Israel’s leadership is making the predictable error of being dragged into a process of thinking it can deal with PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and talk peace with him, while somehow bypassing the democratically-elected representatives of the Palestinian Arabs - the Hamas terrorist organization.

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Do Israel’s leaders - and for that matter, American and European officials - really believe that PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas is an opponent of anti-Jewish terrorism? Continue reading »

A newly-formed fully-Hamas militia will soon be integrated into the official Palestinian Authority security forces.

These new “policemen” are full-fledged terrorists, members of an organization recognized the world over as a terrorist entity.

It is worth noting that Israel’s “moderate peace partner” PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas has no problem with this. But that is because Abbas does not see the Hamas killers of Jewish men, women and children as terrorists.

Can any other nation fathom having to live with this kind of neighbors?

Ehud Olmert’s intention to unilaterally surrender about 90 percent of Judea and Samaria to the Arabs appears to have international power brokers concerned that the era of Israeli-Palestinian bilateral negotiations, and perhaps even official relations, is at an end.

From Washington to Brussels to Moscow, Israel is being pressured to look no further than PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) in its dying search for a true and viable peace partner, and thus avert unilateral action that would put an end to the “land-for-peace” process. Continue reading »

Israel, America and Europe have taken a good first step by cutting off both aid to and contact with the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.

Yet all three continue this ridiculous charade of dealing with Mahmoud Abbas, head of the PLO and “president” of the PA, as if he were some separate entity capable of making decisions and implementing policy on his own.

The PA is more democratic than most governments in this region because of Western pressure. The West can’t have its cake and eat it too by now expecting Abbas to exercise dictatorial powers.

In fact, it was the West that pushed for Abbas’ current post to either be eliminated or made purely ceremonial.

What they got was a PA equivalent in functionality to a US Congress that appoints all government secretaries and exercises full control over the military, while the president is still considered the chief executive. The result is chaos and instability.

Abbas’ utter impotence in this morass of power was again demonstrated in the aftermath of Monday’s Tel Aviv “suicide” bombing.

The PLO chief condemned the attack for the harm it had done to the “Palestinian cause” (he would take a different route to relieving the Jews of their homeland), while the Hamas government backed it as a legitimate act of “self defense.”

Guess who’s word matters more. In the current set-up, Abbas’ displeasure with Monday’s massacre will result in not even one arrest or any action to prevent additional atrocities.

The reason this untenable situation exists is because the West and the Israeli government in their misguided handling of the “peace” process believed they could side-step Yasser Arafat’s intransigence by forcing him to create and transfer his own powers to the position of prime minister - essentially transforming the PA from a presidential system of government to a parliamentary one.

The only problem was everyone assumed the blood-soaked demagogue Arafat would fully relinquish his lucrative absolute hold on government.

He didn’t, and the vast power he retained for himself then passed to Abbas with the blessing of the West, which had apparently forgotten that it previously wanted the position of PA “president” to be bestowed with no more real political power than the English Throne.

Well, that worked out OK so long as the majority parliament faction, and therefore the prime minister and his cabinet, were all of the same party as Abbas.

But democracy doesn’t work that way, and the people voted in Hamas.

And so the time has come for Israel and the West to recognize the mistake they made when Arafat was in power and either endorse Abbas as an absolute dictator, or acknowledge his irrelevance.

Obviously the latter option would be chosen in line with America’s democracy agenda, which would then necessitate recognizing that the vast majority of “Palestinians” knowingly and willingly chose a group of unrepentant terrorist killers as their leaders - something the West is trying feverishly to avoid doing, at least publicly.

It’s time for some tough decisions. Are Israel and her allies in Washington up to it? I doubt it. Though Hamas through its own actions may take the luxury of choice out of everyone’s hands.

PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas is incensed over an Israeli missile strike on an empty building in his presidential compound in Gaza.

To hear him speak, Israel simply launched the attack for fun, because it just loves to see the “Palestinians” squirm.

“The continuous random bombarding in Gaza is not justified. It wants nothing but to disrupt the daily life of the Palestinian people.”

So why did Israel launch the strike?

Well, Israel would argue that all those Kassam and Katyusha rockets being fired from Gaza on a daily basis at Israeli civilians in the Negev are the reason.

To turn Abbas’ accusation on its head - it seems the “Palestinians” want nothing but to disrupt the daily life of all Israelis within their reach.

And the fact Abbas and his regime are doing absolutely nothing to prevent such attacks make them fully complicit.

So, far from a “random bombardment” meant to “disrupt the daily life” of Gaza’s residents, a little cause and effect analysis shows that Tuesday’s air strike was a determined action meant to send a message to Abbas over his ongoing failure to act in accordance with signed agreements.