Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas phoned Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Monday to praise his “brave and historic decision” to dismantle all settlements in Gaza.
Praise for Sharon is nice, but now it’s time for Abbas to make a brave decision of his own.
Sharon, at great personal and political risk, kept his commitment to remove all Jewish residents of Gaza. It is time for Abbas to show similar courage and honor his commitment to dismantle and disarm the Palestinian terror network.
Abbas’ rhetoric has been encouraging, but his actions have fallen far short of his promise. If this stage of confidence-building that started with the Gaza pullout is to lead both sides back to the negotiating table, the Palestinians must provide more than complaints, demands and excuses.
Sharon, unlike Abbas, has confronted his extremists and prevailed despite threats of civil war and assassination.
Abbas has lamely relied on persuasion and co-opting Palestinian terror groups, even offering to let them keep their weapons and join his security forces. That is hardly likely to persuade Israelis to press their government for greater concessions.
If this is not to be yet another missed Middle East opportunity, President Bush will have to step in personally and organize a peace coalition with greater clout and staying power than his Iraq war coalition.
I’m not so radical as to suggest that Bush interrupt his extended Texas vacation; but shortly after he returns, he and other world leaders are expected to attend the opening of the 60th United Nations General Assembly in mid-September.
That could be an opportunity to convene Arab leaders to marshal their support for taking advantage of the opening Sharon has handed them.
Make it clear
Bush needs to make clear that he expects them to give Abbas the political, economic and diplomatic backing he needs.
His message to the Arab diplomats: “You’ve been demanding results and now you’re getting them. Israel is out of Gaza and if you want to see the same thing on the West Bank, you’ve got to get off the sidelines and get into the game.
“Stop glorifying the disengagement as a victory for the extremists and halt the flow of funds, fighters and munitions that have been crossing your borders into Gaza and the West Bank. Invest in peace for a change.
“If you care half as much about the Palestinians as you say, get behind their economic recovery and reconstruction. End the incitement against Israel in your mosques and media. Show me you have the courage to speak up and work for peace.
“This is peace on the installment plan. Israel has made the first move; now it’s your turn.
Normalize relations with Israel to show that disengagement is worth yesterday’s risks and tomorrow’s.
“Why should Israel make additional concessions if the Arab response is just more demands and more bullets and a sprinkling of nasty U.N. resolutions?”
Bush needs to take that message to other Arab and Moslem leaders as well as to his Quartet partners in the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
Israel is going through one of the most traumatic periods in its history and needs time to heal its wounds and find out whether it has a negotiating partner who can meet his commitments to bring security for both peoples.
If the momentum Sharon launched is not to be lost, the Palestinians must reciprocate. Those Arabs who fear Sharon wants to put the peace process on hold can easily challenge him by producing progress instead of more excuses and more demands.
If Sharon is looking for breathing space, he’s not finding much sympathy in the Bush administration or among world leaders. Messages of praise for the withdrawal were wrapped up in calls for further concessions to the Palestinians.
If anyone is getting that breathing spell, it is Abbas, who the administration wants to prop up to make sure he does well in January’s parliamentary elections.
Abbas fears a crackdown on the extremists could be unpopular on the street, where Hamas takes credit for driving the Jews out of Gaza.
The administration seems to agree, because at a time when it should be pressing Abbas to show his heroic side and stand up to his own radicals, Washington is instead leaning on Sharon.
Without even waiting for the withdrawal to finish, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice put Sharon on notice. “It cannot be Gaza only,” she declared.
That means easing travel restrictions on Palestinians; free air, sea and land passage for Gazans, and pulling out of remaining Palestinian cities in the West Bank.
Hamas has been using the ceasefire to rearm, recruit and reorganize for the next round of fighting, and the P.A. has done nothing to stop it. In fact, Abbas has yet to confiscate the first weapon. The terror group is threatening to take its battle to the West Bank and Jerusalem.
If the Gaza pullout is followed by a third intifada, West Bank disengagement could go from the back burner to the deep freeze.
There is finally a modicum of momentum in the Middle East, but it can’t be sustained by Israel alone. Abbas is going to have to do his share of the heavy lifting.
The place to start is with the first requirement of the Road Map plan that he says he endorses: dismantling and disarming the terror network.
While Hamas, Islamic Jihad and his Fatah party’s own militia, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, were celebrating their “victory” over the Zionists and vowing to drive Israel into the sea, Abbas was telling reporters that he hopes to persuade Palestinians that peaceful dialogue with Israel is more productive than armed confrontation.
Such talk is nice, but it won’t convince Islamic terrorists who believe it was their suicide bombs and Qassam rockets that drove Israel out of Gaza.
And unless Bush wants to see his commitment to Palestinian statehood produce the Islamic Republic of Palestine, he’ll have to make sure that dismantling Gaza settlements is followed by dismantling Palestinian terror groups.
Douglas M. Bloomfield is a Washington, D.C.-based syndicated columnist and a former chief lobbyist for AIPAC.
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