By David Singer ——Bio and Archives--November 20, 2014
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"A few days ago in Ramallah, President Abbas embraced [these] terrorists as heroes. To glorify the murders of innocent women and men as heroes is an outrage. How can President Abbas says--how can he say that he stands against terrorism when he embraces the perpetrators of terrorism and glorifies them as heroes? He can't stand against terrorists and stand with the terrorists. And I'm wondering what a young Palestinian would think when he sees the leader of the Palestinian people embrace people who axed innocent men and women--axed their heads or blew them up or riddled them with bullets--what's a young Palestinian supposed to think about the future? What's he supposed to think about what he should do vis-a-vis Israelis and vis-a-vis the state of Israel? So it's not surprising that in recent weeks Israel has been subjected to a growing wave of terrorist attacks. President Abbas didn't see fit to condemn these attacks even after we learned that at least in one case--I stress, at least in one case--those who served and are serving in the Palestinian security forces took part in them."
"In the six months since the start of peace negotiations, the Palestinian Authority continues its unabated incitement against the state of Israel. This Palestinian Government incitement is rampant. You see it in the state-controlled media--the government-controlled media--in the schools, in textbooks, in kindergartens. You see it at every part of Palestinian society. So instead of preparing Palestinians for peace, Palestinian leaders are teaching them to hate Israel. This is not the way to achieve peace. President Abbas must lead his people away from terror and incitement, towards reconciliation and peace."Kerry failed to address this virulent Jew-hatred motivating Palestinian Arabs to murder Jews - ignored the adulation afforded these convicted murderers by Abbas and remained silent on the rampant incitement conducted on a daily basis against Israel. Instead--Kerry--apparently languishing in a time warp--sought to provide some comforting reassurance for Netanyahu with these incredibly inane remarks:
"On a personal level, last month I travelled to Vietnam on my first visit there as Secretary of State. And the transformation in our relationship--I was a young soldier who fought there--the transformation in our relationship is proof that as painful as the past can be, through hard work of diplomacy history's adversaries can actually become partners for a new day and history's challenges can become opportunities for a new age."Kerry's words have turned out to be a massive misjudgement. It is surely time for America and the European Union especially - and for the rest of the international community generally - to take stock and make clear that:
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David Singer is an Australian Lawyer, a Foundation Member of the International Analyst Network and Convenor of Jordan is Palestine International—an organization calling for sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza to be allocated between Israel and Jordan as the two successor States to the Mandate for Palestine. Previous articles written by him can be found at: jordanispalestine.blogspot.com