Obama's Planned Visit With Abbas At Ramallah And The Mixed Signals It Will Send

Shoshana Bryen, Senior Director of The Jewish Policy Center, writes about Obama's visit to Israel and the implications of Obama at Ramallah.

Bryen notes the comparison with the Obama administration's unquestioned support for Egypt, both while continuing US support for Mubarak as well as its current unquestioning support for the extremist Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi -- where both dictators flout democracy --

So too on the West Bank. The PA is corrupt, spendthrift, and repressive. A wave of public demonstrations against the government beginning last year and continuing through January has been met with violent repression. Only some of the protests were directed at Abbas' engagement with Israel. Others focused on police brutality, the cost of living, government-imposed austerity measures, and Abbas himself. Salam Fayyed, the unelected prime minister and favorite of the U.S., has been the focus of popular unhappiness over limited economic prospects. Pro-Abbas gangs have assaulted protesters, according to Palestinian media sources, and journalists have been arrested and beaten.

Senior Palestinian officials, happy to have Western activists supporting their anti-Israel activities, were furious to find them marching with Palestinians against PA corruption. "The involvement of Western nationals in protests against the Palestinian Authority is completely unacceptable," one official said. "We will be forced to cut off all ties with non-Palestinians who incite against the Palestinian leadership."

The U.S. should find such heavy-handed behavior against civilians unacceptable.

But will it?

Or will the Obama administration's renewed interest in pushing for peace talks be used to legitimize dealing with President Abbas -- now in the 9th year of his 4 year term -- and the unelected Prime Minister Fayyad.

As Bryen notes, the implied support of Obama for the Abbas regime, on behalf of Israel no less, could just as well serve not to push the Palestinian Arabs towards peace talks, but rather towards support of the Hamas terrorists and rejection of both the US and Israel.

Read the whole thing.

Lucky for us that despite years of trying, Fatah and Hamas have yet been able to resolve their differences in the interests of a unity government -- and keep mind that the Obama claims that the prospect of the "moderate" Abbas forming a unity government with Hamas -- which is after all on the US list of terrorists -- is a purely "internal" affair and not a concern.

So much for the confused signals coming out of the Obama White House.

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