Weekly Commentary: Litmus Test For Abbas: Support Just Punishment of
Terrorists
Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 6 April 2016

Here's a call to journalists, politicians, diplomats, activists and others
who are going to be meeting with a Palestinian official and hoping to get a
useful remark from them.

Let's get back to the very basics.

Let's drop the word games.

There is a simple, straightforward and clear “litmus test” for any
Palestinian official:

+ It isn’t if he condemns an attack: there’s simply too many ways for the
wording or the other messages around it to make any condemnation a nothing
more than a cynical farce.

+ It isn’t if he opposes or even engages in “incitement”: while
“incitement” should not be ignored, focusing on “incitement” inevitably
gets us sucked into a debate over just what is “incitement” and charges from
the other side of Israeli “incitement”.

The true “litmus test” is if the Palestinian official endorses this simple
and straightforward policy: that the perpetrators of acts of violence
against Israelis will henceforth be punished rather than praised. That
instead of pressing for their release, the Palestinian Authority will do
everything in its power to insure that these criminals pay their debt to
society.

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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Arab-Israeli relations

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