"From Arafat's Shadow"

I've heard the optimism and you probably have as well. Now that Arafat is dead, there will be an avenue for peace between the Palestenians and Israel. While we all hope that to be true, if you've been listening as Charles Krauthammer has, you will not be so disillusioned. All you have to do is listen. Some of us know that the arab world's only goal is to push Israel into the sea, not make peace. This has not magically changed. Let's look at what Abbas has been saying as documented by Charles:

Dec. 30: Abbas, appearing in Jenin, is hoisted on the shoulders of Zakaria Zbeida, a notorious and wanted al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist. Abbas declares that he will protect all terrorists from Israel.

Dec. 31: Abbas reiterates his undying loyalty to Arafat's maximalist demands: complete Israeli withdrawal to the 1949 armistice lines, Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, and — the red-flag deal-breaker — the "right of return," which would send the millions of Palestinians abroad not to their own country of Palestine but to Israel in order to destroy it demographically.

Jan. 1: Abbas declares that he will never crack down on Palestinian terrorism.

Jan. 4: Abbas calls Israel "the Zionist enemy." That phrase is so odious that only Hezbollah and Iran and others openly dedicated to the extermination of Israel use it.

What of Abbas' vaunted opposition to violence? On Jan. 2, he tells Hamas terrorists firing rockets that maim and kill Jewish villagers within Israel, "This is not the time for this kind of act." This is an interesting "renunciation" of terrorism: Not today, boys; perhaps later, when the time is right. Which was exactly Arafat's utilitarian approach to terrorism throughout the Oslo decade.

Some of the American and Israeli responses to Abbas are enough to make you weep. Spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Israel: "We don't think it is useful to focus on every statement by every official; what's important is the process." Official in Prime Minister Sharon's office: "Words don't count in the Middle East; what counts are actions."

Have we learned nothing? In the Middle East, words are actions.

I, too, was hoping for a dramatic change in this conflict, but well....denial and hopeful thinking are powerful things.... And in case you didn't know, Abbas is also a holocaust-denier.

You must read all of Charles, an excerpt can never do his work justice.

UPDATE: Cox and Forkum have kindly drawn a cartoon to go along with my post. From my title to this cartoon....there are some shared brainwaves somewhere....