Ramallah wore an unsettlingly sterile look in the summer of 2012. I had gone there to interview Nimer Hammad, one of the key political advisers to president Mahmoud Abbas, at the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority.
The compound, once the nucleus of Palestine's struggle for statehood, now looked a listless memorial to a forgotten cause. Dr Hammad was full of despair. President Abbas had delivered what the Israelis expected of him – peace in the West Bank – and the Israelis were repaying his effort by ignoring his plea for an end to the occupation.
That summer, tens of thousands of Israelis poured into the streets of Tel Aviv to protest against rising costs; not a voice was raised against the occupation of the West Bank. Palestine, by virtue of the peace created by Abbas, had ceased to be a burning issue in
Israeli politics.
I did the rounds of two other Palestinian ministries that day, and the mood in both places was identical.
Palestinian officials felt they were rehearsing for a show they would never be permitted to put on – certainly not as long as Benjamin Netanyahu was prime minister of Israel. But if they were frustrated with Netanyahu, they were terrified of their fellow Palestinians, whose rage, accumulating under the surface for more than a decade, they feared might explode at any time.
Young Palestinians increasingly regarded the leadership of the Palestinian Authority less as an advocate of their freedom and more as an abetter of their occupation. The status quo was untenable.
Five years on, president Abbas is still in power in the West Bank. Netanyahu is still the prime minister of Israel. And the occupation is still in place. But the appearance of stability, if it can be called that, is deceptive.
Gaza has moved further away from the West Bank. Palestinian nationalism is fractured between competing visions: quasi-secularist, Islamist, and, in Hamas's case, nihilist.
The growth of multiple power centres has diminished Abbas. And the goal of national liberation is jeopardised by the absence of a unifying voice.
The Last Palestinian, by Grant Rumley and Amir Tibon, is a lament for a lost opportunity. The authors expertly chart the rise and reign of Abbas – and the tantalising possibilities for peace that disappeared as quickly as they appeared.
Rumley and Tibon can seem like an odd duo: the former is a fellow at the conservative Defence of Democracies think tank in Washington DC, while the latter is the Washington correspondent of the prestigious left-wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz. But the authorial pairing pays off.
One gets the sense that each writer has tempered the biases of the other.
The authors' emphasis on Abbas's failures can convey the feeling that they are amplifying the Israeli view of recent history. (Their argument, for instance, that Abbas "has failed to prepare his people for the concessions necessary to live peaceably" with their neighbours is equally applicable to Israeli leaders.) But this is a book about Abbas, not his Israeli counterparts. And to their credit, Rumley and Tibon supply plenty of detail about the failures of Israel's leaders.
The Abbases were among the 700,000 or so Palestinians dispossessed almost overnight by the partition plan passed at the United Nations in November 1947. Their village, Safed, where Jews and Arabs had long lived in harmony, fell to the Zionist Haganah militia the following year.
"I felt an overpowering urge to turn and cast a glance backwards, as if to cement Safed's familiar details," Abbas later wrote in a poignant recollection of his flight from the city. "I felt I might not see it again".
The experience might have devoured the soul of others. But growing up in dire poverty as a refugee in Syria, Abbas did not cultivate personal hatred for Jews. Even when he joined Fatah, the organisation led by Yasser Arafat, he was not involved in its militant ventures. Abbas made himself indispensable to the group as a fundraiser and a resident expert on Israeli politics, rose in the ranks, and became,
to the extent that anyone could, the moderating influence on Arafat.
A decade after the Six-Day War in 1967 – when Israel annexed the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem – Abbas entered into negotiations with an Israeli general. Together they hammered out a plan for the establishment
of a Palestinian state
alongside Israel.
Abbas's courageous departure from Fatah's traditional stance invited accusations of treachery from within – and brought no recognition from Israel. This was the start of a pattern: engagement with Israel in defiance of Palestinian opinion, failure to obtain results, hostility from Palestinians, indifference from the Israelis, no recognition from the world.
Rumley and Tibon give Abbas his due in the fashioning of the Oslo Accords, which created self-governance structures for Palestinians, granted them some control over security, and brought legitimacy to Arafat.
Abbas and his Israeli counterpart, foreign minister (and future prime minister and president) Shimon Peres, put their signatures to the agreement at the White House in 1993. Yet the Nobel Committee overlooked Abbas when it announced the following year's Peace Prize winners, restricting it to Arafat, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and, galling for Abbas, Peres.
"I'm the equivalent of Peres on the Palestinian side", Abbas is said to have complained to the Norwegians.
The Nobel Peace Prize would have raised Abbas's international profile and might even have furthered the cause of peace. The oversight by the Norwegians didn't, however, deter him from seeking out partners in Israel.
