On the 40th Anniversary of the so-called Six Day War, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stated that the Palestinians were on the verge of a civil war–as if he had nothing to do with it, in contrast to his predecessor.
To be sure, by signing the Oslo Agreement in 1993, the late President Yasser Arafat knowingly accepted a Palestinian Bantustan that was offered to him by Israel and the United States in the hope and expectation that it would ripen into a liberated Palestinian State within five years.
Yet, to his everlasting credit, President Arafat refused to set-off a Palestinian civil war in the name of consolidating this Oslo Bantustan, which was the ultimate objective of Israel and the United States all along.
That is precisely why President Arafat was marginalized, demonized and ultimately eliminated. Nevertheless, Israel and the United States are still doing everything humanly possible to promote a Palestinian civil war by means of arming, financing and encouraging comprador Palestinian surrogates toward that diabolical end.
To the contrary, the Palestinian People must strive to maintain their current Government of National Unity that was originally called for by Dr. Haidar Abdul Shaffi, while better organizing comprehensive resistance to the colonial Israeli military occupation regime of their State (including Jerusalem) that they had originally proclaimed on 15 November 1988 and is now recognized by about 130 other States and has Observer State Status at the United Nations Organization.
Francis A. Boyle, Professor of Law, University of Illinois, is author of Foundations of World Order, Duke University Press, The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence, and Palestine, Palestinians and International Law, by Clarity Press. He can be reached at: FBOYLE@LAW.UIUC.EDU
