08-Mar-16: The lethal anguish of "moderate" Abbas

The Abbas letter eulogizing the vehicle rammer

With three separate Arab-on-Israeli terror attacks in the late afternoon and early evening hours today (Tuesday), and with a dozen or more Israelis now wounded in the violence, let's take a moment to examine what the political leader of the side doing the stabbing and shooting means when he says

"We always oppose terror incidents and we firmly slam these events. We pray for the injured people's recovery." [Source]

Mahmoud Abbas is not a moderate - at least not in the sense of holding to the conventional meaning of moderate views. If there were any doubt about this, and about the duplicity in which he routinely engages, condemning terror while praising the Palestinian Arabs who do it, the letter below ought to put the matter beyond doubt. (But we're confident it will not for those chronically inclined to side with the terrorists.)

In the wake of the March 4, 2016 Arab-on-Israeli car-ramming attack [we reported on it here and here] executed by a young woman from the village of Husan, the mother of several young children, Abbas wrote a letter of consolation to the family.

The tone of the Abbas letter can be summed up in a few of his words: Amani Hosni Jawad Al-Sabatin is "a martyr who quenched the land of Palestine with her pure soul".

MEMRI ("the Middle East Media Research Institute"), an invaluable organization that has been translating Arabic source material (along with Farsi, Urdu-Pashtu, Dari, and Turkish media) into English since 1998, published the entire Abbas letter today. It turns out to have been written on the letterhead of the Palestinian Authority's embassy in Jordan for reasons MEMRI does not try to explain. Here is MEMRI's translation of the text:

Embassy of the State of Palestine
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
March 6, 2016
In the name of Allah the merciful and beloved,
[Scriptural quote] "And never think of those who have been killed in the cause of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision."
Distinguished residents of Husan,
Distinguished Al-Sabatin family,
With great sorrow and deep anguish we received the news of the death of the martyr Amani Hosni Jawad Al-Sabatin.
We consider her to be someone who is with Allah, may He be exalted and elevated, as a martyr who quenched the land of Palestine with her pure soul.
I share your deep sorrow and anguish, and express my most sincere condolences to you and to your distinguished family, and to the residents of Husan and the dear Al-Sabatin family. I beseech Allah the Exalted and the Omnipotent to bestow upon this martyr His many mercies, and may she rest in Paradise. May Allah fill your heart with forbearance and consolation.
Mahmoud Abbas,
President of the State of Palestine

Hamas poster tribute to the
deceased vehicle-ramming woman

With the official seal of the PA on it, can anyone seriously doubt the letter and its sentiments deliver a message to the PA's subjects of encouragement and incitement to terror?

Not to be outdone in such matters, Abbas' bitter Islamist rivals over at Hamas honor the dead woman in the way they know best.

The Facebook page of the Hamas-operated Palinfo.com website has a tribute poster [on the right] that was uploaded in the last day or two, showing the dead driver's portrait against the backdrop of Al-Aqsa and Jerusalem along with details of how she died.

Unlike the delicate souls in so many corners of the pro-Palestinian Arab media - and we're especially thinking of Ma'an News Agency (click to see what we mean) - the Hamas page is refreshingly free of references to an allegedly "alleged" vehicle-ramming attack:

"The 35-year-old martyr Amani Al-Sabatin, killed by the occupation's bullets near the 'Gush-Etzyon' settlement in Bethlehem, after carrying out a car-ramming operation against the occupation's soldiers, on the morning of Friday, March 4, 2016."

Clear enough, no?

Messages like those from Hamas ["Jerusalem: Hamas calls for third intifada"] and the president of the PA ["Abbas calls terror attacks 'justified popular uprising'"] ought to be seen for what they actually are: elements in a psychological warfare they and their trusted cronies are waging against vulnerable individuals in their own society. Yet more deaths and lives wasted in futile acts of terror are the certain outcome.

There is no sign of outrage about this among even the most enlightened segments of Palestinian Arab society, and so it continues. As for outsiders, if serious-minded global humanitarian organizations are expressing outrage at the manipulation and the lives thrown away, they are being tragically modest and quiet about it.