Over the next two years he negotiated a settlement – "the most balanced proposal for peace" – with Israelis that satisfied all parties. Abbas even leaned on Arab-Israeli legislators to back the fragile government of Rabin, whose premiership was under threat from conservative partners aghast at his concessions to Arafat. Rabin, who in all likelihood would have approved the so-called Beilin-Abu Mazen plan, was assassinated in 1995 by a Jewish extremist.
Peres, who replaced Rabin, shelved the proposal: he didn't want to be seen as weak. In an attempt to appear tough – to propitiate Israeli extremists – he ordered the assassination of a Hamas operative.
This was a grave miscalculation by Peres. Hamas retaliated with a fierce campaign of terror. Peres was weakened. And Israelis elected Netanyahu – a man who immediately took to destroying Abbas's credibility with the Palestinian people by urging him to persuade Arafat to make concessions, and then withholding the rewards he promised in return.
Rumley and Tibon fault Abbas for failing to take up the peace offer put forth by former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert in 2008, and for rejecting "a historic peace plan" proposed by United States president Barack Obama in 2014.
This seems harsh. In 2008, Abbas was dealing with an Israeli prime minister hobbled by allegations of corruption; the plan had no prospects for success. In 2014, it was far from clear what was so "historic" about Obama's proposal. In any event, there was no indication at the time that Netanyahu was willing to make any compromise.
When he became president in 2005, the scholars Hussein Agha and Robert Malley called Abbas the only "genuinely national Palestinian figure" after Arafat.
Today, Abbas is the last man of whom this can be said. Agha and Malley argued at the time that Abbas won the presidency "because more than any other Palestinian leader today, his political inclinations are in harmony with his people's immediate priorities". Today, Abbas rules without a mandate. The disappointments with Israelis have made him turn inward.
Since 2007, when Hamas took power in Gaza, his principal preoccupation has been holding on to power.
And, as Rumley and Tibon correctly point out, since 2014, he has gone "from bureaucrat to despot".
He hasn't strengthened institutions or mentored leaders. There is something tragic, and tragically pathetic, about Abbas in old age: a once-scrupulous man who, having allowed himself to be duped by Netanyahu, now directs his impotent rage at his own people.
__________________________
Read more:
Lawrence Osborne on his latest novel and obsession with foreign places
My favourite reads: Nick March
My favourite reads: Felicity Campbell
__________________________
Saturday's schedule at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
GP3 race, 12:30pm
Formula 1 final practice, 2pm
Formula 1 qualifying, 5pm
Formula 2 race, 6:40pm
Performance: Sam Smith
ABU DHABI ORDER OF PLAY
Starting at 10am:
Daria Kasatkina v Qiang Wang
Veronika Kudermetova v Annet Kontaveit (10)
Maria Sakkari (9) v Anastasia Potapova
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Ons Jabeur (15)
Donna Vekic (16) v Bernarda Pera
Ekaterina Alexandrova v Zarina Diyas
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Dr Amal Khalid Alias revealed a recent case of a woman with daughters, who specifically wanted a boy.
A semen analysis of the father showed abnormal sperm so the couple required IVF.
Out of 21 eggs collected, six were unused leaving 15 suitable for IVF.
A specific procedure was used, called intracytoplasmic sperm injection where a single sperm cell is inserted into the egg.
On day three of the process, 14 embryos were biopsied for gender selection.
The next day, a pre-implantation genetic report revealed four normal male embryos, three female and seven abnormal samples.
Day five of the treatment saw two male embryos transferred to the patient.
The woman recorded a positive pregnancy test two weeks later.
'Laal Kaptaan'
Director: Navdeep Singh
Stars: Saif Ali Khan, Manav Vij, Deepak Dobriyal, Zoya Hussain
Rating: 2/5
Origin
Dan Brown
Doubleday
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
The%20specs
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What is a Ponzi scheme?
A fraudulent investment operation where the scammer provides fake reports and generates returns for old investors through money paid by new investors, rather than through ligitimate business activities.
