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Thursday, January 11, 2007
Weekly Commentary: Rice must insist that Abbas publicly reject legitimacy of killing Israelis

Weekly Commentary: Rice must insist that Abbas publicly reject legitimacy of
killing Israelis

Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 11 January, 2007

Days before meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, PA
Chairman Mahmoud Abbas stated that it is legitimate to kill Israelis and
that arms not be used against Palestinians.

No. These weren't remarks pieced together from fragmentary reports from a
secret meeting of Abbas' select inner circle held behind closed door.

Abbas said it at the annual rally of Fatah in Ramallah covered by the
international press corps.

He said that "we have a legitimate right to direct our guns against the
Israeli occupation. It is forbidden to use these guns against Palestinians."

There is only one meaning to the phrase "direct our guns against the Israeli
occupation" - and it has nothing to do with performing fancy rifle drill
team exercises at protest rallies.

"Direct our guns against the Israeli occupation" means killing Israelis.

By the same token, there is a singular meaning to Mr. Abbas' admonition that
"it is forbidden to use these guns against Palestinians," and that is that
he has absolutely no intention to use lethal force against Hamas or any
other Palestinian gunmen in order to fulfill the long list of security
obligations that the Palestinians have yet to honor if that's what it takes
to do it.

And it does.

That's right.

"Moderate", "man of peace", Mahmoud Abbas, whose supporters just received a
generous supply of some seven thousand assault rifles from America, makes no
bones that he believes it is legitimate to use these weapons to kill
Israelis - not to fight Palestinian "enemies of peace".

In a normal world such remarks would ignite a diplomatic firestorm with
tough talk from Washington about a "reassessment".

Instead of coming to praise "moderate" Abbas bearing gifts in the form of
yet even more weapons and training that will ultimately be directed against
Israel (and, according to some reports, an offer to advance towards a
sovereign Palestinian state without the Palestinians even necessarily ever
getting around to actually disarming the gunmen), Ms. Rice's advance team
should be warning Abbas that he may not even be included in the itinerary if
he cannot commit in advance to the wording of a clear and unequivocal
declaration in Arabic that he will read at their joint press conference
rejecting the legitimacy of the use of force against Israel - regardless of
the circumstances or its efficacy (Mr. Abbas generously opposes terror
attacks if they are not effective).

Anything short of this is effectively an American acceptance of the
inevitable use of American supplied weapons to murder Israelis.

Dr. Aaron Lerner, Director IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)
(Mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
Tel 972-9-7604719/Fax 972-3-7255730
INTERNET ADDRESS: imra@netvision.net.il
Website: http://www.imra.org.il

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