Source: Ha'aretz
Oct 03, 2006
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was set to arrive in Israel Wednesday on a mission to bolster PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas, who Washington insists is a "moderate."
Rice will start her brief visit by meeting with senior members of the Tanzim "military wing" of Abbas' Fatah movement in eastern Jerusalem.
Tanzim and Fatah's other armed wing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, have carried out thousands of terrorist attacks against Israelis over the past six years. Both groups are recognized by the US as terror groups, though the Bush administration does its best to distance them from mainstream Fatah and its leader.
Despite that, the US has been reluctant to come down on Fatah's killers in the same manner it has come down on Hamas for fear of implicating Abbas and his deputies directly in the murder of Israelis.