HOLY LAND: ABBAS REBUKED FOR STRIKING A DEAL WITH HAMAS

Palestinian Affairs: A Mecca prayer unanswered
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

Even the most veteran officials in the Mukata "presidential" compound in Ramallah cannot recall such a tense meeting between a Palestinian leader and a senior US official as this week's encounter between PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

As Rice was walking out of the three-hour meeting, the officials rushed to phone Palestinian reporters to inform them that the talks were "very hard," and that the secretary of state had actually "rebuked" Abbas for signing the power-sharing Mecca agreement with Hamas earlier this month.

Reflecting the gloomy mood in Abbas's office, a top PA official said he did not rule out the possibility that Abbas would eventually end up being isolated in the Mukata like his predecessor, Yasser Arafat. "Rice employed a threatening tone during the talks with President Abbas," the official said. "We've never seen her in such a bad mood. She just doesn't understand that the president had no choice but to reach a deal with Hamas."

The official quoted Abbas as telling his aides after the Ramallah meeting that, by rejecting the Mecca deal, the US was "pushing the Palestinian people toward civil war."

Abbas, according to the official, claimed that Washington had actually endorsed the Israeli stance toward the Fatah-Hamas agreement. "Why can't you wait until the new government is formed?" Abbas asked Rice. "Why are you rushing to make judgements on a government that hasn't been born yet?"

Abbas's main argument was that he had had no choice but to strike the deal with Hamas to prevent civil war. "The only two options facing me," he reportedly told Rice and other US diplomats, "were civil war or national unity, and I chose the second. This is the best deal, and you should give us a chance to prove that it will work."

Other Abbas aides in Ramallah said he went so far as to threaten to resign if the US insisted on its current policy toward the unity government. Abbas, they added, has chosen to live in harmony with Hamas, rather than appease the US and Israel. After all, his US-backed efforts to bring down or undermine the Hamas-led government over the past year have completely failed, leaving him with no alternative but to follow the saying, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

Judging from his body language at the signing ceremony in Mecca, one can safely assume that Abbas was none too happy with the deal. His aides say he was forced to accept the agreement after coming under immense pressure from the Saudis.

"The truth is that we could have achieved a better deal under different circumstances," said one aide. "This agreement is good for Hamas and bad for Abbas and Fatah, because Hamas did not have to make serious concessions. We could have achieved the same agreement many months ago, because Hamas hasn't changed its position."

When Abbas signed the agreement, he was hoping that the Saudi royal family, in addition to the Egyptians and Jordanians, would be able to persuade the US to accept it. Hours before the signing ceremony in Mecca, Saudi King Adbullah bin Abdel Aziz made it clear to Abbas that he would put all his weight to sell the "national unity" agreement to the US administration.

However, Cairo and Amman have made it understood that they oppose the deal because it further strengthens Hamas and opens the door for a bigger Iranian and Syrian role in the conflict. The Egyptians and Jordanians are also angry with Abbas for giving the Saudis the credit for reaching the agreement, ignoring previous efforts by Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah to end the Fatah-Hamas power struggle.

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Why is Ms. Rice is such a sour mood?!? Could it be that her and her vaunted staff did not foresee that fact that the "Arabs living in Palestine" (They came to know as Palestinians after the EEC - now known as the E.U. - began the Islamization of their native populations) would have elected Hamas, that would rule according to shari'ah?!?

Aaahhhhhh, democracy amongst a moslem population, ain't it grand?!?!?!?!?

Now, just in case someone from the State Department or any of the other politically correct dhimmi government agencies comes and visits here, let me link to JihadWatch and an article of two they brought to my attention concerning the desires of the people in the Middle East...

They don't want democracy, they want shari'ah law, the post at JihadWatch includes a table that shows at a glance what moslems in the M.E. want:


Strong support for Sharia in Jordan, PA, Egypt

Will our State Department learn?!? Nope...

Will our President stop thinking that islam has been hijacked and that moslems really yearn to be free, like us Westerners?!? Nope...


Pertinent Links:

1) Palestinian Affairs: A Mecca prayer unanswered