Weekly Commentary: Ask Abbas at UN if he will release Shalit after
unification

Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 22 September 2011

Palestinian terrorists kidnap and hold Israelis as hostages.

A legitimate Palestinian governing body doesn’t.

This is nothing new.

Even at the most strained points of relations, the Ramallah PA never traded
Israelis.

That’s not to say that they didn’t murder Israelis. But it was never an
official policy that they openly adopted and implemented.

That’s why I was frankly stunned last 25 May when Senior Palestinian
(Fatah/PA) official Nabil Sha'ath told me in a telephone interview that
after unification the PA will be responsible for GIlad Shalit and will
continue negotiating a trade with Israel. In fact, he didn’t expect the PA
to be any easier in its demands than Hamas has been to date.
[ http://youtu.be/ppziLJTuaCA for the audio ]

Mahmoud Abbas apparently hasn’t taken an official position on this issue
yet.

It is time to put him on the spot.

Because the response to this question regarding Shalit serves is a simple
intuitive litmus test of the true nature and intentions of the respondent.

There are scores – if not hundreds - of journalists who will have the
opportunity in the coming hours and days in New York to ask Mahmoud Abbas if
he intends to free Shalit if he succeeds in unifying PA authority in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip.

And they even have Nabil Sha’ath’s response to the same question available
at the click of a mouse for background.

This is a story available on a silver platter.

Will there be any takers?

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