As the United Nations leads the humanitarian battle cry against Israel, demanding Jerusalem lift the Gaza naval blockade, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) during his White House meeting with President Barak Obama last week asked that the naval blockade remain in place, well-aware that his waning popularity would be additionally compromised by such a move. The daily Haaretz reports the PA leader, who enjoys the backing of the international community as the PA ‘moderate’, made the request of the White House during last week’s meeting.

As the international community condemns Israel’s recent Mavi Marama commando operation, and Israel is panicking as efforts to establish an acceptable commission of inquiry in the hope of satisfying the Western community, the PA is calling to leave the embargo in place, not to change the current situation, apparently more concerned with Abu Mazen’s popularity than with the alleged dire humanitarian situation in Hamas-controlled Gaza.

In essence, both Abu Mazen and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh have the slightest concern for any of the residents of Gaza of PA autonomous areas, but they do remain focused on the empathy of the international community, which is measured by donor dollars, the same dollars and euros that filled the coffers of the late arch terrorist Yasser Arafat and his widow Suha, and now Abu Mazen, Haniyeh and their cronies, as the tons and tons of aid regularly infused into Gaza are taken by the Hamas powerbrokers who have established a lucrative black market at the expense of the international community and local Gaza residents.

At present, the White House will have to decide how to proceed. On the one hand, the president has dedicated a major portion of his Mideast policies to backing Israel into a corner but now, such actions regarding the naval blockade contradict the agenda of the PA’s moderate leadership.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)