TIP and combined services–Palestinian leaders over the weekend lashed out against the State Department, after Foggy Bottom harshly criticized a speech given by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas in which Abbas charted a diplomatic path that would see the Palestinians abandoning negotiations with Israel in favor of international legal warfare against the Jewish state. State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki had blasted Abbas’s speech–given last Friday to the United Nations General Assembly with this statement: “President Abbas’ speech … included offensive characterizations that were deeply disappoint and which we deeply reject. Such provocative statements are counterproductive and undermine efforts to create a positive atmosphere and restore trust between the parties.”
Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat responded on Sunday, telling Palestinian media that Psaki’s comments were “irresponsible, indecent and rejected,” and that the global community was mobilized on the side of the Palestinians and against Jerusalem and the State Department. Meanwhile, U.S. analysts piled on criticism of Abbas’s speech. The Washington Post published a blistering opinion–headlined “Mahmoud Abbas’s Dangerous Grandstanding”–blasting Abbas for “mendaciously accusing” Israel of a variety of crimes and for forgoing future negotiations. The Post more specifically knocked Abbas for “refusing to respond to a U.S. framework for peace talks painstakingly developed by Secretary of State John F. Kerry,” and for instead choosing to unilaterally pursue an international diplomatic strategy isolating Israel.
Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Elliott Abrams had a day earlier criticized the Palestinian leader for “los[ing] touch with facts and reality” and for doing “more harm than good.” Abrams noted that Palestinian diplomats may be facing an unfavorable diplomatic environment, after President Barack Obama had said “very little about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict other than to remark that it is simply not central.” Abbas’s speech, however, may not have improved the Palestinians’ diplomatic position. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman worried earlier this week that Abbas could not be taken as a reliable peace partner given the content and tone of his speech. Israeli officials nonetheless emphasized on Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was willing to meet with Abbas to reinvigorate negotiations.
The State Dept. also did not let PM Netanyahu off the hook after his speech on Monday. They disagreed with his assertion that “ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree.”
“Obviously, we’ve designated both as terrorist organizations, but ISIL poses a different threat to Western interests and to the United States,” said Psaki. “And that’s just a fact.”
Netanyahu warned that Iran is not actually willing to give up nuclear weapons but rather just wants to get rid of the sanctions against them. In response, Psaki said that the U.S. would like Iran to reintegrate into the international community by showing that their nuclear program is peaceful.
“I can assure anyone that an agreement reached would not be based on a charm offensive or how that impacts us, but on the facts and the details,” she said. “And we’re not going to agree to a comprehensive agreement that doesn’t meet our standards and meet our threshold.”
She raised Iran’s poor human rights record and terror funding as other factors straining the US relationship with Iran. Psaki said she was more concerned with getting Iran to agree to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for an easing of economic sanctions that she was about extreme Shiites taking over the world. “I can assure you…that obviously we’re focused on the here and now, and our effort is focused on these negotiations and the upcoming deadline in November.”
