“We have made precious sacrifices until our right to establish our state is recognized … We placed ourselves under the sponsorship of the international community, and year after year we have been disappointed”, said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a speech that was billed to journalists as a press conference called on one-and-a-half hours’ notice, Thursday night.
There were rumors all day — and in fact, all week, and even for months — that Abbas (Abu Mazen) would not run again as President, if and when the next Palestinian elections are held.
In his speech Thursday night, in the Muqata’a, the Palestinian presidential headquarters in Ramallah, Abbas told certain political figures and journalists present in the hall, and a worldwide television audience, that he does not intend to be a candidate in those elections.
He said that he has now so informed the (PLO) Executive Committee, and the (Fatah) Central Council — and, that while he appreciates their position (they want him to run), he hopes they will appreciate his position as well.
“This is not a tactic or a maneuver”, Abbas said. “There are other steps I will take in time”, he added, without further explanation.
UPDATE: Angry Arab (As’ad AbuKhalil) picked up on his blog today this interesting comment from an article by Tony Karon in Time magazine: ” ‘This is political theater’, says Amman-based Palestinian analyst Mouin Rabani. ‘The Palestinian Central Election Committee is expected to conclude that the election Abbas called for in January can’t be held, because Hamas won’t allow them to go ahead in Gaza, and Israel won’t allow them to go ahead in East Jerusalem … So what he did today was announce that he won’t be a candidate in an election he knows is not going to happen” … This article can be read in full here.
On 24 October, in what was regarded as (and later admitted to be) a kind of manoeuver (or pressure, on Hamas, for concessions in reconciliation talks), Abbas — who heads the premier and largest Palestinian movement, Fatah — launched launched the necessary three-month election preparation process, and declared that Palestinian presidential and legislative council elections would take place on 24 January 2010.
In his speech tonight, Abbas said he has been “surprised by the biased position that the U.S. showed to Israel” …
He then added that the present situation “pushes me to address the Israeli government and people, and to say … that peace is more important than any governmental coalition”.
Abbas listed a series of points that he said were basic to any solution, including that: UN resolutions should be implemented; the Palestinian state should be established inside the borders that existed prior to 4 June 1967; East Jerusalem would be its capital; there should be a just solution to the Palestinian refugee question; there is no legitimacy for keeping Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory; security arrangements should be reached concerning the borders between the two states; Palestinians should have access to water resources according to international law, and the right to control national resources that are either on, above, and under its soil; all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails should be released.
Palestinian-American businessman Sam Bahour, who lives in the West Bank town of Ramallah-Al Bireh, has just written here that “If Palestinians are beginning to sound like a broken record in calling for their inalienable rights to be respected, then so be it. I prefer that the Palestinians remain transfixed on resolving their plight using international law rather than falling for Israel’s trap of either living in the law of the jungle or as inferiors in a flawed and illegal political settlement which will only prolong the conflict”.
“I greet the families of our martyrs, and our prisoners”, Abbas said in his speech on Thursday. “The time has come for these peoples to be free, and to end the occupation… it is time to declare our independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders”.
Then, as he finished reading his prepared text (with punctual glances at the assembled audience), Abbas stood up and said: “Yella” (“Let’s go”). and walked out of the room.
He was wearing a nice quality silk (presidential) tie, in a subdued red pattern with blue.
And, several Presidential advisers — Nabil Abu Rudaineh, Nabil Shaath, Mohammed Shtayyah — all suggested to journalists, after Abbas’ speech, that there might just be a remote possibility that he could still change his mind, if something happened …
“Today he revealed the depth of his discouragement, frustration and anger, after five years of doing his best — and after the retreat of the President of the U.S. from his previous positions”, Nabil Shaath told journalists. “Today he is telling us he will not nominate himself — he already told the PLO Executive Committee and the Fatah Central Committee, who unanimously objected”, Shaath said. He added: “The man has not resigned. He is only saying he will not run again”.
Mohammed Shtayyah indicated, in an interview with Al-Jazeera television, after the Abbas speech in the Muqata’a, that one of the main factors in the decision had been that “America, the biggest supporter of the peace process, pulled back its position”. Another factor was the massive wave of criticism following the Palestinian leadership’s initial agreement, at the beginning of October, to postpone consideration in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva of the Goldstone report on the Gaza war until next March. Nevertheless, Shtayyah said, “he is the only candidate for us”. Abbas has “sent the ball back to the international community”, Shtayyah added, “and they must do something if they want Abu Mazen. For, if he’s not running for election, peace will lose”.
After an initially promising start, the Obama administration seems unable to understand how it should stand on principle in the Middle East. It also does not seem to get that it pushed the Palestinian leadership too far, while at the same time it more or less swallowed the Israeli position whole, in one gulp, and then tried to sell to the Palestinians yet another Israeli proposal that would limit, but not stop, settlement construction.
The Washington Post reported here that “Abbas got into political trouble at home when he succumbed to U.S. pressure to delay UN consideration of a report [the Goldstone report] accusing Israel of war crimes in Gaza; he later reversed himself. When Clinton met him Saturday and pressed him to accept the limited Israeli settlement plan as a basis for talks, he refused. Hours later, Clinton met with Netanyahu in Jerusalem and pronounced the Israeli offer ‘unprecedented’ — sparking Arab outrage, which she spent the next several days trying to dampen”.
Time magazine commented that “Netanyahu was offering a partial freeze, not including new settlements in East Jerusalem, the desired capital of a future Palestinian state. This was a nonstarter for the Palestinians, but it had the holographic glow of a step forward. It was an ‘unprecedented’ offer, Netanyahu trumpeted … It was a tough moment for Clinton, playing second fiddle at the Bibi-does-Gandhi show. President Barack Obama had softened his language on the settlements a few weeks earlier: instead of a total freeze, he had talked about Israeli ‘restraint’ in settlement-building. And now Clinton seemed to cement the Administration’s retreat, agreeing that Netanyahu’s proposal was, indeed, ‘unprecedented’, even though the U.S. still favored a total freeze. The most important thing, she added, was for the parties to get to the table as quickly as possible. The onus was back on the Palestinians — and the Palestinians quickly expressed outrage … clearly, Clinton had been too bullish on Netanyahu’s proposal (which had been negotiated over months with Middle East envoy George Mitchell and was seen, privately, by the Americans as real progress) … [and] her performance in Jerusalem indicates that she needs a few lessons in Middle East Haggling 101 … At home, she has often seemed tentative and deferential. In a conversation with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates aired by CNN in early October, Clinton’s cautious formality took a backseat to Gates’ brisk, humorous confidence on policy issues. Abroad, she seems far more confident, at times to the point of recklessness, as in Jerusalem”. This commentary can be read in full here.
The Associated Press reported that “After Abbas’ speech Thursday, [U.S. Secretary of State Hilary] Clinton praised his leadership in working toward the creation of a Palestinian state next to Israel. She ignored a question about whether she would try to persuade Abbas to stay on and said: ‘I look forward to working with President Abbas in any new capacity to help achieve this goal’.” here.
Reuters later reported, here, that Abbas “offered” to quit over stalled peace process, and added that “his phrasing did appear to leave some room for a change of heart”. The Reuters report also said that Abbas appeared “visibly tense” — and in the room it was obvious that there was a lot of adrenalin flowing in his veins — but on camera, this did not really come across. And, though he spoke briskly, Abbas did not use fighting words.
Right after the speech, there were very small numbers of Fatah demonstrators assembled in Ramallah’s central Manara Square (circle) after the Abbas speech, and urging him to withdraw his decision not to run…