Line Up the Vectors
Reader comment on item: Which Way Will Abbas Go?

Submitted by Murray Nadler (United States), Jan 26, 2005 at 14:21

That Abbas's objective is the elimination of Israel is not in doubt. What is new is that Aabbas intends to pursue all available strategies and tactics to achieve the elimination of Israel and not just rely on terrorism as was Arafat's strategy. Israelis know this and see an opportunity to advance Israelis interests at the expense of Abbas.

To the extent that the vectors of an Abbas action line up with the vectors of Israelis' interests, Israel should support that action while recognizing that Abbas is maneuvering to destroy Israel. So Israel must always maintain a watchful eye that the action does not undermine the security of the state. For example, a cease fire and reduction in terrorism even if temporary and done by Abbas to gain progress towards a Palestinian state has more benefit for Israel than the PLO. Shifting administrative control over Arabs to the PLO benefits Israel more than the PLO. Intelligent cooperation with the PLO on tactics whilch have vectors which point more to Israel's benefit than the PLO's benefit are worth pursuing as long as the security of Israel is not jeopardized.

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