I had thought that the TNR story a few weeks ago about Palestinians turning on Hamas was too good to be true, but now I see this: Abu Mazen: "The Whole Intifada Was a Mistake".
Admittedly the history of the Islamization of the Palestinian movement is a bit of grey area for me, so for all I know this is just some kind of power struggle or something, but on the other hand it could be very good news. Speaking of which, I’ve been meaning to link to this rather reassuring assessment of the state of Islamism from Gilles Kepel. (I’m still working my way through his excellent Jihad; his new book will just have to go on the wish list for now.
M. said: Abbas: ...we asked [then State Attorney] Elyakim Rubinstein about the Absentee Property Fund, and he admitted that Israel 'axed it' in a cabinet decision. I said to him: 'If that's the case, then Hitler's decisions were right.' This tells you something about the kind of reasoning and dialogue that went on with the Israeli side at Camp David..."
Uh, yeah, it does. Note to Abbas: what you carry around in your head is your affair, but as a friendly word of advice there is no context, when speaking to an Israeli or American audience, in which suggesting that the some Israeli policy retroactively justifies the Holocaust is going to be helpful in your negotiations. (Of course, given that Abbas is himself a Holocaust denier who wrote a book that attempted to tie the Nazis in with the leaders of the Zionist movement, maybe that's not what he meant by "Hitler's decisions were right." Regardless, the fact that the moderate who was going to be a credible replacement for Arafat can't even figure out when he should perhaps not give voice to his less acceptable views is indicative of the magnitude of the problem.)
"Then there was the issue of the refugees. The Israelis' idea was the following: 'there were 150,000 refugees that left, of which 100,000 died, and we are considering allowing the remaining 50,000 to return.' We started to try to convince them that the number of those who left stood at 950,000, and we reached a stage [where we agreed on] 600,000-700,000. The Israeli side said that Jews from Arab countries came in their place [i.e., in place of the Palestinian refugees] 'so it's one-for-one and we want 40 million dollars in reparations, of which half will go to you, the Palestinians, and half will go to the Israeli side.' We presented them with evidence and documentation that the Jews took all of their property before leaving the Arab states
And the giant holes in the ground where that property was remain to this day throughout the Middle East. (Perhaps he meant only personal property, but that seems odd considering that he seems to be concerned primarily about land where the Palestinians are concerned.)
and that I, as the Palestinian side, have nothing to do with any Arab state from which Jews emigrated and that that is not my responsibility.
Uh huh. Well, the territory Israel is currently occupying previously belonged to Jordan and Egypt, so I guess that's not his concern either. It's not as if there was some sort of grand coalition of Arabs in which the Palestinians participated that led to the current facts on the ground or anything.
That Abbas has sort of figured out that the intifada didn't work is somewhat heartening. But it's not clear to me that he's accepted the idea of a permanent settlement that doesn't require Israel to be a willing partner in its own destruction, or that he would continue to have anyone following him if he did so. He already seems to have been unable to stand up to Arafat, who in turn doesn't seem to be able to deliver an end to violence if he chose to. If Abbas got everything that he seemed to be asking for from Arafat in terms of reforming the PA, it's not clear to me that it would really help much.
D. replied: I read "Hitler's decisions were right" as applying primarily (or perhaps solely, given what you said about him being a denier) to his depriving Jews of their property without just compensation. Not--as you point out--that this changes much. This is why I always get a headache when the Israelis and Americans talk about removing Arafat so that a more "moderate" politician can take his place.