Abbas at Mount Herzl: A Complex Man at a Complex Moment | Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to attend Shimon Peres’s funeral on Mount Herzl – a highly meaningful Zionist site, and extolled as such by President Obama – should not be taken lightly. It required atypical courage from a man in fragile health, much reviled by many Palestinians, at a time of myriad conspiracies against him. This was another milestone in a complex journey that has taken Abbas from the service of the Soviet Union to an American orientation, and taught him the futility of the “armed struggle.” He does continue, however, to lionize “lone wolf” murderers, and to insist that Israel cannot be recognized as the nation state of the Jewish People.