Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made a confused speech at the United Nations General Assembly in which he gave the appearance of ending the Oslo Accords. But a close reading of his words shows that this “ending” is only threatened, and Abbas’ complicated language hints that it will only happen if the Israelis persist in continuous violations of the agreement, which he is careful to leave undefined, thereby giving himself lots of room to dodge his promise.
This is ridiculous. Israeli outrages continue every day and their latest series of gross infringements on Al Haram Al Sharif only make more obvious their underlying hope to exterminate Palestinian society. The scale of Israeli action against Palestinians should have led to the ending of all relations months ago, but this is something that Abbas failed to do.
Unfortunately, Abbas has made these kinds of threats in the past, but he never carried out his threats. He is well aware that it sounds dramatic when he tells the UN that “the Palestinians are no longer bound by mutual agreements with Israel” and says that there is no reason for the Palestinians to remain faithful to the Oslo Accords as long as the Israelis were not.
But all this is mere bluster unless Abbas steps down and terminates the existence of the Palestinian National Authority. This threat would be a genuine challenge to Israel because it would force the Zionists to take full responsibility for their actions, rather than hiding behind their allies in the Palestinian institutions on the West Bank.
Abbas should only be congratulated when the Palestinian security forces stop cooperating with the Israelis and he actually leaves office.
Until then, he remains in power and the Israelis continue to build their colonies and walk on to Al Aqsa Mosque whenever they want. A Palestinian flag flying in New York outside the UN building will make no difference to the grim reality in the Occupied Territories.
