Wednesday, April 30, 2003

The Real Abu Mazen


The Real Abu Mazen
April 30, 2003

Everyone seems to be standing in line to shake his hand, to give him a hug, wish him luck, and help him on his way to eternal fame and glory. George Bush will invite him to the White House. Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street. And even our Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, in Jerusalem. He is considered to be a moderate, something of a statesman, the ideal peace-partner. 

A dream come true; or is it. There are a few problems in the way of this perfect man. Mahmoud Abbas, otherwise known as Abu Mazen, was a founder of Arafat’s Fatah, the backbone of the murderous PLO terror organization. One might expect that over the years, perhaps his ideas and views have mellowed. However, that does not seem to be the case.

For example, several quotes taken from interviews with Abu Mazen, translated and posted by ‘The Middle East Media Research Institute’ (MEMRI):

1. ‘The Right of Return means a return to Israel and not to the Palestinian state... because it is from there that [the Palestinians] were driven out and it is there that their property is found.’;

2. ‘We were not prepared to limit the number of refugees who would be allowed to return, even if they had proposed a number of three million refugees.’;

3. ‘The lands occupied [by Israel] in 1967 must be returned. All the Arab countries that fought Israel have regained their lands and therefore, it is our right to get our lands back as well. We consider Jerusalem an occupied territory.’; and

4. ‘I challenge the assertion [that there has ever been a Jewish Temple.]’;

Some other examples of Abu Mazen’s reasonableness:

1. Abu Mazen is a full believer in the ‘phased victory’ plan, espoused by the PLO. Journalist Roni Shaked writes, ‘Abu Mazen believes that the formation of the Palestinian State will lead to the dissolving of the State of Israel into the Palestinian State’ Abu Mazen opposes violence, not on moral grounds, rather because it is ineffective.’ (Yediot Achronot 24.4.03);

2. The Israeli daily Ma’ariv quotes Abu Mazen speaking before Fatah leadership, on April 20, 2003: ‘Israel’s weak link is the way in which the government deals with policy. It is enough to implement several public measures on the Palestinian side, and several conciliatory statements, in order to achieve a victory.’;

3. On April 1, Abbas held a three-hour meeting with Hamas terror leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi. The New York Times reported that Rantisi called the meeting ‘positive’ and said Abbas ‘made no demands’ on Hamas -- even though Rantisi, in the meeting, ‘emphasized the importance of continuing what he called ‘the resistance’ in Israel and the occupied territories.’ According to media reports, Abbas offered to give Hamas the Education Ministry in his cabinet -- meaning that Hamas would control what is taught to all Palestinian Arab children;

4. When asked by the Arab newspaper a-Sharq al-Awsat on March 3, 2003 about talks between the PA and Hamas, Abbas said: ‘We didn't talk about a break in the armed struggle... It is our right to resist. The Intifadamust 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.’ 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 toShahada-Seeking [suicide] operations and going out to attack in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.’

Only four days later, on a Friday night, terrorists murdered Rabbi Eli and Dina Horowitz in Kiryat Arba. Recently Mrs. Bernice Wolf, Dina Horowitz’ mother filed a complaint with the Israeli police against Abu Mazen, charging him with incitement to murder (Israeli Minister Ehud Olmert, former Mayor of Jerusalem, told the Wall Street Journal on June 3, 2002, ‘Israel cannot do business with terrorists.’); and

5. Abu Mazen is corrupt. According to Ronen Bergman, in his book The Authority Gives (HaReshut HaNotenet), ten million dollars were deposited in City Bank in Zurich by Abu Mazen’s brother;

Perhaps the most stinging indictment against this terrorist politician is his doctoral dissertation, The Other Side: The Secret Relationship between Nazism and the Zionist Movement. According to MEMRI, ‘In the introduction to his 1984 study, Abu Mazen referred to well-known Holocaust deniers, raised doubts that gas chambers were used for extermination of Jews, and claimed that the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust might be ‘even less than a million.’ Abu Mazen claimed that the Zionist movement had a stake in convincing world public opinion that the number of victims was high; thus, it would achieve ‘greater gains’ after the war when the time came to ‘distribute the spoils.’

Abu Mazen wrote, ‘Many scholars have debated the question of the 6 million figure, and reached perplexing conclusions, according to which the Jewish victims total hundreds of thousands.’ The central claim Abu Mazen sought to prove is that the Zionist movement, with all its factions, conspired against the Jewish people and collaborated with the Nazis to annihilate it, because the movement considered ‘Palestine’ the only appropriate destination for Jewish emigration.

One of Abu Mazen’s closest aides is Muhammad Dahlan, appointed minister for internal security in his government. Abu Mazen and Muhammad Dahlan have been known to be very close, for quite a long time. Who is Dahlan? Just a few examples:

1. Dahlan is known to have ordered the bomb attack on the children’s school bus in Kfar Darom, an explosion that cost two Israeli lives and the legs of the three Cohen children. The CIA has secret recordings of Dahlan personally ordering the bomb attack;

2. He personally ordered production of tens of thousands of mortars, used to attack communities in Gaza; mortars which have also hit Sderot and other Israeli communities outside of Gaza; and

3. Together with Jibril Rajoub in Hebron, Dahlan orchestrated the beginning of the current Olso War, commanding Arafat’s forces in Gaza;

This is one of Prime Minister Abu Mazen’s closest associates, so important that he was willing forfeit his position should the Dahlan appointment not be approved by Arafat.

George Bush, Tony Blair and Ariel Sharon are about to join hands with a terrorist who believes that Jerusalem belongs to the Arabs, that a Temple never existed, that millions of so-called refugees should be allowed ‘back’ into ‘Israel proper’, and that during World War II, only a ‘few hundred thousand Jews were killed.’

We just marked Holocaust Memorial Day, in memory of the millions of dead. What would be more appropriate at this time than a full condemnation of Mahmoud Abbas and his denial of the Holocaust? I call on the voices of conscience of the Jewish people to cry out, denouncing the denial of our people’s heritage, decrying the refutation of the mass slaughter that decimated between six to seven million Jews, some sixty years ago.

Perhaps the cultured world isn’t interested in hearing a voice from Hebron, but the voices of others would be hard to ignore.

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