Arafat’s successor

Mahmoud Abbas

Who is Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen)?

Arafat's appointed prime minister - Co-architect of the
Oslo Agreement - Revisionist and denier of the Holocaust - Israel's future
hope for peace?

Mahmoud Abbas has long been secretary-general of the PLO's
ruling executive committee, which made him deputy to Yasser Arafat, and the PLO
chairman's possible successor. Now he has been officially presented and
approved as Arafat's new Prime Minister.

Abbas is co-signatory to Oslo I and II. He purportedly
represents "the moderate side" of the Arab world. He is also a historical
revisionist, and a Holocaust denier.

In his Arabic book, The Other Side:  the secret
Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism, Abbas refutes "the Zionist
fantasy, the fantastic lie that six million Jews were killed."

Instead, this man with whom Israel's next government may
find itself negotiating the future of Israel - the Jewish state born out of that
very Holocaust - suggests a cynical and macabre connection between the Nazis and
the Zionists, and claims that 'only' 890,000 Jews were killed by Hitler -
these as the victims of a Zionist-Nazi plot.

The British had the spine to refuse to meet with Hitler's
deputy, Rudolph Hess, when he flew to England to negotiate peace with Britain,
and thus to stop the advance of the Allied forces. The Americans would not dream
of agreeing to negotiate with a deputy approved and appointed by Saddam Hussein.
Why then should the Israelis crawl like beggars to a man who has been at the
side of Arafat for years, is financially beholden to him, and is an accomplice
in his murderous terrorism that has already killed so many Israelis?

Will Mr. Ariel Sharon, who had the moral fortitude to refuse
to shake Arafat's hand, now negotiate with his long-standing deputy, and give
him his Palestinian state in the heart of the land of Israel?

Addendum

Jewish Studies scholar Rafael Medoff writes: "The
Japanese publisher Bungei Shunju shut down one of its magazines for printing an
article denying the Holocaust.

International pressure compelled Croatian President Franjo
Tudjman to publicly retract statements in his book doubting that the Holocaust
had taken place. Austrian Freedom Party leader Jorg Haider was ostracized by the
international community for his remarks praising members of the SS, as was
French politician Jean Marie Le Pen, for questioning the existence of the gas
chambers and belittling the significance of the Holocaust. A recent poll found
64 percent of Americans believe world leaders should likewise refuse to meet
with Abbas."

Yet some in the media have treated Abbas with kid gloves, to
say the least. The official BCC News Profile of Abbas reports: "A highly
intellectual man, Abbas studied law in Egypt before doing a Ph.D. in Moscow. He
is the author of several books." The New York Times recently characterized
Abbas as "a lawyer and historian . . . He holds a doctorate in history from
the Moscow Oriental College; his topic was Zionism." Neither the BBC nor
the Times offered any further explanation as to the contents of Abbas' writings.

Bestowing the title "historian" upon Mahmoud Abbas
awards his writings a stature they do not deserve, and deals a grievous insult
to every genuine historian."