Mahmoud Abbas’s ‘Crime Against Democracy’

The decree handed down on Friday by President Mahmoud Abbas delaying for nearly a year elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council is a reminder that democracy is nowhere on the nonagenarian’s agenda. That date is also the one designated for presidential elections in the Palestinian Authority. There hasn’t been such a vote since Mr. Abbas won a four-year term in 2005, more than two decades ago. By any measure, he is a dictator. Mr. Abbas is — shockingly — blaming Israel for the cancellation. The excuse is that Jerusalem is blocking voting materials and observers from entering the West Bank. Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, declares that Mr. Abbas’s “attempt to drag Israel into this, falsely claiming that Israel imposed obstacles to holding elections, is yet another ridiculous lie designed to evade responsibility and accountability.”The postponement was cheered by none other than Hamas, the terrorist organization that beat Mr. Abbas’s Fatah faction in elections in 2006. Hamas followed that success at the ballot box with a campaign of terror that in 2007 cemented the group’s control of Gaza. Notwithstanding President Emmanuel Macron’s absurd insistence that Hamas is dormant at the West Bank, the Islamists are likely to be Fatah’s most significant opponents.When Monsieur Macron recognized a state for the Palestinian Arabs at the United Nations General Assembly in September, he cited Mr. Abbas’s promise of an “overhaul of Palestinian governance” as justifying the step. Now it appears those promises were not worth the paper on which they were typed. An opponent of Mr. Abbas, the exiled Mahmoud Dahlan, accuses Mr. Abbas of “clinging blindly to a chair drained of legitimacy.” France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, wrote in the pages of the Wall Street Journal last month calling for “Palestinian elections now.” Call it the fierce urgency of whenever. The same note was sounded in September by Britain’s ambassador to the United Nations, Sarah McIntosh. She called these elections “an important step.” France and Britain, alongside 10 other nations, sanctioned Israel in September. Will they now sanction the Arabs?That Mr. Abbas could cancel a vote that the Europeans tied so closely to their recognition of the state they hope to démarche into existence illustrates just how detached from reality — and how immune to consequences — is the world’s treatment of the Palestinian question. Mr. Abbas can run roughshod over democracy because he can count on unqualified support, no matter how corrupt his regime. Consequences are only for Israel.Mr. Dahlan’s accusation that Mr. Abbas has committed a “crime against democracy” bolsters Israel’s case that not only Hamas but also the Palestinian Authority be excluded from Gaza. Jerusalem aims not to repeat the failures of Oslo, which in turning over dunams to Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority created fiefdoms of terror. While it is true that Mr. Abbas cooperates with Israeli security, the PA also has not shaken its support for murdering Jews.For a contrast with Mr. Abbas’s disdain for the vote, feature Israel’s election, scheduled to proceed in two weeks. While the contest is contentious, much of the electorate is united in the conviction that any Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank would be disastrous. For the Europeans, that gimlet eyed assessment proves Israel isn’t serious about peace. The truth, though, is that the Jewish state realizes that after the tottering tyrant at Ramallah, le déluge.

Mahmoud Abbas’s ‘Crime Against Democracy’

Mahmoud Abbas’s ‘Crime Against Democracy’

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