The talks between PLO Chief Yasser Arafat and his newly-appointed Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) have failed. A close aide to Abbas announced in Ramallah today that Abbas will not attend any additional meetings with Arafat on formulating a new PLO cabinet. Abbas was given until Wednesday at midnight to complete the formulation of a PLO government. Arafat’s advisor Abu Allah, who has been mediating between Arafat and Abbas, was dispatched to persuade Abbas to continue talks with Arafat.
British Prime Minister Tony Blaire phoned Arafat this morning and demanded that the PLO chief see to it that Abbas is sworn in as prime minister. According to Arab sources in Ramallah, EU Envoy Miguel Moratinos spoke with Arafat yesterday twice on the issue stating emphatically that the European Union considers Mahmoud Abbas as the sole candidate for Prime Minister of the PLO-controlled territories and that no other Arafat aide would be accepted. According to the report, Arafat responded to Moratinos with fury and shouts, hanging up the phone in the middle of Moratinos’ call.
Encouraged by the international support that he is receiving, Abbas is not giving in to Arafat’s demands, and his is increasing his own. Arafat is concentrating his efforts on garnering support among the ruling committees of the PLO and Fatach to remove Abbas. While Abbas enjoyed broad support from the Palestinian Legislative Council two months as he received a mandate to create a new line up of PLO ministers, much of that support has now gone over to Arafat in the dispute between the two.
In a joint article released today, Gary Bauer of American Values and Morton A. Klein of the Zionist Organization of America noted that Abbas continues to support the murder of Israelis beyond the pre-1967 borders. When asked by the Arab newspaper Alsharq Al-Awsat on March 3, 2003 about talks between the PLO and Hamas, Abbas said: "We didn't talk about a break in the armed struggle ... It is our right to resist. The Intifada must continue and it is the right of the Palestinian People to resist and use all possible means in order to defends its presence and existence." The interviewer then asked: "Including using arms?" Abbas replied: "All means and arms as long as they are coming to your home, as this is the right to resist. The restriction applies only to 'Shahada-Seeking'
[suicide] operations and going out to attack in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem."
Thus Abbas supports murdering all Jews in the territories, both soldiers and civilians whom he defines as "settlers"--that is, Jews who reside in (or happen to be visiting) Judea, Samaria, Gaza, the Golan, the Old City section of Jerusalem (where the Jewish Quarter, Western Wall and Temple Mount are situated), and Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Gilo, Ramat Eshkol, French Hill, and the Hebrew University campus.
Bauer and Klein opined: “There is nothing moderate about Abbas's view that for tactical
reasons, the Palestinian Arabs should temporarily restrict their murder targets to those beyond the pre-1967 border. That's no more "moderate" than Pharoah, in ancient Egypt, restricting his mass murder to Jewish boys while sparing Jewish girls.”