While Abbas continues Arafat's decades-long game of Fatah good cop / Hamas bad cop in order to
reap Western largesse,
the mask comes off for his local audience:
A new article blaming Jews for "fanning the flames of evil and provoking wars" has appeared in the official PA newspaper Al Hayat Al Jadida, written by Muhammad Khalifa, Executive Director of the United Arab Emirates-based Zayed Centre for Coordination and Follow-Up. Itamar Marcus, Director of Palestinian Media Watch, described the piece: "It's pure classical anti-Semitism, and a perfect example of the type of incitement to hatred that is regular." "Al Hayat Al Jadida is a paper owned by the Palestinian Authority and controlled by Fatah....This is coming from Mahmoud Abbas. This isn't coming from Hamas."
"The media is in the hands of Mahmoud Abbas. Right after the (Palestinian) elections, he transferred the control of the newspaper and television to the office of the president....And we have seen an increase in incitement to hatred." Such programming ensured the conflict will continue, and "wouldn't be happening if there was any intention of bringing about peace," Marcus added. "Right now, it's not in the interest of Abbas to have violence, so he's stopping the (incitement to) violence, but he doesn't want the violence to disappear from the mentality, so he's keeping up the (incitement to) hatred. There is no indication of any change in the long-term policy."
But
Israel's leaders from Chelm have an explanation with unassailable logic--the reason Abbas promotes terror is so no one will depose him, suspecting he's really a moderate at heart. I wish I were joking.
