Mahmoud Abbas has not been granted the customary 100-day grace period normally accorded to newly elected presidents. In fact, his troubles began even before he was inaugurated. The hopes for an early return to dialogue were abruptly dashed by the familiar one-two combination of attacks by both sides and a precipitous Israeli reaction. The resignation of nearly 50 election officials, including the two top managers, over alleged ballot irregularities has only compounded Abbas’ difficulties. The poll row, however, is the least of Abbas’ worries. While the resignations raised questions about the vote, the officials who resigned said the alleged irregularities did not fundamentally affect the final tally.
More at issue is how Abbas will deal with the men of the resistance. His strategy is to talk to them and try to co-opt them rather than to confront them. Yesterday, in order to put his policy into practice, Abbas went to the Gaza Strip for face-to-face talks with the resistance movement. But his plan for a pragmatic approach to the activists is being stretched already. A week before his election, he was hoisted onto the shoulders of armed hooded men dressed in black and he pledged that he would not fight them and that, if anything, he would protect them from Israeli attacks. It is conceivable that these same people carried out the attack which killed six Israelis just a few days later. The raid is what prompted Ariel Sharon to throw cold water on any immediate contact with the PA and Abbas personally.
The vagueness of the current position of the resistance is no help. As they send mixed messages, saying they reserve the right to continue attacks but also indicating they might be ready to reach a deal with the new Palestinian leader, so too must Abbas’ stances also shift. There is, by the same token, no such ambiguity concerning his stand on the violence. He has been clear and unwavering in his view that anti-Israeli violence has been, and continues to be, extremely harmful to the Palestinian cause. He said as much at his inauguration, saying both the Karni attack and other Israeli military operations do not benefit the peace process. Abbas’ direct appeal to the Israeli people — “we are two peoples destined to live side by side” — and his saying that he was extending Israel his hand in peace, coupled with his well-known background of moderation, all constitute the character of a man who has no motive other than to make peace with his neighbor, and one who wants to regain for his people their comprehensive rights. But he is a man caught in the middle.
Israel had said it would give Abbas time to prove himself. Unfortunately, by choosing to respond to the Palestinian attack by cutting off all Israeli contact with the Palestinian Authority, Sharon has become an ally of the very people who stand in the way of negotiations.
The better guess is that Sharon is all for such attacks since it makes it all the more easier for him to back out of the very commitments Abbas seeks, and has pledged, to honor.
