Despite Incitement, Abbas Still Seen By Washington As Better Than Any Possible Alternative

Jonathan Schanzer, the vice president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the author of a book about the PA titled State of Failure, said Abbas was walking a high wire, accommodating anti-Israel sentiment while helping to rein in violence. The danger, Schanzer said, is that the violence may not be easy to control, something Abbas’s predecessor Yasir Arafat discovered amid the second intifada in the early 2000s.

“What he’s doing now is trying to ride the wave of this sentiment,” he said. “He’s flirting with embracing a popular uprising. You get a sense he’s walking in Arafat’s footsteps.”

(JTA)