Turning Over a New Leaf Watch
The single, overarching, consistent, and eventually deadly Palestinian betrayal of Oslo was their use of mass media and religious organization to twist an entire generation of Palestinians into vicious Jew-haters. So when Abbas took over, he was supposed to put the Palestinians back on a path to peace by putting an end to incitement. He promised. Turns out not so much:
In a fiery official sermon on Palestinian State Television Friday... Palestinian preacher Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris declared that "the Jewish government" was hatching plots together with "extremist religious Jews" to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem or to "invade the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque" with "thousands of extremists, Jews."...
The speeches themselves were only the latest signs that the Palestinian Authority (PA) headed by Mahmoud Abbas had not really carried out its promise to stop all violence and incitement to violence against Israel.
Having the government step in to stop religious incitement is a thorny issue for a democratic society (not that Palestinian society is even a stone's throw of that description). But surely it's not too much to ask Abbas not to put it up on Palestinian television in order to dampen the terrorism he claims to oppose. Then again, it might only be a matter of time before the government becomes a bunch of terrorists anyway:
Hamas has decided to participate in next July's election for the Palestinian Legislative Council so it could destroy the Oslo Accords... he Islamic Jihad organization announced on Saturday that it was considering taking part in the legislative election.
And the list goes on:
"Palestinian Authority security officials are using their weapons for criminal activities, including murders and killings, with the aim of scoring personal gains and accumulating fortunes. Some use their weapons to collect debts, serving as judges and enforcers of verdicts that were issued without trial. "What's strange is that those who take the law into their hands are individuals or groups belonging to the PA executive branch. They have become saboteurs of the entire Palestinian society and epidemics that harm its fabric and weaken it."
It's almost enough to shake one's faith in democratizing the Arab world. Wait - now that I think of it, it is easily enough to shake one's faith in democratizing the Arab world.
In a fiery official sermon on Palestinian State Television Friday... Palestinian preacher Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris declared that "the Jewish government" was hatching plots together with "extremist religious Jews" to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem or to "invade the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque" with "thousands of extremists, Jews."...
The speeches themselves were only the latest signs that the Palestinian Authority (PA) headed by Mahmoud Abbas had not really carried out its promise to stop all violence and incitement to violence against Israel.
Having the government step in to stop religious incitement is a thorny issue for a democratic society (not that Palestinian society is even a stone's throw of that description). But surely it's not too much to ask Abbas not to put it up on Palestinian television in order to dampen the terrorism he claims to oppose. Then again, it might only be a matter of time before the government becomes a bunch of terrorists anyway:
Hamas has decided to participate in next July's election for the Palestinian Legislative Council so it could destroy the Oslo Accords... he Islamic Jihad organization announced on Saturday that it was considering taking part in the legislative election.
And the list goes on:
"Palestinian Authority security officials are using their weapons for criminal activities, including murders and killings, with the aim of scoring personal gains and accumulating fortunes. Some use their weapons to collect debts, serving as judges and enforcers of verdicts that were issued without trial. "What's strange is that those who take the law into their hands are individuals or groups belonging to the PA executive branch. They have become saboteurs of the entire Palestinian society and epidemics that harm its fabric and weaken it."
It's almost enough to shake one's faith in democratizing the Arab world. Wait - now that I think of it, it is easily enough to shake one's faith in democratizing the Arab world.
