Viewed objectively. Mahmound Abbas is a weak leader, who has been outsmarted and beaten by Hamas. He does have one thing going for him -- he sounds "civilized" -- at least in English -- when compared to his Hamas rivals. In actuality, he, his Fatah troops and Hamas have in common the desire and the mission to destroy Israel. But Hamas is winning the hearts of the people and the battles against Fatah --the Europeans have even found ways to do an end-around the ban against given money to terrorists. (Abbas has been declared a non-terrorist for the duration.) Hamas has taken all of Gaza. And if America can rid the Samaria and Judea (the West Bank) of Jews, Hamas will soon take that territory away from Abbas' control.

Given his lack of resources, one would expect that he would be coming to Annapolis hat in hand, hoping for some small winnings. Instead, Abbas acts as if he can make or break the meeting just by showing up -- or not showing up. He acts as if the prestige of the U.S.A. administration depends on keeping him happy. He may be right. The Bush administration needs someone to accept the goodies they plan to take from Israel. Secretary Rice has put her own credibility on the line. What's a little thing like destroying a country compared to that!

As the weeks have gone bye, he has increased his demands.

On October 10, 2007 he stated that Israel must accept the 1949 border. That means that the new Palestinian state would also include the eastern part of Jerusalem that was restored to the Jewish state after the Six-Day War in 1967, including Gilo, Ramot, Talpiot, and the Old City.

As Khaled Abu Toameh wrote ("PA to skip summit if deal not reached" Jerusalem Post, October 24, 2007)

The Palestinian Authority won't attend the US-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis unless an agreement is reached beforehand with Israel on all the final status issues, Saeb Erekat, a member of the PA negotiating team, said Tuesday.

"The Palestinian position is very clear," he said. "We won't go to the conference unless we reach an agreement with Israel on the final status issues and a clear timetable for the implementation of any agreement between the two parties."

Erekat said the PA has managed to persuade Arab and Islamic countries to endorse the Palestinian position and to set conditions for attend

On October 23, 2007 Unity Coalition for Israel (www.israelunitycoalition.org) summed his October demands this way:

Besides almost all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, half of Jerusalem, the entire Temple Mount, right of return of four million Palestinian refugees, border areas from before the Six Day War, freedom for all PA prisoners, the right to open Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem, return of the terrorists deported from the Church of the Nativity, and immediate retreat to the September 2000 lines (these are the lines from which the Arabs launched the second intifada, in which Yasser Arafat and Abu Mazen's Fatah terrorists killed more than 1,000 Israelis); in addition, they demand the execution of the third stage of the Oslo Accords, an end to building in the settlements, and cessation of the construction of the Mughrabi Bridge in Jerusalem.

At no point did he agree to recognize that Israel was a Jewish state or renounce terrorism -- these were considered the first step for the Arabs to take way back when the Oslo Accords were signed.

On November 1, 2007, he increased his demands. In other words, his demands would not stop with whatever he gained in the Annapolis meeting. Like Arafat, each Israeli concession would be the startpoint for demanding the next concession. David Bedein wrote about it in an article he called "Palestinians Demand More Conferences." It appeared in the Philadelphia Bulletin
(http://www.thebulletin.us/site/news.cfm?newsid=18977771&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=585832&rfi=6.)

On November 1st, the Palestinians made new, tough demands. Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen), in a press conference that he held after his meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said that the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians had gotten into an unpleasant situation over the issue of the timetable. However, he denied that there was a crisis in the talks.

Mr. Abbas said he is asking the United States and Israel for a guarantee of a Palestinian state and a final peace agreement within six months. He enumerated the issues which he wants to see in the document which will be signed at the Annapolis conference, and repeated the Palestinian demand that the conference should deal with the core issues. "The document has to be a prologue which includes all the issues affecting the solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," he said.

