NEWSRAEL: The Palestinians have constantly sided with enemies of the United States. Starting with the Palestinian support of Nazi Germany, they went on to support:
The USSR and Communist China. Khomeini of Iran. Kadhafi in Libya. Sadaam Hussein (twice). And now they are support Assad in Syria.
Even so - the (mostly Democrat) administrations keep supporting the Palestinians.
Mahmoud Abbas has sent a delegation to Damascus to deliver a letter to Bashar Assad, expressing support and a desire for closer relations. It’s part — a distinctly unimportant part — of a wider effort by Arab states to bring Syria back into the Arab fold, and to pressure it, at the same time, to cut its ties to Iran.
A report on the visit is here: “Palestinian Authority Signals Warmer Ties With Syria’s Assad,” i24 News, January 9, 2022:
A group of envoys representing the Palestinian Authority delivered a letter for Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday [November 9], in the latest instance of warming relations between Arab powers and the formerly shunned Damascus ruler.
The delegation — led by Jibril Rajoub, secretary general of the Fatah Central Committee — convened with Syria’s Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad while on a visit to Damascus.
The letter, from PA President Mahmoud Abbas, “affirms the depth of relations between the Palestinians and Syrians and the Palestinian leadership’s desire to strengthen its relations with Syria,” delegation member Ahmed Hils said, according to The Jerusalem Post.
The visit marks the latest in a series of overtures signaling closer ties with Assad, and could preface a possible return of Damascus to the Arab League, a regional organization of Arab states from which Syria was suspended in 2011.
In November, United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed also met with Assad to discuss bilateral ties and opportunities for cooperation in the region.
News of the meeting [between Syrian’s Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad and the P.A. delegation] drew alarm from the United States, prompting State Department spokesman Ned Price to voice Washington’s anxieties to reporters.
“We are concerned by reports of this meeting and the signal that it sends,” Price said, adding, “This administration will not express any support for efforts to normalize or rehabilitate Bashar al-Assad, who is a brutal dictator.”
The P.A.’s embrace of Assad takes place at a time when he has won his civil war, having regained control of all of Syria save for a small area around Idlib. During the civil war Iran provided Assad with financial support of at least $30 billion, as well as logistical support, great quantities of arms, training, and several thousand combat troops. But having won, Assad no longer needs Iran as he once did.
What Assad really needs now is money to rebuild his shattered country. The estimated cost of rebuilding Syria’s infrastructure is $400 billion. Iran cannot help with that. Iran’s currency has lost 90% of its value in the last two years. Its GDP is one-third what it was two years ago. It is currently in the 10th year of a historic drought that has devastated Iranian agriculture. Sixty-percent of Iranians now are living below the poverty level. Iran’s cupboard is bare; it has even had to cut its annual subsidy to Hezbollah by two hundred million dollars. It Is only the rich Arab states of the Gulf – the U.A.E., Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and, especially, Saudi Arabia, that have the wherewithal to help pay for Syria’s reconstruction.