Who cares what Mahmoud Abbas said in his eulogy for the late PLO finance director Fuad Shubaki?
We should all care – very much. Because in Abbas’s words, we see all too clearly the true attitudes and intentions of the chairman of the Palestinian Authority.
According to the PA’s Wafa news agency, Abbas “expressed deep sorrow” at Shubaki’s passing last week, at the age of 84. Abbas “praised Shubaki’s exceptional life and contributions to the Palestinian cause,” Wafa announced.
He “highlighted the late leader’s steadfast commitment to the Palestinian Revolution, his leadership role within the Fatah movement, and his tireless efforts in defending the rights of the Palestinian people and their just struggle for freedom and independence.”
Abbas also “offered his heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased” and to “his fellow comrades in the struggle.”
So who was this man that Abbas considers such a wonderful hero?
Fuad Shubaki devoted his entire life to murdering Israeli Jews and seeking the destruction of Israel. He started on the path before there were any “settlements” or “occupied territories.” Wafa tells us that Shubaki “was one of the first to join the Palestinian fedayeen movement in the mid-1960s.”
In other words, the territory Shubaki and his fellow terrorists were trying to “liberate” was pre-1967 Israel.
We may not know exactly which attacks Shubaki carried out, but his Wafa obituary makes it clear that he had plenty of Jewish blood on his hands: “He underwent training in the camps of the Palestinian revolution and participated in its battles.”
Shubaki soon rose to the leadership ranks of the terror movement.
He became a member of both the Palestinian National Council and Fatah’s Revolutionary Council. Then Yasser Arafat appointed him to manage Fatah’s “military financial administration,” Wafa reports.
Shubaki followed Arafat from Gaza to Jordan. When the Jordanians expelled them, Shubaki followed Arafat to Lebanon, then from there to Tunisia, all the while devoting himself to financing the bombers, snipers, grenade-hurlers, stabbers, and rock-throwers waging jihad against Israel.
Then came Oslo. Arafat, Abbas, and Shubaki declared they would live in peace with Israel. They signed the first Oslo Accord in 1993 and the second (Oslo II) in 1995. They pledged they were giving up terrorism, promised to arrest and extradite terrorists, and to stop teaching anti-Jewish hatred in their schools.
Those promises didn’t hold up very well. Within weeks, terrorism resumed. Arafat set up thinly disguised front groups, such as the “Fatah Hawks” and the “Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade,” to carry out the attacks so that he would not be directly blamed.
Israel requested the extradition of terrorists; Arafat ignored them. Israel asked Arafat to stop making jihad speeches; Arafat laughed at them. And Shubaki continued arranging the funds for terror.
On the morning of January 3, 2002, the Oslo myth was shattered, once and for all. That was when Israeli forces intercepted the Karine A, the ship carrying 50 tons of weapons to Gaza. It was Shubaki who arranged to purchase them from Iran.
Fifty tons – 100,000 pounds – of Katyusha rockets, mortar shells, Kalashnikov assault rifles, sniper rifles, anti-tank missiles, anti-tank mines, ammunition, and explosives.
Abbas is no "man of peace"
In short, Arafat, Abbas and Shubaki, the “men of peace,” were stocking up for war. The Oslo agreements had been a ruse. The Palestinian Arab leader had never intended to live in peace with Israel. The accords were just a way for them to gain control of Gaza and the major Arab cities in Judea-Samaria; to create a de facto army posing as a security force; to shelter fugitive terrorists; and to build up a vast arsenal of weapons.
If Abbas really wants peace – as J Street and the State Department keep telling us – he would not have heaped praise on Shubaki in his eulogy. He would have said that Shubaki was wrong to participate in terrorist attacks, wrong to serve as a leader of a terrorist movement, and wrong to arrange the purchase of 50 tons of weapons.
If Abbas is really a moderate – as most of the international news media keep claiming – he would have announced that the PA will not be providing any payments to Shubaki’s family. But instead, the Shubaki family will be added to the ever-growing list of families of dead terrorists that receive monthly payments from the PA.
That’s what Abbas does for those whom he considers heroes.
So if you want to know what Mahmoud Abbas really thinks about Israel, peace, and terrorism, just read his eulogy for Fuad Shubaki. Everything you need to know can be found there.
The writer is national chairman of Americans For A Safe Israel, a leading pro-Israel advocacy and education organization.