|
Trending Topics
|
Abbas and the KGB
(Jerusalem Post) Yossi Melman - The revelation that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas was a KGB agent shouldn't come as a surprise. Since its creation in 1959, Fatah and later the PLO were influenced and supported by the KGB and its satellite security services in the communist bloc. The Soviet Union, entangled in the Cold War with the West, wanted to increase its influence in the Middle East. It gave grants to and hosted thousands of students from Asia, Africa, South and Central America at its universities, and this generosity was also a tool to recruit agents among the foreign students. Abbas studied at Moscow's Oriental University, where he submitted his PhD thesis.