Daily Inspiration Quote by Mahmoud Abbas

Abbas is doing two things at once: inoculating himself against the most common counterattack, while widening the moral frame beyond the usual tug-of-war over blame. The opening clause is prophylaxis. By explicitly rejecting “isolating Israel or de-legitimizing it,” he signals to Western capitals that he is not asking them to cross the red line of denying Israel’s right to exist. That reassurance is not just diplomatic courtesy; it’s a tactical bid to keep European and U.S. audiences in the conversation, where Palestinian claims are often filtered through the fear of appearing anti-Israel.

Then he pivots to a careful redefinition of “legitimacy.” The target is not a state but a set of practices: “settlement activities and the occupation and apartheid and the logic of ruthless force.” The list is designed to smuggle the struggle out of territorial bargaining and into the language of universal norms. “Apartheid” is the loaded term here: it deliberately invokes South Africa, boycotts, and the idea that you don’t negotiate your way out of a moral scandal; you dismantle it.

The subtext is pressure without owning the label. He’s aligning with the architecture of international advocacy (sanctions, boycotts, ICC scrutiny) while insisting it’s not an assault on Israel’s legitimacy. That distinction is politically convenient and rhetorically fragile, because opponents will argue that delegitimizing “apartheid” is de facto delegitimizing the state.

The final flourish - “all the countries of the world stand with us” - is classic statesman’s overreach: not a factual claim, but a performative one. It’s meant to create inevitability, to suggest that history’s tribunal has already convened and the verdict is foreordained.