Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Abbas/Mazen Finally Moves to Bring Peace Closer

According to an Associated Press story Abbas Won't Resume Peace Talks Now, "The U.S.-backed Palestinian" Palestinian Authority chair and leader of the terrorist Fatah and PLO groups "rebuffed the Bush administration's request Tuesday to quickly end a walkout of peace talks with Israel."

According to the article, Abbas/Mazen insisted that Israel's defensive actions to counter the bombardment from Hamastan of Israeli civilians in Sderot, Ashkelon and other areas near the terrorist mini-state are "unacceptable under any circumstance."

"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said negotiations are the only solution."

Ultimately, that is the case, but negotiations are useless as long as the Palestinian Arabs do not have a single representative, currently being split between Hamastan and Fatahland, and as long as even the so-called "moderate" terrorists like Mahmoud Abbas/Abu Mazen are unwilling to negotiate seriously.

Until that time, the type of phony negotiations that have taken place repeatedly in the last decade and a half, concentrating on repeatedly Israeli concessions in return for a repetition of promises that the Palestinian Arabs will finally fulfill some of the promises they supposedly committed to back in 1993, is counterproductive.

Talks should concentrate on issues that have been neglected until now, such as when and how the Palestinian Arabs will finally abandon terrorism and how they will compensate Israel for their perfidy over the last fifteen years … and the four and a half decades prior to that.

Only when the Palestinian Arabs begin to adhere to their basic commitments made at the start of the Oslo Process and indicate a willingness to compromise does it make sense to try to negotiate seriously.

Rice correctly "defended Israel's right to seek out militants who use the tiny Hamas-held territory as a launching pad for increasing numbers of rockets targeting civilians in southern Israel."

"I understand the difficulties of the current moment," Rice said following meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "We all must keep an eye on what is important."

What is most important, of course, is the preservation of human life, something Israel is working towards and the Palestinian Authority's boycott of the useless talks are a protest against.

Rice "won no public promise that Palestinians would end their boycott soon. U.S. officials say they understand his political predicament."

His political predicament is that the Palestinian Authority has created a situation in which peace is impossible. It will take decades to undo the damage fifteen years of PA incitement has wreaked and get as close to peace as the Arabs and Israelis were at the start of the Oslo Process.

In what apparently another refinement of his comedy act and further evidence that he learned the wrong lesson from George Orwell's book 1984, Abbas said "I call on the Israeli government to halt its aggression so the necessary environment can be created to make negotiations succeed, for us and for them, to reach the shores of peace in 2008."

For Abbas/Mazen, trying to save civilian lives is "aggression." The first step towards creating an environment in which negotiations can succeed is to end the incitement he continues to practice, such as making absurd and irresponsible statements such as that one.

"Negotiations are going to have to be able to withstand the efforts of rejectionists to upset them, to create chaos and violence, so that people react by deciding not to negotiate, " Rice said in Egypt.

Abbas/Mazen has yet to decide to negotiate.

"That's the game of those who don't want to see a Palestinian state established."

One wonders why outsiders seem so interested in establishing yet another Arab state while simultaneously being so disinterested in promoting the national interests of so many peoples, such as the Tibetans, who have a far greater national character, who have not resorted to the use of terrorism and who have not repeatedly spurned the opportunity for independence.

"No one can under any kind of pretext justify what the Israeli military have conducted over the past days," an angry Abbas told reporters.

For Abbas/Mazen, the lifelong terrorist and Holocaust denier, nothing can justify any actions Israel takes to preserve life.

According to the article, "the best Rice got from Abbas during their joint public appearance in Ramallah was affirmation that his government remains pledged to the peace path charted by Bush last fall."

Abbas/Mazen makes excellent use of both sides of his mouth.

"The Bush administration has staked peace hopes on Abbas' West Bank government, freezing out Hamas militants who seized the smaller, poorer Gaza Strip in June. Hamas is pledged to Israel's destruction."

Of course, Abbas/Mazen's Fatah is also pledged to Israel's destruction.

"Although Abbas has had little power over the coastal area of 1.4 million people since Hamas took over … "

He also has little power over Fatahland outside his Ramallah compound.

"This is a process that always two steps forward and one step back," Bush said after meeting at the White House with Jordan's King Abdullah II. "We just need to make sure that it's just one step back."

Our president has it somewhat reversed. Since the Oslo Process began, it's always been one step forward and two steps back.

Given the way negotiations have generally led to steps backwards, Abbas/Mazen's refusal to negotiate can only be interpreted as a step forward.

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