One might expect that an unpopular leader facing an upcoming election and narrowing diplomatic horizons would bend over backwards to stay in the good graces of an American president who has already remitted $90 million in aid money and promised to be more favorable than his predecessor. But such laws of political gravity don’t seem to apply to the Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas, as Ruthie Blum explains:
In mid-February, Secretary of State Antony Blinken personally phoned Abbas, undoubtedly to discuss all the goodies that the PA could anticipate from President Biden and company, and perhaps to wish him well in the upcoming elections. But rather than bask in the attention that he was receiving from America’s top diplomat, Abbas refused to take the call.
Yes, the head of the tiny terrorism-supporting entity was deeply offended that someone of Blinken’s “inferior” stature was on the line. Abbas, after all, had demanded that Biden himself initiate the conversation, “president to president.”
Instead of warning Abbas not to overestimate his standing in the world relative to that of the secretary of state, Blinken accepted the snub. . . . Ramallah and Washington are now discussing the option of Blinken’s holding the chat with the PA prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh or the senior PA official Hussein al-Sheikh.
Abbas’s gall is not new and has served the PA ruler well with the international community, which has elevated him to ill-deserved heights. This is due to an unfounded, knee-jerk opposition to Israel, not to the way in which he rules his own people, who view him with disdain and outrage.
Read more on JNS: https://www.jns.org/opinion/abbass-snubs-work-like-a-charm-on-biden/