War & Peace Quote by Mahmoud Abbas

A Palestinian leader publicly “putting himself in Israel’s shoes” is not just empathy; it’s strategy. Abbas is speaking in the grammar of statecraft, where recognition is currency and every sentence is a bid for legitimacy. The line “They are humans just like we are” sounds obvious, but in a conflict where each side is routinely reduced to symbols, it’s a deliberate rebuke of dehumanization - and a signal to international audiences that his camp is the one capable of normal politics.

The phrasing does careful work. “Peace and security inside their borders” accepts Israel’s core demand while leaving the most explosive question - which borders? - conveniently unresolved. It’s an olive branch with a legal footnote hidden in the leaves. Abbas avoids the language of historical guilt or moral accusation and instead foregrounds reciprocity: if Israelis want safety, Palestinians do too, and the only grown-up conversation is about how to guarantee both.

The subtext is also internal. For a leader often attacked as too conciliatory, empathy becomes a way to claim the moral high ground without conceding concrete terms. He can present himself as the reasonable interlocutor - the antidote to maximalism - while implicitly challenging Israel to mirror that recognition. In diplomatic theater, this is a classic move: concede humanity first, so that any refusal to concede rights later looks like a choice, not an inevitability.