New Palestinian Leader

The election of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) as "Palestinian prime minister" raises a number of questions, one of them posed by the Palestinian's Authority Marwan Barghouti, now standing trial for the murder of dozens of civilians:

"If Abu Mazen is prime minister, how is it that I am a terrorist?"


Who is the real Abu Mazen? He is author of the PLO's phased plan for the destruction of Israel. He is also a Holocaust denier.
In his book The Secret Relationship between Zionism and Nazism he claims that the Zionist movement had an interest in inflating the number of Holocaust victims. In fact, says, Abu Mazen, "only 890,000 Jews were murdered, because there were no gas chambers "

Abu Mazen's opposition to terrorism these past two years relates to the harm it has done to the Palestinian cause. He consistently supports murdering Jews in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, where "it is beneficial."

He insists on appointing Muhammad Dahlan, who as minister of domestic security ordered the blowing up of the children's bus in Kfar Darom. What future government minister would intentionally seek to kill children on their way to school?

And he supports the return of the 1948 refugees.

With his cultivated appearance Abu Mazen serves as a European-manipulated Trojan horse intended to mislead Americans into thinking a new prime minister means a new PA.

But the message he is bringing the Palestinian public is not fundamentally new. As long as there is no essential change in the PA, the question of its leader is merely tactical and cosmetic.

The road map in its current form was born not of President George W. Bush's determination to fight terrorism, but of the defeatist spirit and cynical interests of the Quartet.

Instead of punishing the PA for its blatant violation of Oslo and stipulating that peace hinges on replacing the Palestinian leadership, the road map grants them unprecedented gains.

For instance: the establishment of a Palestinian state as a non-negotiable principle; "ending the occupation that began in 1967"; internationalizing the conflict by giving the Quartet monitoring powers; dismantling outposts, and freezing settlements all bonuses the Palestinians didn't even receive in Oslo.

Since September 11, 2001, Americans have viewed terrorism as a great danger to Western civilization. President George W. Bush declared war on countries that support terrorism until it is uprooted. That is what Afghanistan and in Iraq were all about.

According to his June 2002 vision, "Peace demands a new and different Palestinian leadership" and "leaders who were not party to terrorism."

That being the case President Bush should not meet Abu Mazen, just as he refused to meet Saddam Hussein's representatives. Bush surely understands that uprooting evil is a precondition to negotiations. Abu Mazen simply does not meet Bush's own criteria. Will the US nevertheless retreat and invite him to Washington?

Moreover, the Palestinian leadership will be "new and different" only if it renounces the return of the refugees, and especially and this is the litmus test for its desire for peace conveys the value of peace in the Palestinian education system.

This should begin by removing the inciteful textbooks that have educated a generation of suicide bombers.

FOR ISRAEL and Palestine to "live alongside each other in peace and security," according to Bush's vision, it is vital for Palestine be demilitarized. Moreover, it should be prohibited from signing international defense pacts.

Finally, Israel must have complete control over the airspace west of the Jordan.

None of these prerequisites are even mentioned in the road map. It is not formulated in harmony with Bush's June 24 vision, but as the brainchild of France's Jacques Chirac and Germany's Gerhard Schroeder.

The message of the road map even if unintended is troubling. Is it possible that the Palestinians, who gave out candy in the streets on September 11, are now getting candy from the US?

How is it that America is appeasing the Europeans who acted to thwart it, and appeasing the Palestinians, Saddam's allies, by badly hurting its own ally, Israel? Won't this double message cause serious damage to the credibility of American policy and its determination to fight terrorism?


Despite all the above, Israel may decide it is tactically desirable to negotiate with Abu Mazen, to offer small gestures and see whether he acts to create a "new and different" PA.
But let us not forget for one minute the nature of Abu Mazen and the PA, and the bitter lessons of Oslo.

Any gestures must take care not to breathe new life into Yasser Arafat or undermine the war against terrorism. For a real chance at peace, Israel must not stray from the central goal: changing the PA's genetic code.

Abu Mazen and his government do not reflect substantial change but only help the Europeans mislead the US in an attempt to impose the road map. Without the basic stipulations outlined earlier, it is absolutely unacceptable.

Let us pray the Bush Administration does not fall into the European trap. Israel certainly cannot afford to.

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