A Method Behind Palestinian Madness

But this also takes places in the context of Abbas’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly this past week in which he declared that the Palestinians would no longer consider themselves bound by the Oslo Accords. This was widely seen — even by supporters of the Palestinian cause — as an empty bluff since Abbas benefits as much, if not more, from Oslo-mandated cooperation as do the Israelis. Though the speech fell flat, it must be seen as part of an effort to exploit the Obama administration’s open hostility to Israel.

But there is more here than another attempt to persuade the U.S. not to veto a UN resolution granting the PA a state without first forcing it to make peace with Israel. What Abbas really wants is to distract the world from its current focus on the mass slaughter of Arabs by fellow Muslims in Syria — a conflict that proves that pressuring Israel is not the key to Middle East peace — and orchestrate a new wave of condemnations of the Jewish state.

Put in that context, the recent spate of terror attacks and Abbas’s violent rhetoric and threats become easily understood. The Palestinians know that growing anti-Semitism in Europe and elsewhere will cause the international community to treat Israeli efforts to counter terrorism as the problem rather than the killers. Indeed, some in the press are, as journalist Tom Gross points out, already following their lead with headlines about last night’s attacks that mentioned the deaths of Palestinians while burying the fact that they were killed during the course of committing terrorism.

The deafening silence about threats to destroy Israel and attacks on Jews in the streets of Jerusalem does more than to encourage more such incidents. It reinforces the Palestinian belief that they can get more international support by escalating the conflict and refusing Israeli offers of statehood than by making peace.

These tactics make it clear that the Palestinian goal isn’t a two-state solution on even more generous terms than Israeli has already offered them. Since its beginnings, Palestinian nationalism has always been inextricably tied to the effort to deny Jews sovereignty over any part of the country. The canards about the Temple Mount that Abbas continued to promote this week in his UN speech have only one purpose: to focus Palestinians on pushing Jews out and to mobilize international opinion against any Israeli measures of self-defense to ensure that Jews can live without fear.

This slow buildup to a third intifada is about anti-Jewish hate not complaints over settlements or borders. It also shows that any further Obama administration pressure on Israel to further empower Abbas — whose own Fatah Party was behind the shooting of the Henkins — would also be madness. Just as Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 enabled Hamas to create a terror base there, so, too, would any retreats from the West Bank make possible the establishment of more safe havens for terrorists. Though neither side wants the status quo, such an alternative is unthinkable.

The Obama administration continues to push for more “daylight” between its stance and that of Israel and snubs Netanyahu while refusing to condemn Abbas or to respond to the killings of Jews with anything more than mealy-mouthed statements urging both sides to show restraint. But that’s exactly what Abbas is counting on as he subtly orchestrates a wave of bloody terrorism. Abbas also knows that international indifference to the murder of Jews fueled by anti-Semitism continues to work in his favor to create more pressure on Israel rather than on the Palestinians. The only way to halt the bloodshed is an unambiguous American stance in favor of Israel’s right to take tough action to suppress terrorism and a clear statement to Abbas to either accept Netanyahu’s offer of talks without preconditions or to forget about further U.S. backing.

Unfortunately, Abbas knows that Obama is more interested in his feud with Netanyahu and appeasement of Iran than in standing with democratic Israel against terrorist murderers. That means the blame for the rising toll of bloodshed from Palestinian terrorism in the coming week will belong as much to an indifferent Obama as it does to Abbas.