Arabs that he wants to leave Ramallah and live in Safed?

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The hypocrisy doesn't end there. In the new interview Abbas compares Israel to ISIS:

Israel aspires to a Jewish state, and ISIS aspires to an Islamic state, and here we are, suspended between Jewish extremism and Islamic extremism. [ISIS leader]Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi will have an excuse to establish an Islamic state after the Jewish state law is approved. This is another matter from which we and everyone else suffer..."

Let's look again at the Palestinian basic law, from their own website:

Article 1
Palestine is part of the larger Arab world, and the Palestinian people are part of the Arab nation. Arab unity is an objective that the Palestinian people shall work to achieve.

If you want to define Jews as a people, then Abbas' constitution defines "Palestine" as Arab the exact same way that Israel is considering defining itself as the state of the Jewish people. The draft "Jewish state" bill clearly talks about Jews as a people, not as a religion.

Article 4
Islam is the official religion in Palestine. Respect for the sanctity of all other divine religions shall be maintained.
The principles of IslamicShari’a shall be a principal source of legislation.

Israel does not have an official religion, and the draft law does not change that. But "Palestine" not only has an official religion, it states that Islamic sharia law should be the principal source for legislation, something that the Jewish State draft bill doesn't come close to saying (only saying Jewish law should be a "source of inspiration," along with " principles of freedom, justice, fairness and peace.")

Moreover, in a 2013 Pew survey, in answer to the question "Do you favor or oppose making sharia law, or Islamic law, the official law of the land in our country?" 89% of Palestinians were in favor and only 8% opposed.

Now, which side is closer to ISIS-style religious extremism?

(h/t Yenta P)