Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud AbbasReuters

A full 369 members of the House of Representatives issued a stern letter to Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday, demanding that he stop inciting terrorism.

The letter was released by House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and ranking member of the committee Eliot Engel (D-NY), reports Associated Press.

In addition to asking Abbas to stop inciting terror, the Congressmen called on him to condemn the terror wave and renew direct peace negotiations with Israel, and to continue security cooperation with the IDF.

In the letter they directly accused Abbas and other PA officials of inciting terrorism, and warned that unless calm is restored there is little chance for a "two state solution."

It remains to be seen what effect the Congress letter will have, given that a top Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official last week scoffed at US threats to cut over $5 billion in aid to the PA over its incitement to terror.

The official said the US cutting aid would not have any influence on the PA's "political position" of incitement.

Incitement run wild

As noted by the Congressmen, Abbas has been actively fanning the flames of the current terror wave that broke at the beginning of October.

Just the day before the first major attack, the murder of the young Henkin couple in front of their four children on October 1, Abbas condemned Israel at the UN and effectively canceled the 1994 Oslo Accords that formed the PA.

Several weeks earlier he called for violence to stop Jews from "defiling" the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount with their "filthy feet," in a direct call for terror in which he "blessed every drop of blood spilled for Allah."

Abbas's PA and Fatah have been actively calling for rock and knife attacks, and this week he ordered military funerals replete with full pomp and circumstance for terrorists.

As for direction negotiations on a "two state solution," Abbas last week let slip that all of Israel is the "occupation," revealing that his intention is to conquer all of Israel and not just the areas over the 1949 Armistice line.