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Yoram Dori

Who can be accused about the new chaos in Europe?

The British majority decision to leave the EU — Brexit — is now the most important issue in the mass media in Europe and the whole world. Therefore, almost every world- known politician will make his or her comments on this controversial issue.

One of those who will be offering an opinion is the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas.

I can imagine a very interesting event which will take place a month or more from today. It will be a special meeting of the European Parliament in Brussels. The only issue on the agenda will be the relations between the EU and UK after the referendum.

A special keynote speaker will be the President of the Palestinian authority, Mr. Mahmoud Abbas known as Abu Mazen.

Mr. Abbas will open his remarks with a lot of niceties to members of the Parliament. He will add additional sentences regarding the difficult subject on the agenda and its effect on the Europe economy.

After his opening remarks, Mr. Abbas will refer to what he thinks is the most important issue on the table: who is responsible for the U.K decision to leave the EU.

Nobody will be surprised to hear a brilliant speech in which he will put Israel and Zionism in the center of the British decision. Not direct accusations, as he is clever enough to understand that the gap between his speech and reality is unbridgeable. So nobody will be able to find a direct link between the referendum decision and Zionism. One sentence will describe the decision. The following one will describe the evil of the Israeli occupation.  It will be logical for the audience to make the link between both. In the listeners state of mind Zionism and Israel will be responsible for the economic damage to the world economy.

A day or two after his speech (when everybody will be convinced about Israel’s responsibility) Mr. Abbas will retract and explain that he didn’t mean to accuse Israel and unfortunately his statement was wrongly understood.

The damage to Israel’s image will be done and Mr. Abbas will be able to stand with clean hands in the arena of international public opinion.

The scenario I described has nothing to do with my basic belief that the only way to reach an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians is through direct negotiations based on the two states solution which is close to the 67 borders.

Furthermore we have to assimilate that we are not choosing our neighbor’s and their leadership as they don’t elect ours.

About the Author
Yoram Dori is a longtime political and media strategic adviser. He served as the spokesman of the Israel labor party under the chairmanship of Ytzchak Rabin and served as the senior strategic adviser to Shimon Peres since 1990