The Excuse Machine

Saeb Erekat writes an editorial in the New York Times not only finding every reason to blame Israel for all the problems facing Palestinians, but spinning a new reason to find the PLO useful going forward.

Many people believe that Mr. Abbas did not deliver. Today, there are fewer jobs, not more; security for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Gaza Strip is worse, not better; and negotiations, like the two-state solution, are stalled.

Mr. Abbas, however, is not ultimately to blame. When he called on Israel to lift restrictions on Palestinian movement and trade within and between Palestinian areas, Israel refused — despite similar calls from the World Bank, the United Nations, the European Union and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The restrictions translated not just into more poverty but also into less security, for Mr. Abbas could not even move police forces within Palestinian territory.

President Abbas did deliver, and largely maintained, a "tahdia" — a "period of calm" between the Palestinian factions and Israel. And he was able to do this despite scores of Palestinian deaths and several thousand military raids and arrests that Israel conducted in violation of its agreement not to undertake such activities. Israel also tightened its control over key territory, resources and markets — primarily occupied East Jerusalem — that we will need to build an economically viable state.

So, President Abbas, the leader of the Fatah party, made a set of campaign promises; the opposite came to fruition; therefore, Palestinians elected the only alternative: Hamas.

There was not a period of calm between the Palestinians and Israel. Only someone who completely whitewashes history would come to that conclusion. The only reason that there was a large period of calm was that Israel intercepted and stopped literally hundreds of terrorist attacks. Regular mortar and rocket attacks went unreported in US media outlets because they didn't end up killing or injuring Israelis.

And then there's Israel's security fence and the disengagement from Gaza. Both of those steps cut down on the ability of Palestinian terrorist groups, including the PLO's own al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade to launch terrorist attacks from Gaza into Israel.

It remains to be seen whether Palestinians want peace when most recent polling suggests that the Palestinians would support violent riots and demonstrations against even the slightest affront against Islam. Considering that Israel's very existence is such an affront, one can only conclude that Erekat cannot tell the world the Palestinians' true intentions.

UPDATE:
On cue, al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade takes credit for two shooting incidents in the West Bank. One Israeli was killed, another seriously injured when assailants shot the Israeli victims at point blank range.

In two shooting attacks that occured within two hours, one Israeli was killed and one seriously wounded.

Earlier Wednesday Eldad Abir, 48, was shot and killed in a terrorist attack at a gas station just outside the West Bank settlement of Migdalim, southeast of Nablus. A second man was seriously wounded shortly following, in a shooting near Nebe Elias, east of Kalkilya.

The modus operandi in both shootings was similar - the attackers shot the victims at point-blank range with a handgun.

Additional IDF forces were deployed throughout Samaria, where both attacks took place, and roadside checkpoints were set up throughout the sector in the hopes of findig the terrorists and increasing security on the roads.