Watan-Jordanian writer and political analyst Arib al-Rantawi considered that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s demand for the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) to expedite the completion of the prisoner exchange deal with Israel is an implicit accusation of responsibility for hindrance and a free acquittal for Israel.
Abbas had stated: “We demand that Hamas expedite the completion of the prisoner exchange deal to spare our Palestinian people the horrors of another catastrophe with consequences as dire as those of the 1948 Nakba, and to prevent an Israeli attack on the city of Rafah, which would lead to thousands of casualties, suffering, and displacement of our people,” according to statements carried by the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA).
Commenting on this, al-Rantawi said: “Less than 24 hours after Abbas demanded Hamas to expedite the completion of the ceasefire and exchange deal, indirectly accusing it of responsibility for hindrance and gratuitously acquitting Israel… Netanyahu personally dealt him a blow: we will continue the war on Rafah even if the hostage exchange deal is completed… Abbas only opens his mouth to accuse Hamas, and he prefers to swallow it when it comes to servility to Israel and its arrogance.”
“العباسية” ليست #محمود_عباس ، هي حقبة بائسة في تاريخ الشعب والثورة والقضية…فيها تكرس الانقسام الأعمق والأطول في تاريخ الحركة الوطنية الفلسطينية، وفيها تآكلت #فتح وتشرذمت…وفيها هزلت #منظمة_التحرير_الفلسطينية وتحولت لملحق ذليل بالسلطة …وفيها صارت #السلطة_الفلسطينية وكيلاً…
— Oraib Al Rantawi (@OraibAlRantawi) February 18, 2024
Arib al-Rantawi: “Abbasism” is a dismal era in the history of the people, the revolution, and the cause. He believed that what he termed “Abbasism” is not just Mahmoud Abbas; it’s a dismal era in the history of the people, the revolution, and the cause, marked by the deepest and longest-running division in the history of the Palestinian national movement, where Fatah eroded and fragmented, and the Palestine Liberation Organization became a subservient appendage to the authority.
Al-Rantawi continued: “In it, the Palestinian Authority became a second-degree security agent for Israel. But ‘Abbasism’ is not just Abbas; it relies on an army of ‘former militants’ who engage in comfortable retirement rituals, convincing unemployment, endless chatter, and the echoing of past glories.”
He said: “It’s not surprising that ‘Abbasism’ and institutionalism and partnership are contradictions that don’t meet. There will be no resurrection for the Palestinian people and no future for their national cause as long as this era continues.”
On Saturday, February 17, 2024, a senior source in Hamas stated, “Negotiations cannot be conducted while hunger gnaws at the Palestinian people,” while an Israeli minister expressed the need for a long-term ceasefire for the occupation army.
The source added that Hamas intends to suspend negotiations with Israel until aid and relief are provided to the northern Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that complying with Hamas’s current demands means Israel’s defeat, and it cannot be accepted. He indicated that anyone who asks him not to launch an operation in Rafah is essentially asking him to “lose the war.”