Israel Matzav

Abu Mazen's Heroes and Israeli Delusions

Israelis like to believe that Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen is our 'peace partner' and wants 'peace' with us. They continue to do so despite all evidence to the contrary. Many Israeli leaders also systematically delude themselves to believe that Abu Mazen wants 'peace' with them. But his pronouncements of peace are tactical and - like his mentor Yasser Arafat - what he says in English is not what he says in Arabic.

Just two days after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called him a "very decent human being" who is "opposed to terror," 'Palestinian President' Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen has called Arab terrorists who are serving "tens of life sentences" in Israeli jails "our heroes," according to an email that I received this week from Palestine Media Watch's Itamar Marcus and Barbara Cook.

In a statement on PA TV on May 23 about the jailed terrorists' recent "conciliation plan" between Fatah and Hamas, Mahmoud Abbas expressed his satisfaction with the: "initiative of our brothers, our jailed heroes, who have presented a similar initiative [for dialogue] . . . the initiative proves that these heroes, who are sentenced to tens of life sentences, feel too that the homeland is in danger..."

This is consistent with Abu Mazen's past behavior, for, as PMW points out, "even in his so-called "condemnations" of terror attacks, Abbas has always been careful in Arabic not to condemn terror because it is evil or immoral. He has criticized suicide terror only because it hurts the PA cause, as he did after the December 2005 suicide attack that killed five in Netanya."

People who are 'tired of fighting' will take any bone thrown at them - even if it is a bone from which they are in danger of choking.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:41 PM