Palestinians: Abbas Signs His Own Death Warrant

by Khaled Abu Toameh • July 14, 2020 at 5:00 am

By courting Hamas, Abbas and Fatah are emboldening an Islamist movement that seeks to extend its control from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank. Hamas's declared goal is to replace Israel with an Iranian-style Islamist state.
Abbas may also be using his renewed ties with Hamas as a way of pressuring the international community into providing him with more financial aid.
Hamas evidently wants to use the West Bank as a launching pad for carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel.
Hamas also does not appear to be headed towards recognizing Israel's right to exist. As such, Abbas seems to be handing Hamas the noose that eventually will be tied around his own neck.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his ruling Fatah faction are now cozying up to their rivals in Hamas -- a move that may prove to be counterproductive and pave the way for the resumption of massive anti-Israel violence. Pictured: Senior Fatah official Jibril Rajoub, in Ramallah, attends by video conference a meeting with deputy Hamas chief Saleh Arouri (on screen from Beirut) on July 2, 2020. (Photo by Abbas Momani/AFP via Getty Images)

After renouncing all agreements and understandings with Israel and the United States, including security cooperation, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his ruling Fatah faction are now cozying up to their rivals in Hamas -- a move that may prove to be counterproductive and pave the way for the resumption of massive anti-Israel violence.

By courting Hamas, Abbas and Fatah are emboldening an Islamist movement that seeks to extend its control from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank. Hamas's declared goal is to replace Israel with an Iranian-style Islamist state.

Abbas may also be using his renewed ties with Hamas as a way of pressuring the international community into providing him with more financial aid. The message he is sending to Western donors is: "If you don't fully support us and exert pressure on Israel, I will throw myself into the arms of Hamas."

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Hagia Sophia and Turkey's Supremacism

by Burak Bekdil • July 14, 2020 at 4:00 am

Why now? Erdoğan possibly thought the move could reverse the ongoing erosion of his popularity due, among others, to a looming economic crisis. All the same, it appears to be wrongly timed, as presidential and parliamentary elections are three years from now and Turks are notorious for not having a good memory. Praying at the Hagia Sophia Mosque will not turn a hungry man into a happy man.
"This is against the Quranic commandments... Prophet Mohammed never converted a Jewish or Christian house of prayer into a mosque." — Cemil Kılıç, Muslim theologian, t24.com.tr, July 12, 2020.
An Islamist leader decides to convert a monumental cathedral into a mosque, and his fans, are spilling out hatred against Jews. This is Turkey's new normal.

According to his fans, Turkey's Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, conquered Istanbul for the second time when he signed a decree to convert the Hagia Sophia cathedral in Istanbul, built in 537, into a mosque. Pictured: Islamists celebrate Erdogan's decree outside Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, on July 11, 2020. (Photo by Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images)

According to his fans and political allies, Turkey's Islamist president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, conquered Istanbul for the second time when he signed a decree to convert the monumental Hagia Sophia cathedral in Istanbul, built in 537, into a mosque. With that logic, he became the first statesman who conquered a city that already belongs to his country.

"First, you should fill Sultanahmet (Blue Mosque, Istanbul) ... This is a plot, this is sheer provocation," Erdoğan told a crowd as recently as in March 2019 when party fans demanded the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque. He was right. Most of Istanbul's nearly 3,000 mosques (one mosque per 5,000 population) do not attract crowds. Sixteen months later, Erdoğan changed his mind.

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