Kissing Mahmoud Abbas
Kissing Mahmoud Abbas

Bowing to our adversaries seems to be a Jewish thing from way back. Even so, it was still shocking to behold those images of Israeli leaders lining up to shake hands with Mahmoud Abbas. This was during the funeral for Shimon Peres, but either way, I thought this must be some mistake.

I thought maybe this was some other Mahmoud Abbas, a different man with the same name.

The Mahmoud Abbas that I know had a hidden hand on any number of atrocities – the Munich Olympics, Klinghoffer and so much more.

He blood libels Israel every time he gets to the podium at the United Nations. At the EU he won a standing ovation when he accused Israel of poisoning the wells.

All of Jerusalem, as says, belongs to him. Jews, he says, have no right to “trample” on his Temple Mount with their “filthy feet.”

So this can’t be the same guy who was being feted by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin.

They kept pouring it on with smiles and handshakes, and even before that, Netanyahu invited Abbas to address the Knesset.

So that can’t be the same Abbas who partnered with Yasser Arafat to father worldwide Islamic terror, beginning with one killing spree after another against Israelis. Thousands died. Oslo made it worse. So, I figured, something must be wrong with this picture.

But Naftali Bennett, who leads the Jewish Home party, confirmed that this was indeed the same Abbas, and Bennett was equally amazed at such backslapping, saying, "I could not understand why Israelis stood in line to shake hands with Abbas, who encourages the murder of Israelis and who pays pensions to the families of terrorist murderers.”

I was glad to find someone out there who shared my astonishment because sometimes I feel that it’s just me and only me about everything.

Often enough it’s the little people, or as Hillary calls us, the deplorables, who know better.
That’s how I felt when Abbas signed the Oslo accords for Arafat. I wrote that it was a terrible mistake for these Israeli leaders to put gangsters on the same footing with a sovereign nation, the nation of Israel. I was told to shut up. I was told to trust in princes. I was told they know what they’re doing.

Turns out that the leaders were wrong and I was right – me along with other “right-wingers” who saw the looming catastrophe of Oslo.

Not just Oslo, but also the surrender of Lebanon, and also the surrender of Gaza. We saw those “disengagements” as being fatal.

Again we were told to trust in princes. They know better. Actually I know better and not because I’m smart, but because I’m a natural-born pessimist and pessimists get it right at a rate of 99% of the time. Or this: Often enough it’s the little people, or as Hillary calls us, the deplorables, who know better.

As for me, I still don’t get it about inviting Mahmoud Abbas to address the Knesset.

To honor such a man proves again that there is no limit to this trend…this tendency of Jews to lift up their enemies at the price of belittling themselves.

On top of that, we hear that Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, invited Abbas to her home, where if she knew he was coming, she would bake him a cake.

I don’t understand this.

New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. New from the novelist: “News Anchor Sweetheart,” a novelist’s version of Fox News and Megyn Kelly. Engelhard is the author of the international bestseller “Indecent Proposal.” He is the recipient of the Ben Hecht Award for Literary Excellence. Website: www.jackengelhard.com