1-May-13: What exactly is Mahmoud Abbas' view of Arab terrorists who cold-bloodedly murder Israelis? The LA Times knows and tells.

Mahmoud Abbas doesn't see the moral rot
over which he presides [Image Source]

The tragic death of Evyatar Borowski, an Israeli father of five young children, murdered yesterday by a knife-wielding Palestinian Arab at a hitch-hiking post at Tapuah Junction in the Shomron ["30-Apr-13: Stabbed this morning, an Israeli is murdered"], attracted media attention in the Arab world.

Fatah party representatives praised as a hero a Palestinian attacker who stabbed an Israeli to death at a West Bank junction on Tuesday. The organization posted pictures from the scene of the attack on its official Facebook page, accompanying each image with a caption boasting of the stabber’s “success.” Officials also expressed hope that he would be quickly released from prison. [Times of Israel]

The Los Angeles Times went a step further, connecting the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, to the killing. It reminds readers that credit for the terror attack was claimed by the notorious Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades which styles itself as "the military wing" of the Fatah Party whose head is Mahmoud Abbas. Al Aqsa's post-stabbing announcement takes proud responsibility

...calling it revenge for Israel’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners, including two who recently died while in custody. The group called the killing a “gift” to Palestinian prisoners and promised more operations in the future. Abbas, who has repeatedly condemned the use of violence and vowed to prevent another uprising as long as he is in power, did not immediately comment on the attack... [LA Times]

We have never understood - and still don't - how Abbas continues to be called 'moderate' in many of the news reports about events in this neighbourhood. He is the leader of a violent terrorist undertaking, encourages terror, praises terrorists while sanctimoniously almost-condemning it, and yet continues to be received in world capitals as if he were a regular political leader.

The Facebook page of Fatah, which he heads, carries a heroic portrait today of the stabber, Salaam ("peace") Zaghal, an AK-47 rifle positioned beneath his head. The caption addresses the killer with these words:

“Peace be with you the day of your birth, on the day of your imprisonment and on the day of your freedom...” [source]

Zaghal served a three-year prison term for offences involving the hurling of stones and of firebombs ("Molotov cocktails") and other criminal offenses, and was released from his Israeli cell just a month ago. It's reported in the Israeli media that the murder he carried out yesterday was a kind of family-honour act, coming just a day after his brother was put before a Palestinian Authority court on charges of collaborating with Israel. 

Moral contortions of that kind are unfortunately a big part of today's Palestinian Arab social mores. In that sense, Abbas is a well-chosen and highly appropriate figurehead.