Mahmoud Abbas Just Did Something Right

The Palestinian Authority leader just made a bold move during wartime. It’s time for Israel to see him as part of the solution in Gaza. Trump should force the issue.

In an unusually forceful address today, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas did something very unusual for an Arab leader: He took a risk with bold statements and moral clarity. “Sons of dogs, hand over the hostages,” he said in a televised Wednesday speech, calling out Hamas for prolonging a war that has brought catastrophe to both sides and demanding that Hamas relinquish control of Gaza and surrender its weapons.

This was not some vague diplomatic gesture – and it was the furthest-reaching statement I may have ever heard from a major Arab leader directed at Hamas. Indeed, it is exactly what Israel has been desperately waiting to hear from some Arab leader – in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia or Qatar. And it matters. Because whether one sees Abbas as weak, corrupt, or merely out of time, there is no mistaking the significance of a wartime Palestinian president essentially taking Israel’s side on core issues — hostage release and Hamas disarmament.

From the Israeli government – a train wreck that’s reckless and feckless in equal measure – there was the sound, of course, of crickets. So Donald Trump, who has essentially given Israel carte blanche, might use it as the excuse for a pivot: Israel’s war is going nowhere, and if Trump really wants it over he needs to urgently talk to Netanyahu about Abbas.

To understand how significant this is, it's worth recalling Abbas’s own previous caution.