(Jerusalem Post) Caroline Glick - Developments within the PA this week indicate that both Israel and the U.S. have been horribly wrong in their decision to accept Abbas. As was the case with Arafat, for many it is unclear whether or not Abbas wishes to or is capable of reining in terrorists. Because they have placed so much stress on Abbas's legitimacy, both the Bush administration and the Israeli government are clearly averse to mentioning that there is a serious problem with what has been happening in the PA since he took over. On the military front, the Palestinians are acquiring weapons systems such as SA-7 Strella anti-aircraft missiles that constitute a major leap forward in their war-making capacity against Israel. Abbas's offer to the Palestinian terror groups outside the PA umbrella to move their headquarters from Damascus to Gaza after Israel's evacuation shows that in his strategic thinking, the territory, once empty of Israeli presence, will be transformed into a center for global terror. According to Dr. Michael Widlanski, who monitors the PA's media, Hamas and Islamic Jihad representatives claim that their decision to join the PLO is based on the PLO's staged plan for the destruction of Israel and its replacement with an Arab state. The fact that Abbas is responding to his weakness by giving free rein to terrorists in the PA calls into question the entire rationale of the current Israeli and American policies toward Abbas and the PA.
2005-04-01 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive