JERUSALEM—President-elect Donald Trump is an "extremist," but the Palestinian Authority can manipulate him, according to a former authority official-turned-commentator.
"You know, Trump is a racist president, he is full of racism and is an extremist," Omar Hilmi al-Ghoul said on the Palestinian Authority's official TV station last Monday. "But at the same time, he is a dealmaker. … If we act wisely and cleverly according to the logic and mentality of Trump, it will be possible to cause a positive change in direction."
Al-Ghoul characterized Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas's congratulations to Trump on his election victory as simply "a step on the path to bridging the ties with this man."
The remarks point to the depth of the internationally funded Palestinian government's antipathy toward Trump and the United States—and the shallowness of Abbas's recent charm offensive targeting the incoming president.
"Abbas and his people hate Trump. They think he's not up to their level of humanity. They mock the way he looks. They mock the way he talks," Palestinian Media Watch founding director Itamar Marcus told the Washington Free Beacon, citing years of documentation by his Jerusalem-based watchdog group. "Now that Trump will be the president again, they think they can play him, but he should recognize exactly who they are. They see themselves as in a camp with Russia and China and the Islamic world, and they are diametrically opposed to American policy around the world."
Abbas has in recent months carried out what the New York Times called "a broad strategy to rehabilitate his once adversarial relationship with Mr. Trump." In the days following Trump's election, Abbas congratulated the president-elect in a letter and a phone call. In September, Abbas met with Massad Boulos, Trump's Arab-American campaign surrogate and the father-in-law of Trump's daughter Tiffany. In July, Abbas wrote a letter to Trump condemning the "despicable" assassination attempt against him.
"Wishing you strength and safety," Abbas signed the letter. "Respectfully."
But, in Arabic, Abbas's Palestinian Authority has continued to promulgate its usual anti-Trump and anti-American propaganda.
Palestinian lawyer Anwar Abu Eisheh said on Palestinian Authority TV on Monday, "Currently, there is international silence regarding the war in Gaza, and as you know, the political reason for this is that there is one power that rules the world, which is America. America is the plague, and the plague is America."
In recent columns for the official Palestinian Authority newspaper, Al-Hayat al-Jadida, Al-Ghoul described Trump voters as "the white and racist majority from among the evangelicals" and the United States as "the homeland of evil and global terror."
Muwaffaq Matar, another Al-Hayat al-Jadida columnist, predicted ahead of the U.S. election that Trump "will exceed Adolf Hitler due to the strengthening of his belief in 'racial superiority.'"
Mahmoud al-Habbash, Abbas's religious affairs adviser, said on Egyptian TV in September that "the U.S. is the true criminal in this war."
"Honestly, I don't distinguish between a Democratic administration and a Republican administration," Al-Habbash added. "Both of them are equally bad, and both of them are enemies of the Arab cause and the Palestinian cause in the same way."
Abbas's congratulatory phone call with Trump was the first time the two leaders have spoken in seven years. Trump in his first term recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, slashed aid to the Palestinians, advanced a peace plan that was seen as favorable to Israel, and oversaw regional normalization with the Jewish state. Abbas responded by boycotting the Trump administration and bitterly attacking the then-president.
"May God demolish your house," Abbas said of Trump in a January 2018 speech.
The offices of the Palestinian Authority's president and prime minster did not respond to requests for comment.