Last week, an Israeli news network announced the finding of substantial evidence that the Palestinian Authority president had been recruited by Soviet intelligence during the 1980s and that his handler was none other than Mikhail Bogdanov—currently Vladimir Putin’s envoy to the Middle East at a time when Russia is intervening to broker talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Jonathan Tobin considers the significance of these revelations:
If the PA leader were to confound observers and summon up the courage to embrace peace and recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter its borders, then nothing in his past would prevent him from obtaining extensive concessions from the current Israeli government or any possible successor. . . .
[T]he connection with the anti-Semitic Soviet leadership was always more than an alliance of convenience for men like [Yasir] Arafat and Abbas. . . .
[Likewise], the rejectionism of the Palestinians wasn’t merely a strategy but an expression of their identity. Their [leaders’ sense of] national purpose was and still is inextricably linked to their century-old war against the Zionists. If men like Abbas can’t rise above their sordid past and make peace, it is not just a matter of habit, but also a natural consequence of the political culture steeped in hate that they have helped create.
Being a former Soviet agent doesn’t prevent Abbas from making peace. But it does supply a partial explanation for why he refuses to do it.
Read more on Commentary: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/does-mahmoud-abbas-kgb-past-matter/