He promised that Annapolis would not be the last conference. "We are certain that the important issues will be aired at the conference. What is most important is that a timetable be determined for the coming conferences." He stressed that six months is the most desirable time frame from the Palestinian point of view. "We are making gigantic efforts to reach agreements with the Israelis. Our aim is a final solution, and we will not accept a plan in stages," he added.

The chairman of the Palestinian negotiating team, Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala), was more outspoken and called for a halt to the negotiations with Israel, if the latter did not agree to sign a timetable for establishment of a Palestinian state.

What is there to say about Olmert? His only talent has been to stay in power after Sharon died, after the Gaza expulsion was shown to be a disasterous blunder, after he lost the Lebanese War to Hezbollah and convinced the Arabs Israel could be beaten not just politically (they knew that) but militarily. He has no popular support but he has taken advantage of Israel's major political weakness -- its lack of local representation. After a party is elected, the party can ignore the populace until the next election. This cartoon by Dry Bones pretty much says it all.

Abbas will come to Maryland to take. Olmert will come to give.

This article is called "Olmert's Strategy For Annapolis Summit Revealed." It was written by David Bedein and it appeared October 29, 2007 in The Philadelphia Bulletin
(http://www.thebulletin.us/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=2737 &dept_id=576361&newsid=18966653).

Jerusalem - Yesterday, following the weekly Israel government cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert dispatched cabinet secretary Oved Yehezkel and his official spokesman Yaakov Galanati to brief the press about the steps that will lead to the Annapolis Middle East Summit on Nov. 26.

Mr. Olmert's spokespeople emphasized that the Israeli government did not expect to reach any agreement with the Palestinians at the summit and that that the "only thing that would happen there would be declarations," adding that "Israel will announce its recognition of a Palestinian Arab national state alongside an Israeli Jewish national state, with Israel formally accepting the road map."

That road map was presented in May 2003 by then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and then-White House National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to Israel and the Palestinians and adopted by the Israeli cabinet under then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

As a reminder, the Israeli government had added to its acceptance of the road map a statement that "in the first phase of the plan and as a condition for progress to the second phase, the Palestinians will complete the dismantling of terrorist organizations (Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front, the Democratic Front, Al-Aksa Brigades and other apparatuses) and their infrastructure; collection of all illegal weapons and their transfer to a third party for the sake of being removed from the area and destroyed; cessation of weapons smuggling and weapons production inside the Palestinian Authority; activation of the full prevention apparatus and cessation of incitement. ... There will be no progress to the second phase without the fulfillment of all above-mentioned conditions relating to the war against terror."

These conditions are missing in Mr. Olmert's acceptance of the road map. In other words, the Olmert administration plans to use the Annapolis Middle East Summit to announce to the world that it will recognize an independent, sovereign and armed foreign nation state without a prerequisite that the Palestinian leadership dismantle terrorist organizations.

The Bulletin asked specifically if the Israeli government would demand that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas would be required to dismantle the Al Aksa Brigades of the Fatah organization.

The answer was that the Israeli government had not taken a stand on that subject.

The Bulletin also asked Mr. Olmert's cabinet secretary if the Israeli government would ask that Mr. Abbas order the cancellation of the Palestinian educational curriculum that is based on Israel's destruction.

The answer was that the Israeli government had not taken a stand on that subject.

The precedent of Israel allowing a terror entity in its midst is exemplified by the situation in Gaza, where Israel now allows an Arab terrorist organization that rules Gaza to shell the entire southern region of Israel every day with only a tepid military response.

The Bulletin asked Mr. Olmert's cabinet secretary what the response of the government was to this week's shelling of Sderot and the Western Negev from Gaza.

His answer: "It was not discussed."
 

This article by David Bedein is called "Jerusalem Syndrome And U.S. Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice." It appeared October 17, 2007 in the The Philadelphia Bulletin
(www.thebulletin.us/site/news.cfm?newsid=18925260&BRD=2737&PAG= 461&dept_id=585832&rfi=6).

