Peace, Peace When There is no Peace"... saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace." — Jeremiah 6:14 Last month, I noted an interesting statement by Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority on the sixth anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death. He will not recognize Israel as a legitimate Jewish state and that he planned "to continue in Arafat's footsteps." These are two promises Abbas appears to be intent on keeping. Last week, Khana Amira of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Abbas' Fatah terrorist group announced the Palestinian Authority will stop coordinating its security with Israel. Instead, it will push for unilateral abrogation of all peace accords and commitments to the so-called "road map" to peace as a result of failed negotiations. This is exactly what Arafat did when Israel essentially granted him 99 percent of all his demands. He knew he could not actually live up to his commitments for peace because they required him to recognize Israel as a legitimate Jewish state. That's what it always comes down to with the Palestinian Authority. It will not, it cannot, recognize Israel. It will not, it cannot, agree that Israel has a legitimate right to exist as a neighbor — no matter what concessions the Jewish state ultimately makes. Of course, Abbas and the Palestinian Authority have an ace up their sleeve. They know that walking away from the bargaining table means one thing is certain: Barack Obama will use his influence to push Israel for even more concessions and offer more financial aid to just keep talking. Abbas and the PA also plan to go to the United Nations Security Council for recognition of a Palestinian state on all territories captured by Israel in 1967. "We can't remain committed to the agreements that were signed with Israel forever," said Abed Rabbo of the PA. That is a revealing statement.
If you understand the history of these so-called "peace talks" and the Islamic tradition behind them, you already know the answer. They are just temporary tactical maneuvers. The man whose footsteps Abbas is following made it very clear years ago. It was in 1994, eight months after Israel and the Palestinians had signed the so-called "Declaration of Principles," that Arafat explained in a Johannesburg mosque that the agreement was nothing to worry about. It was identical, he said in Arabic, to the peace treaty signed in the year 629 between Muhammad and the Quraish tribe of Mecca — the famous Hudabiya treaty. In the annals of Islam, this is famous. It was a temporary, tactical measure made with the sole purpose of buying time with an implacable enemy so that Muslim forces could be strengthened for the ultimate showdown — when the enemy's guard is down. Arafat said it again in 1998 to a youth group of Fatah: "The Peace of Oslo is the Peace of Hudabiya." This kind of code — transparent to anyone who understands Islamic history — went right over the heads of U.S. State Department diplomats and Bill Clinton. Instead of recognizing they were being scammed by Arafat, they merely kept pushing for returns to the "peace process." More than a decade later, here we are doing the same thing over again and expecting different results. The results will be no different. This is history repeating itself. Indeed, Abbas truly is following in the footsteps of the master deceiver that was Arafat. And there's not a chance in Hades that Barack Obama is going to change course. To find out more about Joseph Farah and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2010 CREATORS.COM
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