Jerusalem Post columnist Khaled Abu Toameh informs us that Dr. Mahmoud Abbas, alias Abu Mazen, recently made a trip to Mecca, where he acquired the title of ?haji? (pilgrim), whereby ?a Muslim gains a reputation for being decent, ?clean,? and God-fearing.?



This new direction in Abu Mazen?s peregrinations should not deflect attention from his periodic Moscow rendezvouses with his Communist mentor, Dr. Yevgeny Primakov, Russia?s most durable and talented manipulator of US/Middle East affairs. It was in Ramallah, in 1997, when Primakov told Arafat that Russia would be the first to recognize a Palestinian state.



Now, in the wake of the PLO/Euro/UN endorsements of Abu Mazen, followed by that of the United States, his appointment as Yasser Arafat?s prime minister makes scrutiny of his varying biographical accounts a national security imperative.



According to Abu Toameh, Abu Mazen?s Moscow affiliation ?started back in the 1970s, when it was announced that he had received a doctorate in Israeli affairs from Moscow University? but that he consistently brushed off rumors about his purported ties with the CPSU (Communist Party Soviet Union).?



His doctoral thesis is said to deny that six million Jews died in World War II. Moreover, in his Arabic-language book The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism, Abbas rejects ?the Zionist fantasy, the fantastic lie that six million Jews were killed... the limited number that did succumb were victims of a joint [Nazi-Zionist] plot....?



Nevertheless, Dr. Yossi Beilin, who negotiated the Oslo Agreement with Abbas, blatantly concealed these facts from readers of Yediot Aharanot (11.03.2003). Beilin claimed ?that Abbas? Moscow doctorate was merely a misguided treatise on Zionist conquest and settlement.? Fortunately, MK Aryeh Eldad (Yediot Aharanot, 24.02.2003) had previously published a more sober assessment: an appeal to intrepid statesmen not to host Holocaust denier Abbas.



Eight years earlier, Ma?ariv?s intelligence reporter, Alex Doron, disclosed the identity of Abu Mazen?s Muscovite tutor, described by former American Secretary of State Alexander Haig as ?an enemy both of the United States and Israel.? The dramatis personae is none other than former Soviet KGB Chief and Russian Federation Foreign Minister and Premier ? Yevgeny Primakov!



Primakov, a long standing intimate of Iraq?s Saddam Hussein, was Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev?s envoy to Iraq during the 1991 Gulf conflict and progenitor of the Saddam-Arafat axis. In this respect, it is imperative to digest the disclosures of Richard Butler (of UNSCOM) in Saddam Defiant (2000) ?concerning Primakov?s relationship with the Iraqi regime. I received intelligence reports which indicated that Primakov had been receiving payoffs from Iraq? my sources confirmed details of the payments, the times, the amounts, and the accounts to which they were sent? Russia?s foreign minister was seeking to bury known facts that were essential to the disarming of Saddam: not only for reasons of Russian political interest, but also, apparently, for personal gain.? [emphasis added]



Hence the world?s current Iraqi predicament is rooted in Primakov?s ubiquitous machinations. Consequently, now is certainly not the time for indulging alluring overtures from Primakov?s prot?g?, Abu Mazen, undoubtedly programmed to charter the Russian-designed Road Map for the Middle East in general, and for Israel in particular.

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Professor Eidelberg is the President of the Yamin Israel movement.

Professor Wolf Pearlman is on the faculty of the Institute of Technology, Haifa.