Palestinian President for Life, Mahmoud Abbas, said the other day, in what was widely interpreted as an April Fools joke, that he called for the renewal of the Trilateral Anti-Incitement committee which monitors cases where incitement to violence or terror is suspected. It was another one of his many attempts to portray himself as some kind of moderate leader.
Of course this only works on people with less than three brain cells, which explains his stunning success on those without the required grey matter, such as the Mayor of Naples, Luigi de Magistris who awarded him honorary citizenship of Naples. Or the mayor of Paris who awarded him the Grand Medaille de Vermeil de la Ville de Paris, making him an honorary citizen of the city in Paris in recognition “of his actions towards finding peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis.” Yes, the European leadership continue to roll out the red carpet and John Kerry continues to live in fantasy land when he believes that Abbas is a man of moderation.
So when Abbas talks about incitement and the need to investigate it, it once again shows the hypocrisy of everything he says and why he can’t be taken seriously. In January this year, Fatah leader Jibril Rajoub, called Israelis “sons of bitches.” He told them that Palestinians reside and own the land while the Jews are merely strangers to it. He called Netanyahu a fascist and a representative of the new Nazis. He also praised the 145 Palestinian terrorists killed while attempting to murder Jews, as heroes.
Now, we are always told that there are radicals on both sides, extremists in every corner, but they are only a small minority. Except this wasn’t some hidden figure, or a radical that works in the shadows, or someone that lives on the fringes of palestinian society. This was a member of Mahmoud Abbas’s own party – in other words, Mahmoud Abbas is his leader. And this was not broadcast on some hidden, illegal channels operating underground – but was broadcast on official Palestinian Authority television. And nothing gets on that channel without the approval of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas.
This was mainstream.
So when Mahmoud Abbas dares to call on a committee to investigate all sides of incitement, he is once again trying to equate his side that celebrates murder and violence to the Israeli side that detests it.
So no, Mahmoud Abbas, the sides aren’t equal. That doesn’t mean that occasionally you won’t see an Israeli that resorts to unjustified violence or even murder, but people like that are rare and are certainly not celebrated but shunned. They are not comforted by society, but rejected by it. They do not receive a hero’s money stipend, but rather a judge’s prison sentence. Israelis do not “welcome every drop of blood spilled,” but are abhorred by it.
Town squares will never be named after them, nor will they be honoured at official state functions. And that is the difference between a society that wants peace and a society that wants war.
The incitement that continues and contributes to the violence that we see comes solely from the Palestinian side, on official Palestinian tv, and from official Palestinian leaders.
So when he talks of convening a committee that calls for the investigation of incitement, there’s one name that should be at the top of that list.
His own.
