ABBAS CRACKDOWN ON TERROR A GOOD START, BUT MUCH MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE

ABBAS CRACKDOWN ON TERROR A GOOD START, BUT MUCH MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE

The Times of Israel reports that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has commenced a crackdown on terrorists in the West Bank, hoping to stem attacks on Israel, and put the West Bank back on a path to future statehood.

This was a welcome if surprising move from a man who just days before praised and mourned Yahya Sinwar, Hamas military and terror leader, wanted by the US for murdering 40 Americans on October 7, 2023. Sinwar was killed by IDF troops as he attempted to hide or flee above ground in the Gaza he caused to be devastated. (Perhaps Abbas was channeling the ghost of Eamon De Valera, the disgraced Irish President, who in April, 1945, upon learning of Hitler’s death, marched over to the German Embassy to sign a condolence book. Ireland still hasn’t lived down that incomprehensible urge to honor the greatest genocidist the world has ever seen.)

When Abbas performed his DeValera imitation for the late terrorist Sinwar, many world leaders and Middle East experts assumed he was delusional and placating his own views of how his constituency feels, believing they wanted the West Bank to wind up like Gaza: controlled by Hamas and destroyed. (I have no reason to believe that the majority of West Bank Palestinians want to live under Hamas, or that Abbas thinks they do.)