Abu Mazen: Trojan Horse By Donnel Jones, May 1, 2003

Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, known also as Abu Mazen, is apparently a man with two faces: that is, if you've read today's editorial in the Wall Street Journal and another one in the National Review.

To be sure, Bret Stephens, editor in chief of the Jerusalem Post and writing for WSJ, has no real trust in Abu Mazen. He dutifully reports that the new Prime Minister is the author of such "classic" anti-Jewish screeds as The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism which pretty much denies that millions of Jews were murdered in Nazi Europe; rather he claims it was around one million. Though I haven't read the book (and I'm not rushing to Amazon either), I wonder if Mr. Mazen would qualify that one million isn't enough to outrage humanity. Apparently, it must be an argument against any kind of justification for the "right of return."

Mr. Stephens, however, is not too worried about Abu Mazen because the new prime minister is, in effect, somewhat ineffectual. That means, Arafat still holds the strings.

Unlike with Arafat, Palestinians feel entitled to have expectations of him [Abu Mazen]. These expectations are mainly practical: an easing of the curfews and closures and roadblocks; an end to Israeli military occupation; access to the Israeli job market; and so on.

Put simply, whereas Arafat takes refuge in violence, Mr. Abbas's only security lies in stability. He cannot afford the punitive Israeli measures that invariably follow on terror attacks such as yesterday's suicide bombing in a Tel Aviv nightclub.

This can't possibly be reassuring. It is true Abu Mazen will be held to account if terrorists continue their evil deeds. We have yet to see how he reacts to Tuesday's attack in Tel Aviv. Will he stand up to the terrorists? But if Mazen has little power, which seems an ironic comfort to Mr. Stephens, how can he then crack down on the terrorists? If Arafat is allowed to roam around behind the scenes, how can the Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade be "de-mobilized"? So what if Sharon is watching Mazen for any misstep? Would we expect less of this Israeli Prime Minister? And that will mean more crackdowns in the occupied territories after more bombs go off in Israel. It will also mean more Palestinian deaths as well.

In fact, as Clifford D. May points out, the Brigade has ties to Abu Mazen via Fatah, as, of course, it does to Arafat. Has anything really changed? Mr. May is less optimistic. And that has to do with what can be called a "Trojan horse." It looks like a gift but it's really a deadly ruse. "Beware of Arafat-affiliated officials bearing gifts." The horse in this case is a "reformed" Palestinian official. The "gift" is the refugee question, made official by U.N. Resolution 194.

That's a reference to the "right of return" which is code for the destruction of Israel by demographic means. Under Resolution 194, "refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date."

If Israel were to accept that, there would be an influx of — as Mazen says — "millions of Palestinian refugees" demanding Israeli land and citizenship. Israelis would become a minority in their own country. Israel would cease to be a Jewish state — and, in fact, would cease to exist.

Anyone wants to bet money the U.N. will not aggressively seek to enforce Resolution 194 even though it failed completely to enforce Resolution 1441, let alone the sixteen previous ones issued against Saddam's Iraq?

This new "peace process" is depressingly familiar. It has the false aftertaste of Oslo after the first Gulf War, a time when Arafat was preparing for a second intifada rather than cracking down on terrorism and encouraging his people to build a viable economic infrastructure under a new regime of law and order.

The problem, I think, is that there has been no real regime change. As long as Arafat and his cronies are running the show, the Palestinian Authority will remain a tried and true terrorist political entity. The U.S. didn't parse words when it came to Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist Party. So why equivocate here?

Many will object that the Israeli/Palestinian problem (which, to be fair, is largely a Palestinian problem) is not the same as that in Saddam's Iraq. Fair enough with respect to logistics but not in essence. Arafat means terror. Abu Mazen is Arafat's colleague. Do we get the picture? Because if you don't, then why not replace Saddam with a Ba'athist apparatchik in Baghdad and let our boys come home? It's that easy. Right?

Abu Mazen is a non-starter. He is terror "lite," a brand of potential mass-murderer who would have Palestinians "return" to a tiny sliver of land and replace the people who live there. Does it matter those people are Jews? Not to Mazen. Most especially of all, not to Arafat and the terrorists he only pretends to disavow.

Only real "regime change" will bring about the peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. I wish Mr. Stephens were correct. I'm afraid I must err on the side of Mr. May.