Israel Matzav

Abu Mazen the terror fighter

'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen has been in Damascus this week, where he met with the leaders of all of the 'radical Palestinian' groups - except for Hamas. Abu Mazen was warned that a meeting with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal could cost him $7.4 billion. But it's 'okay' in the eyes of the Bush administration for him to meet with the other groups with whom he shares the goal of destroying Israel (not to mention meeting with Bashar al-Assad). It should be clear by now to anyone who has their eyes even half open that Abu Mazen has no intention of ever fighting terror, which makes you wonder why Israel and the West are investing so much time, effort and money in him in the first place.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met in Damascus Monday with the head of the Islamic Jihad organization, Ramadan Abdullah Shalah, and discussed efforts to achieve "national unity" in the Palestinian territories.

The meeting was the first if its kind between the two in many months and comes against the backdrop of Abbas's ongoing efforts to win support for his most recent initiative to end the ongoing Fatah-Hamas crisis.

Islamic Jihad is one of the few Palestinian factions that has refused to sign on to the cease-fire agreement reached between Hamas and Israel more than two weeks ago.

However, Islamic Jihad officials said the group would "respect" the cease-fire as long as Israel refrained from targeting its members in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Monday's meeting in Damascus was attended by Islamic Jihad officials Ziad al-Nakhaleh and Muhammed al-Hindi as well as Ahmed Qurei [Abu Ala], head of the PA negotiating team with Israel.

Sources close to Islamic Jihad said the group's leaders had urged Abbas and Qurei to suspend the peace talks with Israel under the pretext that the Israeli government was not serious about achieving peace with the Palestinians.

"The Islamic Jihad leaders made it clear that the talks with Israel are ineffective and a waste of time," the sources said. "They pointed out that Israel's policy of expanding settlements and building new homes in Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem was a sign of its bad intentions."

The Islamic Jihad leaders also offered to mediate between Fatah and Hamas to solve the crisis on the Palestinian arena, the sources said.

They added that Abbas had agreed to release Islamic Jihad prisoners held in PA jails in the West Bank and to stop pursuing members of the group.

Earlier, Abbas met with leaders of other radical Palestinian factions, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and briefed them on his initiative to hold "national dialogue" among all Palestinian factions and end the schism between Hamas and Fatah.

What will come next - a meeting between Condi and Abu Mazen's new friends to try to convince them to behave 'civilly'?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:34 PM