Sharon Delivers, Abbas Blathers

Editorial
New York Daily News - August 20, 2005

PLO boss Mahmoud Abbas promises the sun and the moon and the stars to the jubilant Palestinians of freshly Jewless Gaza. He promises homes, jobs, prosperity, a new airport. Perhaps Abbas will keep one or two of his fine promises, though in fact his pledge-keeping record to date is downright dismal.

Abbas has held up precious little of his end of the current road-map-for-peace bargain with Israel, for instance, not yet troubling himself to disarm and dismantle the terrorist gangs still openly prowling his streets as was long ago required of him. He has not even the grace to acknowledge the conciliatory nature of Israel's pullout from the Gaza settlements.

Yesterday, he declared that Israel withdrew because of Palestinian "sacrifices" and "patience" and "wisdom," even as the rival Hamas and Fatah groups both clamored to claim credit for relentlessly driving the Jew from the land, and setting their sights on continuing on the same bloody course.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had to swallow hard as the settlers he once championed turned on him with jeers and curses and some of his allies walked out of his government in angry protest. He had to swallow hard as he watched the terrible news footage of weeping families being uprooted from their homes, of shrieking mobs defiantly flinging sticks and stones at Israel's own soldiers come to relocate them. Now he swallows hard as Palestinians dance victory dances in their streets and Mahmoud Abbas offers them predictions that surely Israel will give up more land in time to come.

Despite all, Sharon removed thousands of his countrymen from Gaza in a remarkably efficient and humane operation of which the world should take full note. There will indeed be more pullouts from Gaza and from a few settlements in the West Bank next week. And, says Sharon, that will be the end of it. And so it must be.

Israel, unilaterally, has taken a giant step toward a negotiated peace in the cauldron of the Middle East, a step that is cheered by many Israelis as enlightened, reviled by many others - and certainly by many Palestinians - as cowardly. Now, says Sharon, it is up to Abbas to follow through. "The burden of proof now rests on the Palestinian side," he said.

How true. The Palestinians are well on their way to having their own piece of land to make of it what they will. The question is whether they will build toward a democratic state by meeting Sharon's bold stroke with one of their own, an end to the terrorism that has made it impossible for Israel to negotiate a peaceful future.

Comments

[Kira Zalan]

If Abbas is planning a swift round up of all known terrorists, he is likely to lose all credibility with the Palestinians. This is because Abbas has been visibly aligning himself with the popular martyr theory. Last week, banners waved across Gaza proclaiming that “The blood of martyrs has led to liberation.” Then, Abbas attended Friday prayers at Caliph Mosque, where the imam announced, “Allah knows that when we offer up our children, it is much better than choosing the road of humiliation and negotiation.” Additionally, the PA’s official radio station - Ramallah Voice of Palestine - continues to broadcast messages that Israelis “want neither a solution nor peace.” These statements are synonymous with those of Hamas, and the Palestinians are listening.

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