Abbas Also Calls for Murder
of Jews in Territories
NEW YORK- The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) strongly protests President Bush’s demand for more one-sided concessions by Israel, and the president’s embrace of Holocaust-denier Mahmoud Abbas as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, who has called for murdering Jews in the territories.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “It is disappointing that when it comes to the Arab war against Israel, President Bush has not learned the lessons of Chamberlain’s appeasement. The president’s plan will create a terrorist state, as proven by the PA’s continual promotion of murder and hatred, and Arafat’s prime minister-designate, Mahmoud Abbas, calling for terrorism against Jews in the territories. Bush’s plan undermines America’s war against terrorism.”
President Bush’s Middle East statement on March 14, 2003, contained five new, troubling elements:
1. EMBRACING MAHMOUD ABBAS, WHO DENIES THE HOLOCAUST AND CALLS FOR THE MURDER OF ISRAELIS:
President Bush said that “this moment offers a new opportunity” to advance towards peace because “the Palestinian Authority has created the new position of prime minister.. To be a credible and responsible partner, the new Palestinian prime minister must hold a position of real authority, We expect that such a Palestinian prime minister will be confirmed soon.”
Yet the prime minister to whom Bush was referring, Mahmoud Abbas, recently reiterated his support for murdering Israelis In an interview in the Arab newspaper Alsharq Al-Amat (March 3, 2003), Abbas described his recent discussions with various Palestinian Arab terrorist groups about strategy. “We didn’t talk about a break in the armed struggle … It is our right to resist. The Intifada must continue and it is the right of the Palestinian People to resist and use all possible means in order to defend its presence and existence. I add and say that if the Israelis come to your land in order to erect a settlement then it is your right to defend what is yours.” The interviewer then asked: “Including using arms?” Abbas replied: “All means and arms as long as they are coming to your home, as this is the right to resist. The restriction applies only to’Shahada -Seeking’ (suicide] operations and going out to attack in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. There is no justification to go out (of the territories] to fight the army.”
Thus Abbas supports murdering all Jews in the territories, both soldiers and civilians whom he defines as “settlers!’—that is, Jews who reside in (or happen to be visiting) Judea, Samaria, Gaza, the Golan, the Old City section of Jerusalem (where the Jewish Quarter, Western Wall and Temple Mount are situated), and Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Gilo, Ramat Eshkol, French Hill, and the Hebrew University campus. Every Jew praying at the Western Wall is a legitimate target, according to Abbas’s definition.
President Bush, in his June 24, 2002 speech about the Middle East, said that the Palestinian Arabs must “elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror ” By President Bushd’s own definition, Mahmoud Abbas is not such a leader.
Furthermore, Abbas is a Holocaust-denier. He is the author of a 1983 book claiming that the Nazis murdered less than one million Jews (rather than six million) and that they were killed as a result of a conspiracy between Zionist leaders and the Nazis to kill Jews in order to gain international sympathy for Zionism. President Bush should treat Abbas as a pariah, just as other Holocaust-deniers around the world are treated as pariahs, not statesmen.
2. ADOPTING THE “ROAD MAP” TO PALESTINIAN ARAB STATEHOOD—EVEN BEFORE THE PA HAS MET BUSH’S OWN CONDITIONS FOR STATEHOOD: President Bush had previously said that the “Road Map” for creating a Palestinian Arab state was being postponed to some future date, after the Palestinian Arabs had demonstrated that they had sincerely given up terrorism. Now, however, he said: “Immediately upon confirmation [of Abbas as prime minister], the road map for peace will be given to the Palestinians and the Israelis.”
3. ISRAELI “SETTLEMENTS” MUST END AS SOON AS THERE IS UNDEFINED “PROGRESS”—AND NO MENTION OF ARAB SETTLEMENTS
President Bush said: “As progress is made toward peace, settlement activity in the occupied territories must end.”
Thus Israel is required to halt all Jewish construction in the territories as soon as “progress is made” —a vague term that could be defined by the State Department as consisting of slight reduction in the number of Arab murders of Israelis. Meanwhile, President Bush made no reference whatsoever to Arab construction activity—even though the Arabs in Judea-Samaria-Gaza are building at ten times the rate of the Jewish residents of those areas. The notion that Jews should be prevented from building in their ancient homeland, while Arabs continue to build there, smacks of racism.
4. CREATING A PALESTINIAN ARAB STATE BEFORE THERE IS ANY EVIDENCE OF REAL CHANGE BY THE PALESTINIAN ARABS:
President Bush said that “The government of Israel, as the terror threat is removed and security improves, must take concrete steps to support the emergence of a viable and credible Palestinian state and to work as quickly as possible toward a final status agreement.”
Thus. instead of requiring an end of terrorism as a precondition to Israel supporting such a state, President Bush said that Israel must support a state “as the terror threat is removed” —meaning, as the process of removing it is underway, but before the process is complete. Thus Israel is forced to assume an enormous risk to its security before the Palestinian Arabs have demonstrated that they have genuinely ended terrorism.
5. MORAL EQUIVALENCY:
President Bush “called upon all parties in the Middle East to abandon old hatreds and to meet their responsibilities for peace.” The implication is that Israel and the Palestinian Arabs are equally to blame for the persistence of those “hatreds,” when in fact it is the PA alone which constantly fosters hatred of Jews, Israel, and America in its official media, schools, summer camps, officials’ speeches, and religious sermons by PA-appointed clergy.