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I was listening the PRI’s The World radio news program this afternoon and heard an American voice authoritatively discussing the Gaza flotilla attack. Turns out it was my old “friend,” Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic’s golden boy hasbarist. His report wasn’t as slanted as his pieces in the Atlantic tend to be. But there was one howler which is important to note in order to set the record straight.
The other political units in the Middle East that don’t want this blockade ended include Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, the moderate Palestinian government on the West Bank. This is much more complicated than people think.
First of all, The Palestinian Authority doesn’t govern in the West Bank as Goldberg claimed. The last time there was an elected Palestinian Authority it was run by Hamas. Now the West Bank is run by Fatah, not the PA.
Actually, no Jeffrey, this one isn’t complicated at all, and you’ve got it wrong as you so often do. On November 15, 2008 Haaretz reported:
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Saturday said Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip was a “war crime,” as the United Nations closed its food aid distribution centers in Gaza on Saturday.
“I would like to draw the attention of the international community to the tragedy that our people are enduring in Gaza and I call on them to intervene to end the unfair siege… which constitutes a war crime against our Palestinian people,” Abbas said in published remarks.
The president of Palestine thinks the blockade is a war crime and you claim he supports it. There you have it: wrong about the siege, wrong about just about everything (relating to Israel). Uh, you might want to issue a correction on this, Jeffrey.
Could it be that your government is too busy subsidizing its own military industrial complex through foreign “aid” to Israel to really care about what happens between Israel and the Palestinians, or even to want the situation to be solved?
Oops, that was meant for another post. Sorry. But the point still stands.
Actually, I think Goldberg got this one right. However, the PA’s collusion with the US and Israel proves only that they are morally and politically bankrupt, not that the siege is “OK.”
Richard, surely you are savvy enough to understand that Mahmoud Abbas might favor something behind the scenes that is unpopular, and disfavor it in public for that reason, especially if you hold that Fatah relies on the US and Israel to maintain its power. It’s not a secret that Fatah benefits from the weakening of Hamas, as you have pointed out many times.
I mean, put yourself in Abbas’s shoes. Whatever your private feelings are on the blockade, you have to denounce it publicly.
The same reasoning may apply to some statements of the Turkish leader; I suspect he is in the end more moderate than his public statements which, again, he utters primarily for domestic consumption.
Someone I trust tells me that you are right. But that doesn’t excuse Goldberg’s sloppiness in allowing listeners to presume this is Fatah’s official public policy, when it isn’t.
Actually, there is a lot of evidence that Abbas & the PA have tacitly supported the siege. I can find it for you, if you’re interested. But, as Judy says, this says more about the siege than the PA.
OOPS….I meant to say, “this says more about the PA & Abbas than the siege.”
please read this:
Elections under siege – Azmi Bishara
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/970/op3.htm
Peter H,
I would be interested to see the evidence of Abbas/PA’s support of the siege
He does. I have it from a journalist who visited the W Bank & heard such support directly fr. senior Fatah folks. Abbas just said publicly he’s opposed to the siege. But it’s not what he says privately. It’s two faced, but what can you do?