Tips%20for%20holiday%20homeowners
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RESULTS
%3Cp%3E%0D%3Cstrong%3E5pm%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EWathba%20Stallions%20Cup%20%E2%80%93%20Handicap%20(PA)%20Dh70%2C000%20(Turf)%202%2C200m%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EWinner%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAl%20Hazeez%2C%20Saif%20Al%20Balushi%20(jockey)%2C%20Khalifa%20Al%20Neyadi%20(trainer)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E5.30pm%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EShams%20Gate%20Tower%20%E2%80%93%20Maiden%20(PA)%20Dh80%2C000%20(T)%201%2C200m%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EWinner%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20ES%20Sudani%2C%20Antonio%20Fresu%2C%20Hamad%20Al%20Marar%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E6pm%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Al%20Bahr%20Towers%20%E2%80%93%20Handicap%20(PA)%20Dh80%2C000%20(T)%201%2C200m%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EWinner%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20AF%20Musannef%2C%20Tadhg%20O%E2%80%99Shea%2C%20Ernst%20Oertel%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E6.30pm%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Capital%20Gate%20%E2%80%93%20Maiden%20(PA)%20Dh80%2C000%20(T)%201%2C600m%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EWinner%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Shugga'A%20Baynounah%2C%20Dane%20O%E2%80%99Neill%2C%20Nisren%20Mahgoub%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E7pm%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEtihad%20Towers%20%E2%80%93%20Conditions%20(PA)%20Dh80%2C000%20(T)%201%2C600m%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EWinner%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAF%20Maqam%2C%20Tadhg%20O%E2%80%99Shea%2C%20Ernst%20Oertel%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E7.30pm%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Fairmont%20Marina%20%E2%80%93%20Maiden%20(TB)%20Dh80%2C000%20(T)%201%2C600m%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EWinner%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ETempesta%20D'Oro%2C%20Xavier%20Ziani%2C%20Salem%20bin%20Ghadayer%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Brief scores:
Toss: Sindhis, elected to field first
Pakhtoons 137-6 (10 ov)
Fletcher 68 not out; Cutting 2-14
Sindhis 129-8 (10 ov)
Perera 47; Sohail 2-18
Key fixtures from January 5-7
Watford v Bristol City
Liverpool v Everton
Brighton v Crystal Palace
Bournemouth v AFC Fylde or Wigan
Coventry v Stoke City
Nottingham Forest v Arsenal
Manchester United v Derby
Forest Green or Exeter v West Brom
Tottenham v AFC Wimbledon
Fleetwood or Hereford v Leicester City
Manchester City v Burnley
Shrewsbury v West Ham United
Wolves v Swansea City
Newcastle United v Luton Town
Fulham v Southampton
Norwich City v Chelsea
The biog
Place of birth: Kalba
Family: Mother of eight children and has 10 grandchildren
Favourite traditional dish: Al Harees, a slow cooked porridge-like dish made from boiled cracked or coarsely ground wheat mixed with meat or chicken
Favourite book: My early life by Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, the Ruler of Sharjah
Favourite quote: By Sheikh Zayed, the UAE's Founding Father, “Those who have no past will have no present or future.”
MATCH INFO
Euro 2020 qualifier
Ukraine 2 (Yaremchuk 06', Yarmolenko 27')
Portugal 1 (Ronaldo 72' pen)
Formula%204%20Italian%20Championship%202023%20calendar
%3Cp%3EApril%2021-23%3A%20Imola%3Cbr%3EMay%205-7%3A%20Misano%3Cbr%3EMay%2026-28%3A%20SPA-Francorchamps%3Cbr%3EJune%2023-25%3A%20Monza%3Cbr%3EJuly%2021-23%3A%20Paul%20Ricard%3Cbr%3ESept%2029-Oct%201%3A%20Mugello%3Cbr%3EOct%2013-15%3A%20Vallelunga%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Feeding the thousands for iftar
Six industrial scale vats of 500litres each are used to cook the kanji or broth
Each vat contains kanji or porridge to feed 1,000 people
The rice porridge is poured into a 500ml plastic box
350 plastic tubs are placed in one container trolley
Each aluminium container trolley weighing 300kg is unloaded by a small crane fitted on a truck
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The specs
Engine: 4 liquid-cooled permanent magnet synchronous electric motors placed at each wheel
Battery: Rimac 120kWh Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (LiNiMnCoO2) chemistry
Power: 1877bhp
Torque: 2300Nm
Price: Dh7,500,00
On sale: Now
The Bio
Favourite place in UAE: Al Rams pearling village
What one book should everyone read: Any book written before electricity was invented. When a writer willingly worked under candlelight, you know he/she had a real passion for their craft
Your favourite type of pearl: All of them. No pearl looks the same and each carries its own unique characteristics, like humans
Best time to swim in the sea: When there is enough light to see beneath the surface
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
UAE and Russia in numbers
UAE-Russia ties stretch back 48 years
Trade between the UAE and Russia reached Dh12.5 bn in 2018
More than 3,000 Russian companies are registered in the UAE
Around 40,000 Russians live in the UAE
The number of Russian tourists travelling to the UAE will increase to 12 percent to reach 1.6 million in 2023
