Towards Pending Abbas visit in DC – TIME TO ENFORCE US PLO POLICY GUIDELINES

With President Donald Trump set to greet Machmud Abbas,  head of the Palestinian Authority, at the White House on May 3^rd, the time has come to examine how the US allowed the PLO to  trample upon ten US government PLO policy guidelines, and to examine wat the current US administration could do to see to it that the PLO does not “trample on Trump”.

1. The US recognized the PLO during the final month of the Reagan administration December 1988, on the  condition that the PLO would recognize UN resolution 242, which required the PLO to  recognize the right of each  nation to secure boundaries  – especially Israel . The PLO immediately ignored these requirements for US recognition of the PLO. It is not too late for the US to ask the PLO, under the aegis of the Palestinian Authority, to recognize of UN resolution 242, which it has yet to do.
2. The US acted as  a witness and guarantor of the PLO/Israel Oslo accord, signed on the White House lawn  on September 13, 1993. That accord, known as the DOP, “The Declaration of Principles”,  spelled out mutual recognition of Israel and the PLO, and the formal denunciation of violence and terror. The DOP was premised on its ratification by the Israeli Knesset and by the central committee of the PLO. The Israeli Knesset ratified the DOP on Sept, 26, 1993, by a vote of 61 to 50, with nine abstentions. The PLO central committee was set to meet in Tunis to ratify the DOP on October 6, 1993. However, the one Israeli correspondent dispatched to Tunis to witness the PLO ratification, Pinhas Inbari, of the left wing newspaper Al HaMishmar,  reported from Tunis that the PLO chairman announced that he could not get a quorum of the PLO to attend, so that the PLO central committee did not convene to ratify the DOP. It is not too late for the US, as  witness and guarantor of the Oslo accord,  to ask the PLO , through the aegis of the PA, to ratify the DOP.  Otherwise, the agreement between Israel and the PLO does not hold any water.
3. US law allowed the PLO, all of whose components were designated by the US law as FTO’s, Foreign Terrorist Organization,  to open an embassy in DC and allow the PLO to dispatch representatives to the USA, only if PLO would cancel the PLO covenant, the document which defined the purpose of the PLO:  to replace and destroy the State of Israel. The PNC, the PLO national council, met in special session on April 24, 1996, with stated purpose the world that this session would renounce and cancel the PLO covenant. The PLO, at that session, filmed by the Institute for Peace Education Ltd, only announced the formation of a committee to consider changes in the PLO covenant. A video and protocol of the session was sent to the US embassy in Tel Aviv, and to the US Congress.  Prof.  Yehoshua Porat, expert on the PLO and a candidate of  the left wing Meretz party for the Knesset, reviewed the video and protocols of the PNC session, and affirmed that the PLO had not cancelled the PLO covenant.  The US embassy in Tel Aviv, however, ignored what had actually transpired at the PNC, and instead reported to the White House and to the US Congress that the PLO had fulfilled requirements of US law with the cancellation of the PLO covenant, allowing the US to roll a red carpet to welcome PLO chairman Yassir Arafat to arrive as a dignitary in Washington one week later. The PLO to open an official embassy , which has functioned ever since,  conditional on the US President signing a waiver every six months which extended the non- terror status of the PLO. It is not too late for the US to ask the head of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority to call the PNC into a special session to cancel the PLO covenant, as required by US law, before Abbas enters the White House on May 3^rd, 2017.  Otherwise, the entry of Abbas to the US represents a challenge to US law.
4. As an integral part of the US Aid package to the Palestinian Authority, the US funds PA schools which institute instituted a war education curriculum, despite US objections. That PA curriculum does not prepare Palestinian Arab children to live in state alongside Israel. That curriculum indoctrinates all Palestinian Arab children to conduct a Jihad to liberate Palestine, all of Palestine, without even  of training the next generation for peace with Israel. It is not too late for the US to demand an overhaul of PA education to prepare the next generation for peace.
5. US law forbids any agency that receives funds from the US from placing members of a designate FTO  – a foreign terrorist organization from being on the payroll of  a US government funded entity. Yet the US funded UNRWA schools openly employ members and even leaders of HAMAS on the payroll. UNRWA, which now receives $400 million of its 1.2 billion dollar budget from the US, has ignored US directives to remove Hamas from the UNRWA  payroll.  And when UNRWA has  removed Hamas leaders from the UNRWA payroll, they simple return as senior employees  of UNRWA. It is not too late for the US, as the leading donor of UNRWA, to insist that UNRWA fire  members and leaders of Hamas who receive salaries from UNWRA – especially Hamas teachers, who dominate the Gaza UNRWA teachers union.
6. The US is the rime sponsor of the Palestinian Authority election process. Surprisingly, the US has insisted  that  Hamas partake in PA elections, despite its  FTO status. With an election imminent in the  Palestinian Authority, it is not too late for the US to reverse its decision to force Hamas into the PA electoral process.
7. US helped to create the  PSF, the Palestinian Security Force of the Palestinian Authority. However, the US embassy and US State department have ignored all inquiries which have challenged the PSF inclusion of Palestinian terror organizations which have never demonstrated any peaceful intention. It is not too late for the US to ask the PSF to remove  Palestinian terror groups from its ranks.
8. The US enacted the  Koby Mandell act which requires the US to  pursue and prosecute those who maim or kill US citizens abroad. Until the inauguration of President Trump, the US would not enforce the act concerning American citizens who have been attacked  in Israel by terrorists. The new Trump administration has demonstrated that it is not too late for the US government to enforce the Koby Mandell act, and it has begun to file indictments of terrorists who have murdered US citizens in Israel.
9. US did establish an office in the US State Department to monitor anti Semitism in 2008. However, that office has  refused to examine PA anti-semitism. While there are rumors that Trump will not renew funding for the US office that tracks anti-semitism, it is not too late for the US to examine the tentacles of official Palestinian Authority ant-semitism which can be tracked world- wide.
10. US created a special commission to form a Palestinian Authority constitution. However, the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Pietro Sambi , the late Vatican official who examined the draft of the proposed PA constitution, and reported to the US  that the current PA constitution, which would form the basis of PA law in a Palestinian Arab state, does not allow for any  juridical status of  any religion other than Islam. Futhermore,  the Papal Nuncio  warned that the proposed US-funded PA constitution was  based on the strict Sharia law used in Saudi Arabia, and not on a more tolerant Sharia law that Archbishop Sambi had witnessed in  his earlier postings in Indonesia and Bangladesh. It is not too late for the US government to reconsider the nature of jurisprudence that would exist in any kind of future Palestinian Arab entity.

* The writer  directs  Israel Resource News Agency, which he founded in 1987, and also  heads the Center for Near East Policy Research. 

He is the Author of  “Genesis of the Palestinian Authority”, published in March 2017  and  “Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict: UNRWA Policies Reconsidered”, published in May, 2014.