Mahmoud Abbas, as we all know, is supposed to be a new Palestian broom, renouncing the violent ways of his predecessor Arafat for a statesmanlike approach. So when we learned he was the author of a thesis denying the Holocaust, we were supposed to give him the benefit of the doubt. When he said it would take time for him to deal with the murderers of Hamas and other violent groups, we were supposed to give him the benefit of the doubt. When he chose not to fight them or arrest them but to turn them into PA policemen instead, we were supposed to give him the benefit of the doubt. When a human bomb murdered yet more Israelis in Tel Aviv in February, Abbas arrested two men and we were supposed to give him the benefit of the doubt. And when he undertook to stop the PA-sponsored incitement to kill Jews, we were supposed to applaud and were told this was sufficient evidence to suppress our doubt. There would be no more demented paranoia about Jewish conspiracies.

Now we read the following on Israel National News:

'The PA’s state television has been accusing Israel of poisoning Palestinians with radiation. Gaza TV reported on Saturday, April 30, that Israeli machines killed a 55-year-old Palestinian woman who apparently died of a heart attack after being searched with an American-made device.

'That story was depicted in the print media with a cartoon that in western countries would be condemned as anti-Semitic propaganda: A hand with a Star of David on its sleeve holds up a red colored machine called “Rafah crossing”, emitting waves that are called “death and illness”. The cartoon appeared in a newspaper, Al-Hayat-Al-Jadeeda, a paper owned and controlled by the Fatah faction of the PLO, headed by Mahmoud Abbas.

'Moreover, the official news agency of the PA, claimed on Thursday that Israel deliberately killed “an aged woman” with an American made “radiation machine”. The Palestinian Authority itself, announced last Tuesday that it was closing the Rafah (Rafiah) crossing to protect Palestinians against “Israeli use of a radiation device for searching Palestinian travelers.” Israeli security officials have said that the device is nothing more than an American-made machine that uses “holographic technology to screen passengers for weapons and explosives.”

'According to Michael Widlansky of IMRA (Independent Media Review Analysis), a think-tank that surveys the Arab press, Abbas is continuing a long-running PA campaign, led by Arafat and his wife Suha, to discredit Israel by claiming that Israel uses “radio-active weapons” against Palestinians, including “uranium artillery shells”, “uranium bullets”, and “poison gas”.

'Widlansky asserts that under Abbas, the Palestinian media have actually stepped up the use of incendiary mosque speeches broadcast on Palestinian radio and television where both Israel and Americah are regularly attacked as well as increased use of code words in Arabic such as “resistance operations” to describe attacks on Israelis. Incitement against Israel is not the sole prerogative of the PA media, however. Abbas’ administration has also done virtually nothing to stem an alarming rise in anti-Israel hatred spewing out of campuses in the PA administered areas of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.'

We also read this, from Palestinian Media Watch on May 3:

'An advertisement sending birthday greetings to Saddam Hussein was published yesterday in the official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper, Al Hayat Al Jadida... The following is the text of the birthday greeting in the PA daily:

'Headline: "Blessings to the leader of the masses, Saddam Hussein the faithful, the legal President of the Iraqi Republic on the occasion of his 68th birthday. Two members of the leadership of the Fatah Movement, Bader Tewfik Hassan "Abu Yunis" and Fuzi Kamel Shahrur, express to the leader of the nation and her warrior knight Saddam Hussein, the president of the Iraqi Republic best wishes on the occasion of his 68th birthday, and bless all of the faithful among the Iraqi and Arab nations, who support and defend justice. We wish him long life for the sake of Iraq and to free the Arab nation from the enslavement of foreign imperialism. Oh, the glory of victory, with the help of Allah." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 1, 2005]'

And this, from the same source on May 1:

'PA TV last week rebroadcast a religious program maligning Christians and Jews. Christians are accused of forsaking Jesus’s teaching of love, while the Jews are said to have “worshipped gold... falsified the Torah [of Moses]... made business of the Torah and became rich.”'

And this, on April 28:

'The Palestinian Authority (PA) reported this week on the "escape" from prison of the two terrorists they had arrested after the Tel Aviv suicide bombing in February. This "escape" is yet another indication that Mahmoud Abbas is using the same strategies of duplicity that were used by the Arafat regime. Arresting terrorists immediately after bombings, only to quietly report their "escape" after the bombing was no longer a news item, was an effective tool used by Arafat. Because of this approach, the West praised him as a terror fighter, while he was praised at home as a terror supporter.'

For how much longer are we supposed to give Mahmoud Abbas the benefit of the doubt?