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Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20050518-093637-7661r.htm
Abbas a Disappointment
(Washington Times) Zalman Shoval - PA leader Mahmoud "Abbas will find plenty of sympathy and goodwill in Washington - but frankly, he isn't taken very seriously there," I was told a few weeks ago when visiting the nation's capital. As some of my interlocutors explained, while Abbas may not be ideal, "he is the best thing we got." America knows what Israel also knows, that so far Abbas has been a disappointment. Quite simply, he doesn't deliver the goods. On the one hand, he tries to shortcut the stages of the road-map, and on the other hand he cuddles Hamas instead of acting resolutely to control it. By granting Hamas political legitimacy without requiring them to disarm, he has created a situation similar to the one with Hizballah in Lebanon (and the IRA in Ulster), of fully armed militias becoming legitimate political players without relinquishing the option of terror and violence. Abbas should be told in Washington in no uncertain terms that there is no way that he will be permitted to play Arafat's double game of mixing diplomacy with terror - and that with all the goodwill exhibited toward him, what really counts is honoring his commitments.