Palestinian Authority PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas may be shooting himself in the head – literally – by beating the drums for violent “resistance” riots.
The latest excuse for protests against Israel was the death on Saturday of PA prisoner Arafat Jaradat, who PA official insists was tortured to death, while an autopsy in the presence of a PA legal team and doctor stated there were no signs of abuse on the body.
Regardless of the facts, Monday’s protests grew nastier doing and after Jaradat’s funeral in Hevron, featured by the usual rock-throwing at soldiers and at motorists, which the objective to cause a driver to lose control of his vehicle and up in a fatal crash.
Although incitement from PA officials has failed to enrage locals enough to turn out in massive throngs for enragement duty, Abbas is looking at the Arab street through the wrong end of the binoculars, according to an analysis by the Debka website whose writer includes former IDF intelligence officers.
If Arabs thinks he can pull the strings and start and stop riots when he wants, he will be in for a rude and possibly fatal surprise.
“He doesn’t seem to realize that parts of the PA commando force have established relations with Hamas, the rival group which rules the Gaza Strip,” the site wrote. “DEBKAfile’s military sources estimate that if the current unrest is allowed to continue unchecked, Abbas will be swept aside by the turbulence. Faceless officers will take over and the force will break up into militias and the Palestinian Authority sink into anarchy.”