By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
Jan 05, 2005
Echoing Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the terrorist organizations they support, PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas Tuesday referred to his peace partner Israel as “the Zionist enemy.”
"We came to you today, while we are praying for the souls of the martyrs who were killed today by the shells of the Zionist enemy in Bet Lahiya," Abbas told a Gaza audience, referring to the elimination of a Hamas terror cell earlier in the day.
The term “Zionist enemy” is the traditional domain of radical groups such as Hamas, Hizballah and the Iranian mullahs. Abbas, on the other hand, is touted by the West as an Arab “moderate.”
Ever since Yasser Arafat’s death in November of last year, Abbas’s rhetoric towards the Jewish state has grown increasingly hostile.
A mainstay of his campaign speeches has been Abbas’s insistence on the right to flood Israel with millions of so-called “Palestinian refugees.”
On Monday he repeated that call.
“We will never forget the rights of the refugees, and we will never forget their suffering. They will eventually gain their rights, and the day will come when the refugees return home," the PLO chief said.
The “Palestinians” claim there are some four million refugees. Their introduction into Israel would effectively destroy the Jewish state.
While Jerusalem views the issue as a red line, Abbas has used the refugee card as a means of garnering the support of some of “Palestinian” society’s more violently anti-Israel elements.
In a weekend interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” outgoing US Secretary of State Colin Powell brushed off Abbas’s escalating incitement as mere politicking.
“I don't think it reflects Mr. Abbas’s overall approach to governing,” Powell said.
Israeli analysts accused Powell of putting on his “Oslo blinders.”
“The lesson of Oslo is that what Palestinian leaders say and do for local consumption is reality,” wrote Independent Media Review and Analysis director Dr. Aaron Lerner.
Some Israeli officials agreed.
“We cannot accept the argument that Abbas's statements stem from campaigning motives,” said Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom following the PLO chief’s Tuesday outburst.