The Israeli anti -- Abbas campaign could only be interpreted as a premeditated endeavour to evade a mounting international pressure for saving the so -- called "two -- state solution."
The cancelation of a visit scheduled for last week by senior envoys of the international Middle East Quartet upon Netanyahu's request was the latest example of the world community's helplessness and indifference vis -- a -- vis Israel's sense of impunity against accountability, which empowers the Israeli occupying power to escalate its crackdown on Palestinians under its military occupation since 1967.
In particular, U.S. President Barak Obama Administration's "reversals" and "empty promises," in the words of Peter Berkowitz on Oct. 13, to Abbas as well as the inaction of the European Union and the other two Russian and UN members of the Quartet are encouraging Israel in its anti -- Abbas campaign, thus discrediting the Palestinian icon of non - violence further in the eyes of his own people as incapable of delivery to walk away from his non -- violent path.
On Oct. 12 the AFP reported that the "frustrated' Palestinians "have defied" both Abbas and the "Israeli security crackdown" to launch what many observers are calling the beginnings of a "third intifada."
To his credit, Abbas proved true to his non -- violence commitment. Israeli daily Haaretz on Oct. 11 quoted a senior official of the Israeli Shabak intelligence agency as telling a cabinet meeting on the same day "that not only does Abbas not support 'terrorist attacks' but also tells PA security services to 'undermine' anti-Israel protests as much as possible."
Abbas was on record recently to tell "our Israeli neighbours that we do not want a security or military escalation. My message to our people, security agencies and leaders is that the situation must calm down." He warned against "an intifada which we don't want." On Oct. 6, he publicly told a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) that "we want to reach a political solution by peaceful means and not at all by any other means."
The practical translation of his on record "principles" was self evident on the ground during the past two weeks of Palestinian rebellion against the escalating violence of the illegal Israeli settlers of the occupied Palestinian territories and the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), especially in eastern Jerusalem, which so far claimed the lives of more than 25 Palestinians and at least four Israelis in October 2015.
Within the PA security mandate, violence was practiced by the IOF only and only Palestinians were killed. Mutual violence was confined to Jerusalem, the area designated "C" by the Oslo accords in the West Bank and Israel proper, where security is an exclusive Israeli responsibility. There Abbas has no mandate. Most victims of both sides fell there and there only Israel should be held responsible and accountable.
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