By Dr. Elias Akleh

In every occupation one finds a small group of occupied native puppets, who would betray and oppress their own people for the sake of fake political power positions and money granted by the occupier. As we find puppet President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, and puppet President Jalal Talabani in Iraq, we also find puppet President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank of Israeli occupied Palestine.

In my March 4th, 2008 article I summarized the puppetry in occupied Palestine as the following:

“On the Arab side the first and most prominent traitor to the Palestinians is their President Mahmoud Abbas and his gang, who hijacked and abused Fatah movement for their own political and financial gains. Since his appointment as Palestinian Prime Minister in March 2003 had been enforced on Arafat, Abbas had shown inclinations towards American and Israeli policies even when they were harmful to his people. He exhibited opposition to Palestinian resistance groups, which became more prominent after being elected as President through the help of Israel and the US. He routinely described Palestinian resistance, especially that of Hamas, as harmful and silly, and had clamped down on them. Through his chief of security, Mohammad Dahlan, Abbas tried to cripple the democratically elected Hamas government and to sabotage its work, which led to Hamas’ purging of Gaza Strip. Abbas dissolved Hamas government and appointed a new one severing Gaza Strip from the West Bank. He refused to negotiate with Hamas government and negotiated instead with Israel hoping for the downfall of Hamas. When Hamas survived and gained more popularity Abbas recently accused Hamas of harboring Al-Qaeda elements thus giving Israel an open invitation and a justification to attack Gaza to get rid of Hamas.”

Lately Abbas, himself, had provided the irrefutable proof of his treason and his Zionist loyalty to Israel when he, solely and without consulting any Palestinian political advisors or any of the other Arab leaders, had given the order to defer for six months the endorsement in the UNHRC (UN Human Rights Council) of Judge Richard Goldstone’s Report concerning Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity during the onslaught on Gaza Palestinians in December 2008 (Operation Cast Lead).

Abbas, who is supposed to represent Palestinians and whose job is to protect their rights, had thus saved the Israeli criminals from legal persecution, and had washed their hands from spilled Palestinian blood that he is supposed to preserve. This is a totally unusual and an unprecedented treasonable act throughout all the human history, where a leader of a national liberation movement (PLO in this case) would vindicate a military genocidal occupier from crimes perpetrated against his people, and helps them escape persecution.

For this treacherous decision Abbas and his PA gang offered shameful justifications. First they claimed they needed time to rally a majority in the Council. There was, already, a majority of 35 out of 47 votes for the Report in the Council. Then they claimed that the PA is only an observing member without a vote in the Council and that the Arab League and other Muslim states had requested the deferment. Amr Moussa, the Secretary General of the Arab League, refuted this claim and denied any deferment decision taken by the League. The rest of the Arab and Islamic countries, even Egypt the strongest supporter for Abbas, had distanced themselves from him and denied any involvement or knowledge of the deferment decision until after the fact. Even many of Abbas’ Fatah leaders had blamed him for this decision. Lastly they claimed that the PA was under tremendous pressure from the US, who was concerned that the endorsement of the report could sabotage the renewal of the peace process. Many wonder what peace process they are talking about. There is no peace process at all. With Israel’s intransigence, backed by unconditional American support, there is only a graduated PA’s concession process.

The above-all reason for Abbas to kill Goldstone’s Report is to save his own hide. He is afraid that any investigation into the Cast Lead Operation may expose his own treason against his own people. Abbas is the American/Israeli puppet, who was installed into power position so that he would adopt their colonial agendas.

Since his so-called election as President, Abbas gathered around him corrupt politicians and together they hijacked the Palestinian decision-making process. This Abbas gang had sabotaged the function of the elected Hamas government. They divided Palestinians into two faction and incited enmity and hatred between them. They closed many Palestinian charity institutions and confiscated their money. They established an assassination training school under the supervision of the American Security Coordinator for the Israel-Palestinian Authority, Lieutenant General Keith Dayton, to train Palestinian Security Forces on methods of covert assassination, oppression, kidnap and torture. Instead of providing security to their own Palestinian patriots this Security Forces worked with the Israeli forces to capture Palestinian resistance groups, especially Hamas affiliates, and torture them, sometimes to death, to guarantee Israel’s security.

Abbas’ decision to kill Goldstone’s report was the result of Israel’s direct threat to release some audio and video recordings of him and some of his close associates encouraging the Israeli military leaders to attack Gaza to get rid of Hamas regardless of all civilian cost.

During its late news broadcast of 11th of May channel two of the Israeli television reported Gabi Ashkenazi, Israeli Chief of General Staff, stating for the first time that “Ramallah Palestinian Authority had fought side by side with Israel against Gaza during Operation Cast Lead”. Ashkenazi’s statement was preceded with a revelation by the Israeli Interior Ministry in March that Abbas’ Security Forces had cooperated with the Israeli army in Cast Lead Operation through a spy network in Gaza Strip, who provided information about Hamas’ vital strategic locations. Israel used such information during its air campaign against Gaza. Some of these spies were captured by Hamas, and confessed to their crime in a televised broadcast.

After the Obama, Netanyahu and Abbas meeting last month September 22nd, the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Avigdor Lieberman, during an interview revealed that officials from the Palestinian Authority had requested the Israeli government to attack Gaza to topple Hamas’ government.

It was also reported that Eli Avraham, an Israeli Colonel, had presented some Palestinian leaders with a digital video recording on his laptop showing Palestinian President Abbas urging Ehud Olmert, previous Israeli Prime Mister, to continue military operation against Gaza until the fall of Hamas. He also played an audio recording of a telephone conversation between high Palestinian official and Dov Weissglass, former Chief of Staff, where the Palestinian official stating that it is a good time for Israel to enter Gaza refugee camps to end Hamas rule regardless of civilian casualties. Israel had threatened to reveal these recordings, among others, incriminating Abbas’ gang if Abbas does not withdraw Goldstone’s Report.

As a reward for killing the Report the American administration would not withhold its financial aid to the PA and Israel would not withhold tax revenues it collects on behalf of the PA. As a personal added bonus Israel would grant Abbas’ son, Yasser and his partners, a license to operate Wataniya; a mobile phone service provider company in the West Bank with a $700 million investment over the next 10 years, otherwise the PA has to pay $140 million penalty fees if not operational on the designated deadline.

Some may think that all these are just baseless accusations meant to discredit the “moderate” President Abbas. Yet keen observers of Abbas’ career as Palestinian President were not surprised by his latest move, for it conforms to American/Israeli agenda designed for the region. Abbas had opposed legitimate resistance to Israeli occupation and insisted on fruitless peace negotiations that are meant to waist time, give false impressions, give Israel more time to steal more Palestinian land and build more colonies. He had obstructed the function of the elected Palestinian government and caused the separation and siege of Gaza Strip. He sabotaged all efforts of reconciliation and mediation to re-unite Palestinians. He snatched the leadership of the PLO to monopolize the decision-making process as a first step to liquidate more Palestinian rights. He sabotaged proposals to the UN to lift the Gaza siege. Killing Goldstone’s Report is just another step in his treacherous agenda.

To put it bluntly; Abbas is a Zionist wolf in Palestinian clothing.

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By Dr. Elias Akleh