Can Abbas make peace?

Editorial

The lopsided victory of Mahmoud Abbas in Sunday's Palestinian presidential election indicates a nascent democratic potential, though the margin of victory suggests genuine political pluralism may be a way off.

This election is being hailed as the Arab region's first genuine democratic choice. Despite the Arab world's near-universal abhorrence of all things Zionist, the democratic development that permitted Sunday's election is due as much to the Palestinians' proximity to Israel as to any internal factors. Whatever humiliations and degradations are inherent in decades of statelessness, if an indigenous democracy emerges in the Palestinian Authority, it will be due to a confluence of international pressures for reform and internal expectations, which have been defined by the Palestinians' decades-long observation of Israeli democracy. Palestinians have seen democracy, pluralism and free expression up close in ways other Arabs have not.

Whether Abbas will be a peacemaker remains to be seen. His inflammatory rhetoric in the closing days of the campaign was dismissed as necessary pandering to extremism – Palestinian incitement and xenophobia have always been accommodated by the international community as unfortunate, but necessary for internal consumption. (Israeli politicians, for their part, have no parallel rhetorical leeway. Anything short of complete capitulation to Palestinian demands is termed apartheid, genocide, fascism.)

If Abbas proves to be a man of peace and a partner for regional co-operation and progress, we may enter a new epoch. If his lapses into revolutionary and jihadist rhetoric prove indicative of his true character, we may face decades more conflict.
Over the past five years of violence, the world has adopted a near-universal allegiance to the Palestinian narrative, demonstrating an inexhaustible reservoir of tolerance for violence and incitement. If that violence continues, the world community will face a choice: To continue blind allegiance to a violent, uncompromising Arab exclusionism or to acknowledge that the Palestinians are, at least partially, to blame for the decades of violence in the region. If the Palestinians, at long last, prove unwilling or incapable of making peace with Israel, will the world maintain its irrational allegiance even in the face of all available evidence of Palestinian non-compliance? While we wait to find out, an old adage may prove appropriate: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

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