Israel Matzav

Dear President Bush, Abu Mazen is not a 'man of peace'

Dear President Bush,

Yesterday, blogger Daniel Drezner penned a letter to you in which he called on you to 'stop worrying about Iran,' to 'leave it in limbo' and to 'worry about other things instead.' You have apparently taken Drezner's advice, because yesterday afternoon you 'discussed' the Middle East, and returned to the delusion that solving the 'Palestinian problem' will resolve all the region's crises.

To accept that falsehood, you had to accept another one: that the 'Palestinians,' the fictitious 'people' created by the twenty-two Arab states as a tool for pursuing the evisceration of the Jewish state and the genocide of the Jewish people, have chosen a president who is committed to peace. But the man whom you call Mahmoud Abbas, who is known in this part of the world by his nom de guerre, Abu Mazen, is not a man of peace, and cutting off 22% of the 21% of the British Mandate of Palestine that is now called Israel and giving it to his 'people' will not bring peace to the Middle East or to anyplace else in the world. Please allow me to enlighten you about the real Abu Mazen. When you understand who he is and what he represents, you should understand why a 'Palestinian' state in the areas of Judea, Samaria and Gaza cannot ever be a proper, functioning state among the nations of the world.

Abu Mazen is not a man of peace. He is an anti-Semite and at least an accessory to murder. Abu Mazen is a Holocaust denier. He wrote his doctoral thesis in 1982 at the Moscow Institute for Oriental Studies. The heading of his doctoral thesis was: "Zionist leadership and the Nazis." The introduction dealt, among other topics, with a loaded issue: How many Jews perished in the Holocaust. In the Soviet period, especially in the anti-Israel institute that Abu Mazen attended, they often dealt with such questions. The Soviet Union, more than any other country, was addicted to Holocaust denial. The victims were not recognized by their origin, but rather by their nationality. And this is what the diligent researcher Abu Mazen wrote:

World War Two caused the death of 40 million people from different parts of the world. Ten million Germans, 20 million Soviets, and more…Rumors at the end of the war said that 6 million of the world's Jews were among the victims in the war of extermination that was waged against the Jewish people and later on against other peoples. The fact is that no one can confirm this number or deny it. The number could be 6 million, but it could be much smaller, perhaps even smaller than one million.

"Many researchers who discussed the number reached the unconventional conclusion that it is no more than several hundred thousand," he wrote. Later on, Abu Mazen quotes a Holocaust denier who claimed that "at first the Zionists spoke about 12 million Jews who were killed in the death camps. They later narrowed the number down to 6 and to 4 million. It is not possible that the Germans murdered more Jews than existed in the world at the time." He quotes another Holocaust denier who counted 896,000 Jewish victims in all. Abu Mazen has consistently refused to distance himself from his thesis.

Mr. President, you are a few years older than I am, but we are from the same generation. I am sure that you remember as vividly as I do watching eleven Israeli athletes being held hostage at the Munich Olympic games in 1972 and their eventual murder by their 'Palestinian' kidnappers. But perhaps you never knew that Abu Mazen, whom you now call a 'man of peace' financed that terror attack and has never expressed any remorse for it. In case you have forgotten, I am enclosing a picture of one of the terrorists on the balcony outside the room in the Olympic village where the Israeli athletes were held. I'm sure you recognize it. It was taken from ABC television's live coverage of the 'event.'

I know that when you ask Secretary Rice about Abu Mazen's thesis and the Munich Olympics, she's going to tell you that's all ancient history and that you should ask Scowcroft about it. But I'd like to show you a few statements that Abu Mazen has made in the last few months that ought to convince you that he is not a man of peace and should not be invited to any peace conferences.

On October 3, 2006, Abu Mazen told al-Arabiya and 'Palestinian' television, "It is not required of Hamas, or of Fatah, or of the Popular Front to recognize Israel." I know that you said last night that "nations that support a two-state solution, reject violence, recognize Israel's right to exist, and commit to all previous agreements between the parties" would be invited to your conference in the fall. If that is the case, how will you invite Abu Mazen? He doesn't recognize Israel's right to exist!

On January 11, 2007, Abu Mazen was reported by the Jerusalem Post to have said, “We have a legitimate right to direct our guns against Israeli occupation ... Our rifles, all our rifles are aimed at The Occupation.” And on February 5, 2007, Abu Mazen said, “We must unite the Hamas and Fatah blood in the struggle against Israel as we did at the beginning of the intifada. We want a political partnership with Hamas.” Is that a 'rejection of violence'?

On January 11, 2007, referring to the so-called ‘right of return’ of 'Palestinian refugees' and their millions of descendants which, if implemented would end Israel as a Jewish state, Abu Mazen said, "The issue of the refugees is non-negotiable.” Is that supporting a two-state solution?

You also said that those who want to attend your conference have to commit to all previous agreements between the parties. But those agreements require Abu Mazen to disarm all terrorists and fight terrorism. According to a statement that he made on May 26, 2006, Abu Mazen regards terrorists as heroes and in January 2005 he said that disarming them is "a line that may not be crossed."

All of these statements were made in the last two years, most of them within the last six months.

How can you say, Mr. President, that Abu Mazen supports a two-state solution, rejects violence, recognizes Israel's right to exist, and commits to all previous agreements between the parties?

Mr. President, I have so much more that I want to discuss with you, but if this letter goes on much longer I am sure you won't have time to read it. I know that I am not articulate enough to write a book for you to take to Maine for the weekend, but there are a couple of other points I want you to think about.

First, when you think about creating a 'Palestinian' state, please think about the elephant in the room: the 'Palestinian' state you intend to create will not be on contiguous territory and is not likely to be economically viable. It will be an international basket case economically. It is much more likely that the 'Palestinian' state will bring about the economic and military destruction of Israel, by making its borders indefensible, than that the 'Palestinian' state will actually become a viable democracy. Please also think about the nuts and bolts of creating such a state, and especially about the 400,000 Jews you will render homeless, on top of the 10,000 who are already homeless due to the Gaza 'disengagement' two years ago. I know you're a 'big picture' kind of guy, but perhaps you can ask Dr. Cohen to look into that question. He was always good at details.

Second, I really intended to write to you about Iran but I got caught up in your speech yesterday instead. I disagree with Drezner. With all due respect Mr. President, we don't have the luxury of leaving Iran to the next President. By early 2009, there is little doubt that Iran will be past the point of no return on the way to developing nuclear weapons. It seems unlikely that your successor will ever get a chance to deal with Iran if you don't deal with it some time in the next year. If you don't deal with Iran, Israel will have to deal with it. The fallout to Americans could be worse than if you do the job yourself.

Thanks for hearing me out Mr. President. And please think about coming to Israel to visit us again real soon.

-- Carl in Jerusalem

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:48 AM