Why Has Wikileaks Left Abbas Unscathed?

Abbas says the Wikileaks documents are scandalous for everyone except him. He may be onto something:

Abbas said the WikiLeaks documents “are scandalous.”

However, he added, “not a single thing in the notes incriminates us. Let the entire world know that what we tell the Americans or Israel we say at the [Fatah] Central Council and we say it everywhere. We had nothing to fear.”

Apparently, Abbas misses the point:
the diplomatic cables being leaked by Wikileaks concern the actions that various countries are contemplating--'action' being the operative word.

That would leave Abbas out.

Abbas himself has made a point of saying that he is content to do nothing at all:

I will wait for Hamas to accept international commitments. I will wait for Israel to freeze settlements.Until then, in the West Bank we have a good reality . . . the people are living a normal life.

If anything, Abbas has made an art out of being the Palestinian president-in-waiting:

"We are willing to have a cease-fire, and we have informed the Israelis of this and we are waiting for an answer from them as soon as possible," Abbas told reporters Thursday, before leaving the West Bank for visits to Jordan, Egypt, Switzerland, Russia and Turkey.
Abbas, January 2005

---

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with Abbas and offered a number of concessions aimed at strengthening him.

Rice had described the meeting as a reason for optimism.

While Abbas said on Sunday that it was a good meeting, he also said, delicately, that "we are waiting for the application of our agreements."
Abbas, January 2007

---

What is required of Netanyahu, then, is to recognize the commitments of former Israeli governments and to look to the future. If he accepts this, then we can resume our talks to continue what we had already begun following the Annapolis conference. All things are clear for us and for the Israelis, all issues, all dossiers, and we are ready to continue in case he accepts this. After all, we are waiting for what will happen between Obama and Netanyahu.
Abbas, July 2009

---

“We are waiting for justice from the international community. We have been waiting for a long time, and we have the patience to wait some more. We will not despair.”
Abbas, June 2010

With Abbas perpetually sitting and waiting  for everything to just fall into his lap--and refusing to come to the peace talks--it is not as if he is actually saying and doing an awful lot that would appear in these leaked cables.

Besides, the focus of Wikileaks is on what the diplomats and other officials are saying, not the leaders. What Abbas has been doing, for example Abbas's consistent incitement of hate against Israel has been documented by websites such as Palestine Media Watch.

No, Abbas has nothing to fear from Wikileaks.
Only people who actually act on behalf of their country--for good or ill--need be afraid of that.

Technorati Tag: Wikileaks and Abbas.