22-Dec-11: Oh, seeker of peace - who is that murderer with whom you're sharing Turkish coffee?

Earlier today, we wrote ("22-Dec-11: Know them by their actions. Oh, and by their smiles") about yesterday's meeting in Ankara between Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority and a convicted murderer who was sprung from an Israeli prison as part of the extortion fee paid in October by Israel for the release of a hostage, Gilad Shalit.

Now, here, below, we share a photo of the tete-a-tete enjoyed on Wednesday by the two with so very much in common, so many past and future exploits to celebrate.

And lest anyone jump to the wrong, wrong, wrong conclusion that Abbas hangs out with terrorists and convicted, unrepentant murderers and drinks coffee with them in the middle of his overloaded itinerary because he doesn't believe in peace with the Israelis, well - wrong, wrong, wrong.

Have a quick glance at a sample of some of the things he says or others say for him.

• October 2009 - A professional "peace" activist says this is who Abbas really is: "Abbas is not a man of the people. He lacks charisma. He does not do well on the streets, working the crowd. He doesn’t like to go into villages and meet the common people. He doesn’t seek the photo-ops that most politicians go out of their way to create."
• September 2010 speaking to the BBC: "Our wounded hands are still able to carry the olive branch from the rubble of the trees that the occupation uproots every day." 
• September 2011 speaking in Ramallah: "We have told the world that there is the Arab Spring, but the Palestinian Spring is here. A popular spring, a populist spring, a spring of peaceful struggle that will reach its goal."
• September 2011 "In his address [to the United Nations General Assembly], President Abbas said the Palestinians would continue peaceful, popular resistance to Israeli occupation".
• November 2011: “We are extending our hand for peace; peace based on justice. We believe that we can achieve peace through talks, but we do not want endless talks, running in endless circles, without any real outcome... We seek peace, we demand peace, we will continue to cooperate with international efforts to achieve this goal.”

And on and on.

The trouble with those many, many speeches about Abbas' passion for peace is that photos like the one above show what the man does, as very distinct from what the man says.

What he does - where he stands on the subject of terror and its practitioners - has nothing to do with peace... other than to totally contradict it.