Mahmoud Abbas met with Moroccan Jewish leaders in Ramallah on Monday and he put on his moderate face for his guests.
He said that Palestinians seek to reach an agreement with Israel and yearn live alongside it in peace. He said that he wants an international conference with all the countries of the world, including Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, to decide what would be the best way to reach peace. he said that he's willing to meet with any groups like this one that might help bring peace. He claimed that if only Israel would make peace, then 57 Arab nations would normalize relations with Israel.
He didn't say that the one set of people he is unwilling to meet with are Israeli officials who would actually be the peace partners for any realistic plan. He didn't say a word about the so-called "right of return" where he insists in every single speech given to his own constituents that there can be no peace deal without Israel being destroyed demographically. He didn't address his inciting Palestinians to stab Jews under the guise of "defending al Aqsa." He didn't say that he refuses to normalize relations with Israel today, and neither has any Arab nation that signed a peace treaty with Israel. No, he played to his audience to try to get them to pressure Israel to make concessions for a "peace "that would end up ripping Jerusalem away and from there go to the next stage of destroying Israel.
But one thing he said stands out. It was not the first time that a top PLO official has said this, but it is important to point it out every time.
Abbas claimed that resolving the Palestinian issue with what they consider a fair solution would "ensure the end all forms of terrorism, remove the pretext of extremists who have taken the Palestinian issue as am excuse to spread terror and murder, like ISIS and al-Qaeda and others, so we must achieve peace and end the occupation."
Except that ISIS and Al Qaeda don't usually claim that their terror attacks have anything to do with Israel.
The old discredited theory of "linkage" is an important tool in Abbas' arsenal. He knows that Europe is afraid of Islamic terrorists and he is offering them, against all logic and facts, an idea to hold onto - the idea that the solution to terror is Israeli capitulation to Palestinian blackmail. The argument is absurd but very attractive, because people who feel helpless against an enemy who terrorizes them would naturally have a strong attraction to any simplistic solution that doesn't involve them doing anything.
Abbas is saying that ISIS has nothing against Brussels or Paris or Ankara - they are only attacking the Europeans because Israel refuses to dismantle some Jewish communities that Europe is against anyway!
This seductive argument trumps logic - there is no downside to pressuring Israel and if there is a chance that it will take the wind out of the sails of the jihadists, isn't that worth a try?
In fact, giving in to jihadist demands emboldens the jihadists to redouble their efforts. It helps recruit more of them. It feeds into the fantasy worldview that the world is at war, and the Muslim side is winning on its way to inevitable, Koranically prophesied victory.
Abbas may not be a jihadist, but he is using jihadist language in the PA's official media to justify terror against Jews, and he subscribes to the jihadist idea that concessions are signs of weakness. He knows how to play the game, but his plan is to convince the world to give to him for free what he refuses to negotiate for.
Israel wants peace and security. Abbas is pretending to offer "peace" without any promises, without any concessions, with every intent to use his free gains to begin the next stage of Israel's destruction.
His cynical use of linkage is a double-edged sword, if Western nations woke up.
Here is what the West should answer Abbas:
If ISIS is threatening and killing Westerners on behalf of 'Palestine,' then Palestinian leaders should clearly say that the jihadists are not helping them at all. They should denounce any terror attacks in their name and say that anyone who joins ISIS for that cause is deluded and counterproductive. he should say that in the war between the free world and Islamic terrorists, he and his people choose the free world. In other words, if the terrorists claim linkage, Abbas and the PLO can explicitly break that linkage by dissociating themselves from all terror attacks done in their name.
That would have the exact same effect as Israeli concessions. In fact, it would be more effective because Palestinians would be demanding not to be used as an excuse for terror even before they achieve their political goals.
Abbas would never do that. If France or Belgium demands that Abbas break the linkage that he insists is there, they will find out which side Abbas is really on.
Because Abbas wants his cause to be linked to ISIS. He wants jihadists to continue to attack Western targets. It allows him to use "linkage" to his advantage.
So which side is Abbas really on - the side of peace or the side of the terrorists whose acts, he believes, help him blackmail the West to achieve his aims?
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