Media: Abbas sends Tough Messages to Sharon

June 10, 2005

The official Palestinian Authority (PA) media stressed last night’s interview with Mahmoud Abbas that sent a series of tough but mixed messages to the Palestinian audience today regarding continuing violence against Israeli targets.

The underlying theme of Abbas’s remarks was that he, too, distrusted Israel’s intentions and that attacking Israel might be justified, but it was strategically wrong for individuals to carry out such attacks and make the Palestinians look bad.

“We cannot make mistakes. We have to make sure that only the other side makes mistakes until we have the power to appear before the world.”

[SEE ABBAS INTERVIEW below —see also PBC Television item below]

The Palestinian distrust of Israel was shown in a cartoon in Al-Quds were the withdrawal map from Gaza was sketched out in disappearing ink.

Abbas’s approach for continuing the lull was rejected by spokesmen of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations, although the Palestinian newspapers said the opposite. [see items below]

At the same time, an official mosque sermon, broadcast by the PA’s Voice of Palestine radio, attacked Israel and the US for a policy of desecrating Muslim prisoners’ copies of the Quran, Islam’s scripture.

PBC television intervew: Palestinian Leader Mahmoud Abbas

Israel is continuing its provocations in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem, and this must cease, declared Dr. Mahmoud Abbas, in a special interview with Palestinian Television (PBC) Thursday night (June 9).

He excoriated Israel for its fence-building program and for what he called the “Judaization of Jerusalem,” and he insisted that the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza was only the first step in “withdrawing from all Palestinian lands.”

Abbas insisted on Israel turning over airport, port and an overland safe passage route, saying, “we are afraid that Gaza will be turned into a big prison

“It is to be expected that Israel will attempt provocations here and there,” but, said Abbas, it was important for the Palestinian community to react as a unit and not through individual responses.

“We cannot make mistakes. We have to make sure that only the other side makes mistakes until we have the power to appear before the world.”

“They make ten mistakes, and we make one mistake, and everybody hears about our mistake.”

“Every individual takes the response into his own hands, and this is impossible and unacceptable,” continued Dr. Abbas, who said responding to Israel was a national communal right.

But his remarks were rejected by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

“Any attack on our people will be met with a response by the resistance force,” asserted Sami Abu-Ramzi, a senior Hamas official, shown on PBC television shortly after a televised meeting with Dr. Abbas. [Note: “Resistance” is the term usually applied to attacks on Israeli targets.-MW]

“We cannot stand by with Zionist attacks on the tahdiyya [lull],” asserted Khalid Batsch of Islamic Jihad, also after meeting Abbas.

Also on PBC television

A Fatah spokesman, Samir Al-Mushharawi, said that keeping the tahdiyya-the “cooling-off period” or “lull”-was a Palestinian national interest. “The tahdiyya is a national interest, and we have to observe it. The power of the Palestinian position is in observing this position….This means that individual responses to Israeli actions are wrong, and they must be decided by the national leadership.”

Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza is doomed to failure, unless it coordinates better with the Palestinians, asserted Muhammad Dahlan, PA Civilian Affairs Minister in remarks to civic leaders that were broadcast on television.

Like Abbas, he insisted that Israel, when it withdraws from Gaza, must turn over airport, sea port and an overland “safe passage” route to the Palestinians.

Voice of Palestine Radio

Abbas’s comments opened the Friday morning broadcasts of Voice of Palestine (V.O.P.) state radio.

In a V.O.P. interview, General Jibril Rajoub, Abbas’s National Security Advisor, said that the tahdiyya [lull in fighting] was a strategic decision by the Palestinians and part of the Palestinian struggle.

Rajoub said that one of Abbas’s objectives during his recent Washington trip was to turn American sympathy into increased pressure on Israel to stop settlements and to make total withdrawal. [Abbas in his interview said that if America pressed Israel, Israel would have no choice but to accede to the Palestinian perspective.]

From Palestinian newspapers:

Al-Quds (lead item)-FACTIONS ASSERT COMMITMENT TO TAHDIYYA (LULL) IN A MEETING IN GAZA WITH PRESIDENT (SECOND ITEM)Dahlan: Israel’s fence-building will create third Intifada TOP OF PAGE PICTURE: Israeli border police struggling with demonstrators at Salfit concerning fence building.

Al-Ayyam: ABBAS DECLARES WITH FACTIONS CONTINUATION OF LULL, ASSERTS ELECTION DATE AFTER CONSULTATION WITH FACTIONS TOP-OF-PAGE PICTURE: Palestinian youth standing in his underwear in front of Israeli army road block, with caption saying that settlers made the youth strip in front of Nevei Dekalim settlement in Gaza.

Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda: Similar lead headlines and stories, with sub-leads on Abbas calling the Tahdiyya (lull in fighting) a national interest of the Palestinians; also coverage of Dahlan comments that Israel setting the foundation for next Intifada.

Report compiled by Michael Widlanski Associates.
Commissioned by the Center for Near East Policy Research.
[Permission to quote or reprint from article conditional on citing Michael Widlanski or Michael Widlanski Associates.] Dr. Michael Widlanski is a specialist in Arab politics and communication whose doctorate dealt with the Palestinian broadcast media. He is a former reporter, correspondent and editor, respectively, at The New York Times,The Cox Newspapers-Atlanta Constitution, and The Jerusalem Post.