Someone in the PLO decided that the best way to approach the Trump was to let Abbas be Abbas. And that meant spewing unhinged conspiracy theories about the Jews.
Abbas, unlike Arafat, his predecessor, had been surprisingly discreet over the years. While Fatah, Palestinian Authority and PLO people continued to spew hatred and threats of violence, their leader understood that what he said would be passed along to foreign governments. And while he praised terrorism, made the occasional threat and even once equated his terror group with Hamas, he mostly played it cool.
But no more.
First, there was the, "May your house be destroyed" speech aimed at Trump and Israel. Then this latest epic rant was tailor made for Palestinian Media Watch and MEMRI. It's gutter anti-Semitism complete with conspiracy theories that are common in the Middle East. But that make its American and European backers uncomfortable.
Jews in Europe were massacred for centuries because of their “social behavior related to usury and banks,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday.
Abbas made the statement in a speech at the beginning of a meeting of the Palestinian National Council, a top PLO body that is convening in Ramallah this week to elect members to two other PLO institutions.“From the 11th century until the Holocaust that took place in Germany, the Jews – who moved to Western and Eastern Europe – were subjected to a massacre every 10 to 15 years. But why did this happen?” Abbas said on Monday, before interjecting, “The Jewish issue that was widespread in all European countries... was not because of their religion, but rather their social behavior related to usury and banks.”
That's followed by the claim that Jews are really Europeans.
Abbas also cited a theory that Ashkenazi Jews do not hail from what is modern-day Israel, but rather Khazaria, an empire that was located between Eastern Europe and the Middle East hundreds of years ago.
The Khazar conspiracy theory is popular in anti-Semitic circles.
“Now let’s talk about the homeland of the Jews,” he said. “They say they are yearning for Zion... History says this is baseless. The proof is that the first person to call for a Jewish state was Cromwell, the British leader, in 1653... Napoleon Bonaparte came after him [and said the same thing]. And after [Napoleon], Churchill, the grandfather, came in 1840 [and said the same thing]... So everyone was calling for a Jewish state, but not the Jews.."
Clearly no one had ever invited Mahmoud to a Passover seder.
“Did Hitler love the Jews to this extent?” Abbas asked rhetorically. “What did Hitler want? He wanted the Jewish homeland [in Palestine] to be supportive of him.”
To summarize, Israel is a vast European conspiracy by Cromwell, Napoleon, Churchill and Hitler.
Later in his speech, Abbas eschewed violence as a means to oppose Israel’s military rule in the West Bank, offering his support for “peaceful, popular resistance.”
That must explain why so much of the PA's budget goes to fund terrorism. Also he should have checked with himself first.
Abbas: ‘We Welcome Every Drop of Blood Spilled in Jerusalem’
But then Abbas praised Hamas for embracing peaceful resistance.