Four questions for Mahmoud Abbas

PA president needs to explain his duplicitous behavior

Abraham Cooper/Harold Brackman
The Washington Times
23 September '10

(Good questions but nobody should hold their breath waiting for a reply. Y.)

In conjunction with his appearance at the U.N. General Assembly and meeting with President Obama, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is launching a charm offensive in the American media, on Capitol Hill - where the Palestinian Authority (PA) and support groups have netted nearly $2 billion since 2007 - and among American Jews, with whom he has scheduled two dinners.

At our most important annual dinner, the Passover Seder, we Jews ask four questions. Not having made Mr. Abbas' A list, we share here four questions we would ask the Palestinian president:

1. Mr. President, you sure have a funny way of courting Israelis. Why do you refuse to recognize your neighbor as a Jewish state? The Jerusalem Post recently referenced your interview in the East Jerusalem newspaper Al-Quds. You repeatedly told the interviewer: no compromises on settlements, refugees, Jerusalem or anything; nothing but a return by Israel to its 1967 borders. When asked about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's insistence that the PA recognize Israel as a Jewish state, you replied, "Israel can call itself whatever it wants. We don't have to recognize those definitions." Yet, President Abbas, your Palestinian National Charter insists that a Palestinian state will be a Muslim state.

Coupled with the demand that Israel accept "the right of return" of millions of Palestinians who never set foot in Israel, why should Israelis - left, center and right - hold out any hope for peace?

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