Abbas and Arafat
Are Peas in a Pod

NEW YORK- Although President Bush said last year that the Palestinian Authority must “engage in a sustained fight against the terrorists and dismantle their infrastructure,” the PA’s new prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen), is embracing the Hamas terrorists rather than fighting them.

President Bush, in his June 2002 Mideast policy speech, said the U.S. would support creation of a Palestinian Arab state only if —among other things— the Palestinian Arabs “engage in a sustained fight against the terrorists and dismantle their infrastructure.”

Yet in his first three weeks as PA Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen) has been actively embracing the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists instead of fighting them:

* Abbas met with three leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad on March 30, 2003. Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, who attended the meeting, “said the meeting was positive” and Abbas “made no demands.” Abbas also offered Hamas control of the Education Ministry in his regime. (N.Y.Times, March 31, 2003; Ha’aretz, March 31, 2003))

* The Abbas regime has not seized any of the tens of thousands of illegal weapons in the hands of the terrorists.

* The Abbas regime has not shut down any terrorist bomb factories.

* The Abbas regime has not outlawed or punished any terrorist groups.

* The Abbas regime has not honored any of Israel’s 45 requests for the extradition of terrorists.

Morton A. Klein, National President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), said: “Instead of honoring President Bush’s condition to fight terrorists, Abbas is offering the terrorists positions in his cabinet. This is not the “new leadership” that President Bush called for—it is the same old terrorist PA regime, which both sponsors terrorism and actively collaborates with other terrorist groups. Abbas is simply Arafat with a suit and a shave.”