Wednesday
Oct072009
UPDATED Palestine: Pressure on Abbas to Resign in Goldstone Report Furour
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 13:47
LATEST Israel-Palestine: Sacrificing the Goldstone Report to the War of Politics
The Ultimate Israel-Palestine Football Match
Receive our latest updates by email or RSS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED
Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis
UPDATE 1330 GMT: EA readers have noted this report, originally from Palestine's Shahab News Agency: "[Palestinian Authority] representatives at a meeting in the US initially rejected Israel's request not to endorse the Goldstone report. But, then, Brigadier Eli Avraham, an Israeli representative, played a videotape showing a meeting between Abbas and Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister during the Gaza war, in which Tzipi Livni, Israel's former foreign minister, was also present. The tape showed Abbas trying to convince Barak to continue the offensive.
"Avraham also played an audiotape of a telephone call between Dov Weissglass, a senior Israeli official, and al-Tayyib Abdul Rahim, secretary-general of the Palestinian president's office....In the conversation, Abdul Rahim noted that circumstances were suitable for entry of the Israeli army into Jabalya and al-Shatea refugee camps, and said that the fall of these two camps would end Hamas's rule in Gaza Strip....Weissglass then told Abdul Rahim that such an army operation would lead to the deaths of thousands of civilians, but, according to Shahab, Abdul Rahim said: 'They have all elected Hamas, so they are the ones who have chosen their fate, not us.'"
We have found no further information about this claim, but Al-Manar, Hezbollah's media outlet, adds: "[Israel's] Ma'ariv newspaper had previously quoted the Israeli occupation Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi as saying that the Palestinian Authority, represented by its President, went to war with Israel in Gaza. Ashkenazi sent a letter to the Israeli Attorney, in which he revealed that the Abbas maintained unprecedented cooperation with the Israeli occupation army during the Gaza war."
All this may be considered in the context of our repeated analyses, during the December-January Gaza War, that the Fatah party of Abbas was backing the Israeli operations against Hamas. See, for example, a 6 January entry, "Gaza: The Israel-Fatah Collaboration".
The pressure on Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, after his support for the deferral of a UN vote on the Goldstone Report on the Gaza War, is increasing.
For the first time, an Israeli Arab party (Balad) has challenged the Palestinian leadership, calling for Abbas' resignation. Haaretz reports that even members of Fatah have unofficially asked what needs to be done in to save the party's prestige.
On Monday, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine called on Abbas to "go home." The council of Palestinian organizations in Europe also issued a call for Abbas to step down. Hamas leader in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh called the formation by the PA of a committee to investigate the circumstances around the deferred UN vote "unnecessary": "The circumstances here are clear. Abu Mazen [Abbas] gave the order to his representative. An investigation is only necessary when the circumstances are not clear."
And the issue is not going to disappear. At the request of Libya, the United Nations Security Council will discuss the Goldstone Report on Wednesday. Haaretz reports that Libya will look for possible ways to pass a resolution but in case of a veto, Libya is prepared to call on the UN General Assembly to make a decision. Yet the proviso is added that it would be "ridiculous" for Libya to act in the name of the Muslim world or the Arab League as long as the Palestinian Authority is not interested in acting.
The Ultimate Israel-Palestine Football Match
Receive our latest updates by email or RSS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED
Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis
UPDATE 1330 GMT: EA readers have noted this report, originally from Palestine's Shahab News Agency: "[Palestinian Authority] representatives at a meeting in the US initially rejected Israel's request not to endorse the Goldstone report. But, then, Brigadier Eli Avraham, an Israeli representative, played a videotape showing a meeting between Abbas and Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister during the Gaza war, in which Tzipi Livni, Israel's former foreign minister, was also present. The tape showed Abbas trying to convince Barak to continue the offensive."Avraham also played an audiotape of a telephone call between Dov Weissglass, a senior Israeli official, and al-Tayyib Abdul Rahim, secretary-general of the Palestinian president's office....In the conversation, Abdul Rahim noted that circumstances were suitable for entry of the Israeli army into Jabalya and al-Shatea refugee camps, and said that the fall of these two camps would end Hamas's rule in Gaza Strip....Weissglass then told Abdul Rahim that such an army operation would lead to the deaths of thousands of civilians, but, according to Shahab, Abdul Rahim said: 'They have all elected Hamas, so they are the ones who have chosen their fate, not us.'"
We have found no further information about this claim, but Al-Manar, Hezbollah's media outlet, adds: "[Israel's] Ma'ariv newspaper had previously quoted the Israeli occupation Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi as saying that the Palestinian Authority, represented by its President, went to war with Israel in Gaza. Ashkenazi sent a letter to the Israeli Attorney, in which he revealed that the Abbas maintained unprecedented cooperation with the Israeli occupation army during the Gaza war."
All this may be considered in the context of our repeated analyses, during the December-January Gaza War, that the Fatah party of Abbas was backing the Israeli operations against Hamas. See, for example, a 6 January entry, "Gaza: The Israel-Fatah Collaboration".
The pressure on Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, after his support for the deferral of a UN vote on the Goldstone Report on the Gaza War, is increasing.
