IF THE "SHOE" FITS

Here is today’s comedy: The Jews are warning Abbas that he “may” face another intifada if he does not return to the “negotiating” table. The problem is that Abbas has already given just about everything away, so what else does he have to “bargain” with except settlements, East Jerusalem and the Right of Return; all of which must be protected by Palestine and never given up to Israel.

Israeli President Shimon Peres recently warned Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that continuing the deadlock in negotiations with Israel could lead to a third intifada and that in delaying, Abbas was “playing with fire.”

Peres said he had told Abbas “to be reasonable, and once negotiations are started, then is the time to work out solutions.”

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had invited Netanyahu and Abbas to a summit in Cairo to renew talks, the president told Store. “Abu Mazen wants Netanyahu to declare the 1967 borders. He cannot. The 1967 borders are 40 years past....On the other hand, I do not think we have to take territory from them. More or less, we can give them the same amount of land while changing the borders due to of security considerations.”

Peres said Israel had accepted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s plan in this vein, and “I told Abu Mazen to accept it too.”

At a meeting at the President’s Residence on Sunday, Peres told Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store about his discussions with Abbas. Store told Peres that Israel should take more steps to support Abbas. “Abu Mazen [Abbas] is vulnerable and feels hurt, and his position needs to be bolstered by American support,” Store said, adding: “You have the best psychologists … How do we read the personality and political mind of Abu Mazen? What will make him move?”

But Peres should not be worried about another Intifada, because Abbas said recently, that he will NEVER allow the Palestinian people another intifada, no matter what Israel does or what Israel takes, and here's the punchline "As long as he stays in office."

LINK Abbas emphasized that he would not allow another uprising to take place as long as he stays in office.

"I will not allow a new intifada. As long as I'm in office, I will not allow anybody to start a new intifada. Never never."

The Fatah leader who earlier said he would not run in the next Palestinian election warned that he could not make any guarantees another intifada would not erupt once he left office.

Abbas has effectively told Israel and the US that they can have anything they want so long as he remains in office. And there will be no Palestinian resistance against anything Israel wants to take or how many times it invades Gaza or the West Bank. The problem for Abbas is that when you start negotiations from a point of weakness, you have no where to go, you're already at the bottom. Once a supporter of Palestinian rights and sovereignty, he's now nothing more than a propped up puppet who fully colludes with Israel and the US in order to secure his dictatorship.

Given that the only "free" part of Palestine is Gaza, where once you cross over there are no Israeli checkpoints and no IDF on the streets and no settlements. So who would you want negotiating for Palestine? Abbas and FATAH who govern under Israeli/US control in a part of Palestine that is covered in settlements and Israeli soldiers, or HAMAS. I know who I'd want sitting at that table if I were Palestinian. And it would not be Abbas.....