Abbas Wants Nothing To Do With Another Term As PA Chief

During the past week, there were reports that Mahmoud Abbas, head of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority President, did not want to run for reelection and would not seek another term. Media reports flailed about wondering what it would mean for President Obama's peace process plans and the Palestinian-Israeli relations.

All of these reports gloss over inescapable facts. Abbas was never in a position to make a peace deal with Israel because the Palestinians themselves are split between Hamas who is on the record as never accepting a two-state solution and which refuses to recognize Israel's existence and Fatah, which seeks to impose a one-state solution and is willing to destroy Israel through the thousands of papercuts of diplomatic maneuverings to force concessions from Israel without making any in return.

Moreover, this is little more than a plot to attempt to gain still more concessions from Israel - threatening the very peace process that Abbas has done nothing to advance - to gain an advantage against Israel. Abbas got President Obama to make Abbas "reconsider" his choice of not to run for office by saying that Obama would recommit to a peace process - and recent statements by the Obama Administration point to further pressure on Israel to force concessions. Other nations are pursuing a similar course of action as they are hoping to get Abbas to reconsider.

Palestinians have done nothing to advance the cause of peace with Israel; Israel has withdrawn from Gaza unilaterally, and Gazans turned the region into an armed camp from which to launch thousands of rockets and engage in war crimes in the process.

In sum, this is little more than yet another ploy by Palestinian leaders to gain concessions against Israel without having to give anything up in return. Israel would be wise to be wary to any such machinations. Moreover, who exactly is set to run for Palestinian Authority President? Is anyone going to be in a position to sign a two-state peace deal?

The answer to that question is no.

There are no Palestinian leaders who are going to sign such a deal because it would be a death warrant because of generations of Palestinians being taught and indoctrinated into accepting nothing less than Israel's destruction. They are unwilling to unlearn those lessons - to accept a two-state solution with Israel's existence alongside a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Palestinians don't just lament the lack of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, but in all of Israel. Maps produced by the PA and much of the Arab world pointedly omit Israel altogether.

Moreover, Fatah isn't exactly in a position to sign a deal when Fatah doesn't speak for all of the Palestinians and doesn't exert control over Gaza at all. Hamas runs Gaza with an iron fist and its war against Israel is not going to end until either Hamas or Israel is destroyed; Hamas sees the conflict in religious and theological terms - jihad. They aren't alone either as Islamic Jihad, al Qaeda, and other terrorist spinoffs all seek to destroy Israel and use Gaza as a launching pad for their ongoing war against Israel.