Last year I coined a phrase: getting 527-ed. It comes from the 2004 U.S. presidential election. Bush was asked whether he would condemn the Swift Boat ads against Kerry, and instead, Bush condemned all ads made by 527 organizations. Bush 527-ed Kerry.
This, apparently, is also what Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, did over the weekend. As the FPA Israel blog notes, a terrorist attack over the weekend killed five people in Itamar, an illegal Israeli settlement of about a thousand people in the West Bank. Abbas issued a statement in which, according to Jerusalem Post, he “stressed his rejection and condemnation of all violence directed against civilians, regardless of who was behind it or the reason for it,” adding that “violence produces violence and what is needed is to speed up a just and comprehensive solution to the conflict.” So he condemned all attacks that target civilians without specifically mentioning the Itamar incident. He pulled a 527.
This is apparently what Abbas does. He did it last year after Hamas killed four Israelis near Hebron. Responding to the incident, Abbas said he “condemns all acts that target Palestinian and Israeli civilians,” but as far as I can tell from press reports, he didn’t condemn the specific attack.
Why does he do this? FPA Israel’s Ben Moscovitch surmises that Abbas depends on the political support of people who support targeting Israeli civilians. There must be a political advantage to pulling 527s, though reportedly, it’s difficult to find a West Bank Palestinian who approves of the Itamar attack. Even Hamas lawmaker, Hamed Betawi, said, “I do not accept the killing of a child.” Either way, the 527 is not enough for Netanyahu, who has called for a stronger and more specific condemnation.
Does any of this discourse actually matter? Yes. The Netanyahu-Abbas disagreement over Abbas’ 527, while only a small component of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, adds to the already high tensions and brings us just a little bit further from the road to peace.
