Israel Matzav

Edward Abingdon's price

At the Holy Land Foundation trial in Dallas, Texas, former US Consul General in Jerusalem Edward Abingdon testified on Tuesday that Israel gave the US 'unreliable' intelligence information about the 'Palestinians' that was 'selected' to influence US thinking.

Abingdon, the first defense witness of the trial, said the US Agency for International Development gave money to some of the same groups. He added that he met many officials of the charities.

The diplomat said he had heard of Holy Land "as a Palestinian-American charity that distributed assistance to needy families in the West Bank and Gaza."

From 1993 to 1999, Abingdon was consul-general in Jerusalem, and like others he was under orders not to have contact with Hamas.

Abingdon said the Israelis provided intelligence to the CIA, and defense attorney Nancy Hollander asked him if he found the Israeli information reliable. "No," he answered, and she asked why not.

"I feel the Israelis have an agenda ... they provide selective information to try to influence US thinking," he said.

Abingdon spent 30 years in the State Department. He resigned in 1999 and spent seven years at a Washington lobbying firm that represented the Palestinian Authority for as much as $750,000 a year. He said he never worked for Hamas.

On cross-examination, prosecutor Barry Jonas questioned Abingdon's objectivity, suggesting that officials in Washington considered him anti-Israeli and close personally to the late Yasser Arafat, who led the Palestinian Authority.

Both Israeli and American diplomatic officials placed little stock in Abingdon's statement, saying that the intelligence cooperation between the two states was very tight.

And I'm sure that $750,000 contract was just icing on the cake for Abingdon. Once a Jew hater, always a Jew hater.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:57 AM