Ms. Rice's mediation in Jerusalem has caused many people to question her judgment. There is a recognized clinical state of mind known as "Jerusalem Syndrome", which causes some people here to lose their rational judgment when they arrive in Jerusalem, the cradle of the world's three great religions, the place where Jewish prophets once flourished.

Deeply religious, Rice studies portions of the Bible every day, and no one can disturb her while she studies. Nothing is wrong with Bible study, except when Rice suddenly proclaims that she is on the ultimate mission of peace, that she herself is going to foster a peace settlement in the Middle East, and that the Palestinian state must be created immediately, and she seems mysteriously disconnected from the reality of the Arab war that continues against Israel, unabated, since 1948, spawned by the Arab League whose purpose, to this day, remains Israel's obliteration.

Speaking to reporters while en route to Israel, Ms. Rice told the media that her goal was to achieve "security for the Israelis and dignity for the Palestinians", as if these are the characteristics of the Middle East conflict that has lasted for the past sixty years between Israel and the Arab world .

Meanwhile, as Ms. Rice says over and over she wants the Palestinian state to be created now, she also mentions to people around her she feels that the Palestinian cause is reminiscent of the civil rights struggle, which dominated the formative years of Rice's life. Rice was the daughter of a black clergyman whose life was on the line in the 1960's in a small Alabama town. Some of her close childhood friends were, indeed, murdered in a brutal attack on a local church.[1]

Yet it seems Ms. Rice's seminal civil rights experience has distracted her from the reality.

While Ms. Rice may imagine the PLO is a spontaneous Palestinian Arab grass roots civil rights movement, she apparently never relates to the fact that it was the Arab League that fostered the PLO in 1964, three years before the 1967 war, in order to incite the indigenous Arab population to join their war to liquidate Israel and "liberate" all of Palestine.

Ms. Rice never mentions the PLO Covenant to destroy Israel remains intact as the mandate for the PLO and its progeny, the Palestinian Authority, and that the PLO Covenant has not changed, except for the 1974 amendment that allows the PLO to destroy Israel in stages, and which allows the PLO to use diplomatic means to that end.

Perhaps the unkindest cut of all was Rice's comment to her colleagues that she compares Machmoud Abbas to Martin Luther King, because they are both committed to peace.

If Ms. Rice had paid more attention to the guidelines the US State Department, she could have paid more attention to the fact Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades of the Fatah, commanded by Abbas himself, was designated by the US government on March 23rd, 2002, as a terrorist organization and that Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades was and is an integral part of Fatah, whose members regard Abbas as their leader. Ms. Rice could also relate to the fact that Abbas simply refuses to disband the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades.

Instead, Ms. Rice lauds a terror organization which her own government defines as a terrorist group, while repeating, over and over, that she respects this same organization as a "moderate" entity. A symptom, perhaps, of Jerusalem Syndrome, since such a description bears no connection to reality

From Jerusalem, Ms. Rice flew to Egypt yesterday [October 16th], where she praised Egypt for agreeing to join the Annapolis peace conference next month.

This is the same Egypt which endows the Hamas regime in Gaza with a daily flow of massive supplies of ammunition, light arms and rockets which have enabled Arab militias from Gaza to conduct daily missile Israel attacks for the last seven years...including 1000 missile attacks since Hamas formally took over Gaza in June, while Egyptian supply lines to terror in Gaza have continued without interference.

Where was Rice's criticism of Egypt for arming a terror regime? It was not forthcoming.

Once again, such a response could be attributed to an advanced case of Jerusalem Syndrome.

Why allow the reality of war to interfere with her illusions of peace?
 

WHAT WILL BE IN THE SCRIPT

This is the general outline of the script that will be written starting at Annapolis and ending eventually in a suicidal hacking up of the Jewish State. These are the reported committments made by Israel Olmert:

• Divide Jerusalem into Jewish and Arab cities.

