THOUGHTS ON ABBAS' MEETING WITH BUSH NEXT WEEK

Abbas a Disappointment - Zalman Shoval
PA leader Mahmoud "Abbas will find plenty of sympathy and goodwill in Washington - but frankly, he isn't taken very seriously there," I was told a few weeks ago when visiting the nation's capital. As some of my interlocutors explained, while Abbas may not be ideal, "he is the best thing we got." America knows what Israel also knows, that so far Abbas has been a disappointment.

Quite simply, he doesn't deliver the goods. On the one hand, he tries to shortcut the stages of the road-map, and on the other hand he cuddles Hamas instead of acting resolutely to control it. By granting Hamas political legitimacy without requiring them to disarm, he has created a situation similar to the one with Hizballah in Lebanon (and the IRA in Ulster), of fully armed militias becoming legitimate political players without relinquishing the option of terror and violence. Abbas should be told in Washington in no uncertain terms that there is no way that he will be permitted to play Arafat's double game of mixing diplomacy with terror - and that with all the goodwill exhibited toward him, what really counts is honoring his commitments. (Washington Times)

See also Bush Must Incite Abbas to Change Policy Promoting Violence - Cal Thomas
Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to meet President Bush in Washington Thursday. He is getting this meeting because the Bush administration has concluded that Abbas has done more than his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, to reduce violence against Israeli civilians and reform the Palestinian security services, among other preconditions stated in the road map for Middle East peace. That's debatable, but one issue that is beyond debate is Abbas's failure to end the incitement to violence that President Bush mentioned nearly three years ago as a precondition for implementing the road map. According to a report commissioned by the Center for Near East Policy Research, the level of invective, incitement, paranoia, spreading of false accusations and rumors, and inflammatory sermons from Palestinian mosques has not changed under Abbas. (Salt Lake Tribune)

See also Abbas Talks, Won't Walk the Walk - Richard Z. Chesnoff (New York Daily News)