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Dr. Aaron Lerner is co-founder of , Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict.
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By Dr. Aaron Lerner
January 12, 2007
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Days before meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas stated that it is legitimate to kill Israelis and that arms not be used against Palestinians.
No. These weren't remarks pieced together from fragmentary reports from a secret meeting of Abbas' select inner circle held behind closed door.
Abbas said it at the annual rally of Fatah in Ramallah covered by the international press corps.
He said that "we have a legitimate right to direct our guns against the Israeli occupation. It is forbidden to use these guns against Palestinians."
There is only one meaning to the phrase "direct our guns against the Israeli occupation" - and it has nothing to do with performing fancy rifle drill team exercises at protest rallies.
"Direct our guns against the Israeli occupation" means killing Israelis.
By the same token, there is a singular meaning to Mr. Abbas' admonition that "it is forbidden to use these guns against Palestinians," and that is that he has absolutely no intention to use lethal force against Hamas or any other Palestinian gunmen in order to fulfill the long list of security obligations that the Palestinians have yet to honor if that's what it takes to do it.
And it does.
That's right.
"Moderate", "man of peace", Mahmoud Abbas, whose supporters just received a generous supply of some seven thousand assault rifles from America, makes no bones that he believes it is legitimate to use these weapons to kill Israelis - not to fight Palestinian "enemies of peace".
In a normal world such remarks would ignite a diplomatic firestorm with tough talk from Washington about a "reassessment".
Instead of coming to praise "moderate" Abbas bearing gifts in the form of yet even more weapons and training that will ultimately be directed against Israel (and, according to some reports, an offer to advance towards a sovereign Palestinian state without the Palestinians even necessarily ever getting around to actually disarming the gunmen), Ms. Rice's advance team should be warning Abbas that he may not even be included in the itinerary if he cannot commit in advance to the wording of a clear and unequivocal declaration in Arabic that he will read at their joint press conference rejecting the legitimacy of the use of force against Israel - regardless of the circumstances or its efficacy (Mr. Abbas generously opposes terror attacks if they are not effective).
Anything short of this is effectively an American acceptance of the inevitable use of American supplied weapons to murder Israelis.
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