Israel Matzav

Sanitizing Abu Mazen

'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen will be meeting with American President Barack Hussein Obama at the White House on Thursday, where the President will attempt to 'bolster' the 'Palestinian leader.'

The Washington Post is cooperating with the White House in its effort to make Abu Mazen appear to be something that he is not: a peacemaker.

Abbas, 74, a longtime aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, took over after Arafat's death in 2004 and won election on his own the following year. Trained as a lawyer and historian, Abbas came to power from a career spent burrowing into the fine points of peace talks.

Historian? Some historian....

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.

And then there's this piece of puff that the Post accepts unchallenged.

"He is not a man of resistance. He is not a man of fighting. He is a man of negotiation," said Ghassan Khatib, a Palestinian analyst and founder of the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center.

A 'man of negotiation'? Is this how a 'man of negotiation' talks?

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?

...

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."

Has Abu Mazen undergone a transformation since I collected those quotes in July 2007?

I doubt it.

And then there is the implication that Israel 'owes' the 'Palestinians' because they have cleaned up the terror in their midst and their finances. This is from the Washington Post again.

From a U.S. perspective, helping Abbas show results is the goal, said Rep. Gary L. Ackerman (D-N.Y.), member of a congressional delegation touring the region this week and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia.

"Both Netanyahu and Obama need to create in Abu Mazen a clear feeling that he can provide," said Ackerman, using the common nickname for Abbas.

Husseini, the chief of staff, argues that the help is deserved -- particularly from the Israeli side. Although Palestinian politics are in disarray, Abbas's government has been given broad credit for cleaning up the Palestinian Authority's finances and improving security in the West Bank.

Neither project has endeared him locally. Financial reform was led by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a former World Bank economist. Fayyad enjoys international support, but he is opposed by Hamas and by Fatah members who think a party loyalist should be prime minister.

The creation of a U.S.-trained Palestinian security force has curbed crime in West Bank cities and has been credited by Israel with helping reduce militant attacks. But Palestinians say that has not led to an easing of Israeli restrictions in the West Bank, a curb on Jewish settlements in the area or other steps.

Both the Post and the turncoat Ackerman act as if cleaning up its finances and fighting 'Palestinian' terror are American and Israeli interests and not a 'Palestinian' interest - as if the 'Palestinian people' benefit from the corruption and terror. Obviously, that's not true.

But it's unfair to even credit the 'Palestinian Authority' with either of those 'accomplishments.' The 'Palestinian Authority' continues to pay the salaries of Hamas members in Gaza. The 'Palestininan Authority's finances are not clean so long as it is supporting terror - whether that terror is carried out by Hamas or Fatah.

As to the 'US-trained police force,' the training is unimpressive to say the least. Were it not for the IDF presence in Judea and Samaria, Hamas would have long since overrun the 'Palestinian police force.' That's not much of an accomplishment either.

But don't expect Abu Mazen to be confronted with those blunt realities when he sits with Obama in Washington on Thursday. Instead, expect President Obama to pander to his guest in a pointless effort to 'bolster' Abu Mazen's confidence.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:02 AM