“In this world, when we want to complain, there are two addresses: God and the United Nations. " This pike from Mahmoud Abbas to his entourage is ten years old, but it pursues it. On Tuesday February 11, the President of the Palestinian Authority will return to the UN Security Council in New York. He hopes to muster almost unanimous support there against the Trump administration’s "vision" for an Israeli-Palestinian "peace."
Since the plan was unveiled on January 28, Mr. Abbas has struggled in the only field he has ever practiced, diplomacy, against the power of a fait accompli. The ground is hiding under his feet, but he still calls on the United Nations to have an international conference to facilitate negotiations between equals with Israel. This request already went unheeded in February 2018, due to the lack of an American agreement. But at 85, the old "raïs" has no other card in hand. "He believes he can play the same worn score to the tune, when the future of our people is at stake. He will go to the UN, he will make a speech, but who still cares ? " said sighing Yasser Abed Rabbo, former secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
On January 15, Abbas celebrated his 15th birthday as president of the Palestinian Authority. The architect of the Oslo Accords (1993), which gave rise to this ersatz state, is today almost as criticized in the territories as in Washington. We blame him for all the diseases of old age, by enlarging the line.
Eruptive temperament
"Abou Mazen" ("Mazen's father", his eldest son, who died in 2002) wakes up late and takes the clearest nap of the afternoon, but his energy still surprises freshly landed Western visitors, who discovered. Beneath his debonair patriarch exterior, his eruptive temper has scrambled him with almost all the dignitaries of his generation and the next in the Palestinian national movement. By dismissing these men one by one, he ended up embodying, alone, the dream of the state to which they cling.
As early as January 28, Abbas saw the shock that the announcement of the Trump "vision" had on his European allies, including France. They chose to push her away without waiting, to see how she would build her response. As first riots broke out in Hebron, Jenin, around Israeli soldiers, killing three Palestinian people, Mr. Abbas embarked on a "Diplomatic intifada" with a first formal success, in Cairo on 1st February, by training the Arab League to condemn the Trump plan.
