Israel’s suicide tendency shows no sign of being deflected. An article on WorldNetDaily reports that assorted Israeli leftists had been advising Mahmoud Abbas on how to advance the Palestinian cause, extract American concessions and apply pressure on Israel for his meeting with President Bush last month:

‘On Monday, following a session at Abbas' Ramallah compound with a delegation of 400 international opposition leaders, dovish Israeli politicians Ephraim Sneh, Yossi Beilin, Amram Mitzna and about 20 others met with the Palestinian leader… "Beilin told Abbas to understand that America isn't in a position to pressure Sharon until after the Gaza disengagement is carried out. That Sharon for now pretty much has a free pass. But he suggested that Abbas make it clear that after the withdrawal, Bush needs to press for a continuation of the political process and talks. That disengagement can't just be the end of it," the source said.

'Beilin then advised Abbas on how to extract American concessions, said the source. "He told Abbas that Bush feels a little guilty about the Iraq campaign and is under pressure because of it, so Bush needs to compensate by helping the Palestinians." Sneh, a prominent Labor politician, advised Abbas "that because the Bush doctrine is all about democracy, Abbas needs to stress that he was elected democratically. Abbas should say he deserves sympathy and credibility from the U.S. because he is a 'democratically' elected leader, after Israel, the only one." The source said Sneh attended the meeting after arriving in Israel less than an hour before. "He rushed straight to Abbas after landing at the airport a half hour earlier."'

That’s Abbas, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority — the same authority whose Environment Minister, Yousef Abu Safieh, has claimed in the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Shark al-Awsat that Israel is deliberately dispersing cancerous materials to kill Palestinians. As Micah Halpern reports:

‘And what is the Israeli poison of choice? What cancerous material is Israel dispersing throughout, forcing upon, the Palestinian Authority? Sweet and Low! Yes, that diabolical sugar substitute, the darling of dieters since it came on the market, Sweet and Low. And how is Israel going about with this plan to poison the Palestinian population? By manufacturing soft drinks made with this sugar substitute expressly for distribution within the Palestinian Authority... Abu Safieh had more evidence to prove his thesis. He also said that the Egyptians confiscated two Israeli truckloads of toys that were highly radioactive. The trucks were en route, he said, to Palestinian children.’

Abbas, of course, refuses to dismantle the Palestinian infrastructure of terror and instead has recruited Hamas operatives into the PA. Inexorably, Hamas’s genocidal terrorism is being sanitised. Not only does the west turn a blind eye to this merging of Hamas and the PA, but because it is winning elections the west does not say the obvious, that democracy consists of more than elections and an elected Hamas operative is merely an elected terrorist, but it draws the morally obtuse conclusion that electability means the terrorism can be ignored. When British diplomats were discovered to be talking to Hamas mayors (see earlier post) Foreign Secretary Jack Straw drew a (specious) distinction between leaders and led and declared that there should be no talks with the Hamas leadership until the organization abandoned violence and recognized Israel. But now we learn from Ha’aretz that the EU has turned the ratchet of appeasement another notch:

‘…the EU informed the U.S. administration of a substantial shift in its contacts with Hamas. The EU decision, which surprised the Americans, allows low-level European diplomats - below the rank of ambassador - to conduct talks with Hamas representatives who are running in the elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council. Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by both the U.S. government and the EU… Hamas officials said Thursday that the group is talking to EU diplomats despite the Europeans' official designation of Hamas as terrorists, and that the contacts have recently intensified. "Every 10 days to two weeks we have at least one meeting with a European diplomat," said Mohammed Ghazal, a senior Hamas representative in the West Bank said. "No one can deal with the Arab countries without dealing with the Islamic movements, and no one can ignore Hamas when it comes to the Palestinian cause and Palestinian politics." Ghazal said most of the contacts in the West Bank and Gaza were with lower-level EU diplomats, but that higher-level contacts between the EU and Hamas were taking place abroad. He did not elaborate.’

Not surprisingly, Israel has protested at this encouragement of genocidal terror. No doubt the Israeli fifth columnists, on the other hand, would cheer.

Posted by melanie at June 16, 2005