A man of peace?

Ignoring Abbas’ horrific track record of the last 50 year rewards terror

Yoram Ettinger|Published: 04.27.10 , 00:46

Since 2007, US foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority and to PA-controlled NGOs reached nearly $2BN, in addition to $3.7BN contributed by the US to UNRWA since 1950. Has American foreign aid to Abbas advanced moderation, the pursuit of peace and US national security interests?

On April 20, 2010 Abbas named a Ramallah street in honor of Abu Jihad, the architect of PLO terrorism during 1965-1988. For example, Abu Jihad masterminded the March 11, 1978 Israeli Coastal Road Massacre - the hijacking two civilian buses, and murder of 38 civilians, including 13 children. He also orchestrated the March 1975 Tel Aviv Hotel Savoy Massacre, murdering seven civilians.

On March 11, 2010 Abbas -controlled TV and dailies (Al-Ayam and Al-Khayat Al-Jedida) praised Dalal Mughrabi - who commanded the Coastal Road Massacre - as a martyr. On January 16, 2010, Abbas announced that a major square in El-Bireh shall be named in honor of Mughrabi. The PA also named a Hebron girls’ school, a computers center, a summer camp and a sport tournament in honor of Mughrabi.

Abbas and Salam Fayyad authorize the transfer of monthly allowances to families of Palestinian “martyrs”/terrorists. They pay condolences visits to families of suicide bombers, acclaiming them as national heroes.

In 1994 Abbas instituted – as Arafat’s Deputy - an unprecedented system of hate-education through the PA-controlled school, media and mosque systems. Since January 2005 – when he replaced Arafat – Abbas has perpetuated the anti-Jewish, anti-Israel and anti-US hate education. Mein Kampf and the anti-Semitic “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” are best sellers. Hitler and suicide-bombers are folk heroes.

Hate-education, and not a dialogue with Western policy-makers and public-opinion molders, reflects Abbas’ ideology/strategy. Hate-education cements Palestinian national identity. It feeds the root cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict: the de-legitimization of the existence – and not the size – of the Jewish state. Hate-education has been the main manufacturing line of terrorists in general and suicide bombers in particular

Promoting Shoah denial

Abbas’ education system de-humanizes the Jewish state, heralds a religious war against the Jewish State, idolizes martyrs/suicide bombers who “live next to Allah” and “whose blood is pure,” denies the Mideast roots of the Jewish state, fuels anti-Semitism, glorifies "the claim of return" (code name for Israel's destruction) and promotes Holocaust denial.

On August 13, 2009 Abbas ratified the resolutions of Fatah’s 6th General Conference. For instance, “Armed struggle is a strategy, not a tactic… for the elimination of the Zionist presence. The struggle shall not end until the Zionist entity is eliminated and Palestine is liberated (article 19)…Popular armed revolution is the only way to liberate Palestine…Opposing the recognition of Israel as a Jewish State…”

Abbas was Arafat’s top confidant and first deputy for 50 years, partaking in the betrayal of Arab host countries: Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Kuwait. He enrolled in KGB courses and submitted a doctorate thesis on Holocaust denial at the Moscow University.

Abbas coordinated PLO ties with ruthless Communist regimes, supervised the logistics of the 1972 Munich Massacre (11 Israeli athletes murdered), co-supervised the March 1973 murder of two US ambassadors in Sudan, was a key member of the Palestinian cell of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo and earned the nickname – “Mr. 20%” - due to his corruption.

Ignoring Abbas’ horrific track record of the last 50 years, and applying moral equivalence and even-handedness, constitutes a victory to wishful-thinking, rewarding terrorism, adding fuel to the fire of terrorism and Middle East turbulence, at the expense of peace and vital US interests.