For the first time, an Israeli Arab party (Balad) has challenged the Palestinian leadership, calling for Abbas' resignation. Haaretz reports that even members of Fatah have unofficially asked what needs to be done in to save the party's prestige.
On Monday, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine called on Abbas to "go home." The council of Palestinian organizations in Europe also issued a call for Abbas to step down. Hamas leader in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh called the formation by the PA of a committee to investigate the circumstances around the deferred UN vote "unnecessary": "The circumstances here are clear. Abu Mazen [Abbas] gave the order to his representative. An investigation is only necessary when the circumstances are not clear."
And the issue is not going to disappear. At the request of Libya, the United Nations Security Council will discuss the Goldstone Report on Wednesday. Haaretz reports that Libya will look for possible ways to pass a resolution but in case of a veto, Libya is prepared to call on the UN General Assembly to make a decision. Yet the proviso is added that it would be "ridiculous" for Libya to act in the name of the Muslim world or the Arab League as long as the Palestinian Authority is not interested in acting.
tagged Al-Manar, Balad, Dov Weissglass, Ehud Barak, Eli Avraham, Fatah, Goldstone Report, Ha'aretz, Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, Israel, Libya, Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Shahab News Agency, Tzipi Livni, United Nations General Assembly, United Nations Security Council, al-Tayyib Abdul Rahim, ga in Middle East & Iran
Al-Manar, Balad, Dov Weissglass, Ehud Barak, Eli Avraham, Fatah, Goldstone Report, Ha'aretz, Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, Israel, Libya, Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Shahab News Agency, Tzipi Livni, United Nations General Assembly, United Nations Security Council, al-Tayyib Abdul Rahim, ga in Middle East & Iran
Reader Comments (10)
Is there any truth to the report from AJE that Amy posted yesterday in a comment?
See http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/200910712447715422.html
and scroll down to heading 'Telltale videotape'.
This article also establishes that *this* Shahab News Agency is Palestinian.
Catherine/Amy,
Update now being posted.
S.
Taking into consideration the EA report linked above, it may not be too far fetched there is some level of credibility to the report. As Hamas continues to gain popularity after the delay of approval of the Goldstone report and finger pointing at Abbas/Fatah party, again assuming there is some credibility to the report, are we looking at more Hamas vs Fatah direct confrontation? If and if the report is true, I would think "incursion" into Gaza by Fatah forces would further ostracize Gazans, Hamas would gain more support and there would be an disunited front in the discussions with Israel, with the US still scrambling to gain position in the discussions. My knowledge is limited so these are simply comments and I look forward to commentary from the "experts"!!
Scott
Thanks for updates. I've been tied up all day, but plan to look at your reports from last winter.
Very interesting. I'll check out your earlier reports, too.
BTW, it seems EA has readers in high Qatari places. The ‘Telltale videotape’ heading and related info has since been removed from the AJE page we were discussing, 'UN council to discuss Gaza report' :
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/200910712447715422.html
However, on the AJE page where the story about the video tape and telephone call first appeared, 'PA's Goldstone block linked to tape', it's all still there as of 8 October 09:30 CET:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/10/2009106184126258933.html
Let's see how long that lasts.... ;-)
Catherine,
I would read removal as either (1) the story was incorrect & they didn't want to do a public mea culpa or (2) the story was suppressed
Laziness sometimes has virtues...I use Opera browser & still had a tab opened to the "Video" article (I have the browser set to not automatically refresh open pages). After reading Catherine's #5 comment I saved the page. If anyone wants a copy, maybe EA might help us do a transfer through its email... or we can figure something out.
It just goes to show, once something gets on teh internets, it never really goes away...
Amy,
I saved the info too. As you can see, AJE now redirects the link to ‘PA’s Goldstone block linked to tape’ to their home page :-)
Catherine/Amy,
I was all prepared to say that Al Jazeera English's apparent eclipse of the Shahab story about Abbas' complicity with Israel over Gaza was just journalism. They had run the report, hadn't been able to develop it further with their own enquiries, so let it lie when they updated the story on Goldstone today.
Then I checked. The original story with the passage on the incriminating Israeli videotape has now been pulled. There is no reference to the incident anywhere on AJE's site.
So I'll now back up your original hypothesis: someone has gotten very jittery that this claim was publicised.
S.
Things are close enough to blowing up regardless. It's heartbreaking. The Palestinians, especially in Gaza, have so little to hope for. Something incendiary always seems to pop up when there's a chance for meaningful talks-- usually intentionally injected to block or sabotage talks. It can come from either side, but the end result is that the pain of the Palestinians is manipulated, leading them to respond in ways that makes them appear unsafe to talk to. If anyone addressed the real problem, there wouldn't be such explosive anger and hurt. So little could go so far.
Is that what's happening now? It seems all jumbled up.
I don't even know where the Abbas report would fit in. If true it's treachery.
To Amy
" It can come from either side, but the end result is that the pain of the Palestinians is manipulated, leading them to respond in ways that makes them appear unsafe to talk to. If anyone addressed the real problem, there wouldn’t be such explosive anger and hurt. So little could go so far."
Sorry, what do you mean here by "explosive anger and hurt"?