By urging the international community to help oust Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is interfering in the affairs of a sovereign people who might not yet have a state but are shedding blood and tears for one. Their efforts to join the community of nations have been perennially stymied by people who are ironically exactly like Lieberman who purportedly seek a peace settlement. Lieberman this week wrote to the Quartet of Mideast mediators — the US, the UN, the EU and Russia — calling for new elections in the Palestinian Authority in order to replace Abbas to revitalize the dormant peace process in order to bring “serious change between Israel and the Palestinians.” He called Abbas “an obstacle to peace” and accused the PA of being “a despotic government riddled with corruption.” The diatribes aside, Abbas cannot enter into new negotiations until there is a Jewish settlement freeze. Abbas' refusal to restart talks without a freeze on settlements and other well-known requirements is almost unanimously agreed on by the Palestinians who are frustrated about the possibility of reaching a solution that achieves the minimum of Palestinian demands. Lieberman should be careful what he wishes for. The last time the Palestinians held elections, in January 2006, Hamas came to power in parliament, defeating Fatah. And judging by the new leaderships of Arab Spring countries that toppled their regimes, another Islamist leadership in the occupied territories would ascend again. If Abbas were removed from power, he would be replaced by Hamas, not the compliant pro-US premier Salam Fayyad whom Lieberman might favor more, because of its popularity. Hamas is still ostracized by the US because it refuses to accept the conditions of the International Quartet —recognition of Israel, commitment to signed agreements, and rejection of forcible resistance against the occupation. The Quartet is the very body Lieberman is appealing to for Abbas to go. Elections for new Palestinian leadership were scheduled for 2010 but have repeatedly been delayed because of the bitter dispute between Abbas' Fatah and Hamas, rivals who had a violent falling out in 2007 and now separately govern the West Bank and Gaza Strip respectively. Abbas is not the charismatic figure as was his predecessor Yasser Arafat but he has power and control over institutions belonging to the Palestine Liberation Organization that not even Arafat had. This bolsters his position and makes it difficult to replace him. The statements made by Lieberman are incredible especially coming from a foreign minister who is any country's highest ranking diplomat and whose every word must be weighed before uttered. It is incredulous that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must distance himself from statements his foreign minister writes, saying the letter does not represent the government's position. According to Lieberman, Abbas is waging “diplomatic terror” against Israel, which is “as dangerous as the violent threat posed by Hamas.” Given that Abbas is a byword for moderation, and that there is continued cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian security forces, Lieberman's accusations are all the more ludicrous. Today Lieberman wants Abbas unseated. Next time he'll be calling for his assassination.