• Establish an Arab capital in Jerusalem.

• Remove Israeli sovereignty from the Temple Mount.

• Establish a Palestinian state on approx. 95% of Judea and Samaria. {put 200K jews on the street when the Jews of Gush Katif are still not reabsorbed into the economy and have no permanent homes.)

• Give up more Israeli territory to compensate for 3 areas of Jewish communities that would be annexed to Israel.

• Assume responsibility for the 1948 Arab refugee problem.

• Pardon more Arab fugitive terrorists as a goodwill gesture.

• Prohibit Jews from living in the new sovereign Arab state.

WHAT WILL BE OMITTED FROM THE SCRIPT

Excerpt from David Bedein's "Preventing a Terror State," September 30, 2007, Arutz Sheva

The script will promote the idea that Fatah is a moderate entity that can be relied on. The script will NOT use any of this list of facts:

• That Mahmoud Abbas was a deputy of Yasser Arafat, participated in terrorism-supporting activities, and continues Arafat's policies to this day;
• That Farouk Kaddoumi, the Secretary-General of Fatah , completely rejects the concept of peace with Israel;
• That Abbas, as Palestinin Authority president, has been in league with and fostered support for terrorist entities such as Hamas. The culmination of the Fatah history of cooperation with Hamas was the unity government, which led to the Hamas takeover of Gaza;
• That Fatah continues to strive for a new rapprochement with Hamas;
• That the Fatah Charter to this day calls for the destruction of Israel via armed resistance, and that the PLO charter calling for Israel's destruction was never actually amended, in spite of the pretense that it had been;
• That after the Bush Administration supplied arms, ammunition and intelligence to Fatah this past year, under the specious premise that it would fight Hamas, it was forced to watch Fatah surrender its entire American arsenal in Gaza to Hamas;
• That the PA, even under the Abbas aegis, pumps out inciteful material -- in its textbooks and via its media -- that is anti-Semitic, denies the legitimacy of Israel and praises jihad; and
• That Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which the US Justice Department and the Israeli government designated in 2002 as a terrorist organization, remains a part of Fatah. The Al-Aksa Brigade members see Abbas as their leader and Abbas serves to protect this group, even incorporating its members into PA security forces. Meanwhile, Al-Aksa takes credit for shelling Sderot.

In the course of providing assistance and support to the PA run by Fatah, neither the US nor Israel require any quid pro quo and make no demands with regard to such matters as cessation of incitement, commitment to take out Hamas, or disbanding of, or total disassociation from, the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades.
 

End Note

1. Herb Sunshine of Jerusalem wrote Rice this letter:

Dear Secretary Rice:

The Blacks of Alabama did not want to annihilate the White people.
The Blacks of Alabama did not fire missiles on their neighbors.
The Blacks of Alabama did not call for the destruction of the United States.
The Blacks of Aabama did not demand conversion to their views on pain of death.
The Blacks of Alabama did not want their own State carved out of the United States

The comparison of Martin Luther King with Yasser Arafat is an insult to Mr. King.

Dear Ms. Secretary have you considered facing issues other than the destruction of the Jewish State?

He who blesses Israel, is blessed.

With love of Israel,
Herbert B. Sunshine, Jerusalem/USA

Dr Aaron Lerner of IMRA said:

"If U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were a private citizen, her half-baked and seriously distorted idea that the Arab-Israeli conflict is equivalent to the struggle of Black for equality in the Jim Crow America of her childhood would only serve as evidence of a serious lack of analytical skills (or just plain intellectual laziness).

When policy making is driven by this false equivalent it is hardly surprising that it takes a cavalier attitude towards Israel's genuine and necessary concerns."

 
David Bedein is Bureau Chief, Israel Resource News agency and President, Center for Near East Policy Research LTD. He can be reached at Media@actcom.co.il. His Web site is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com

_________________________End of Story___________________________

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