Promises, promises…
Just wondering how she will ensure that? But I guess its all about trust and we’ll have to take her by her word:
Two days after Mahmoud Abbas told Arabs to “raise your rifles” against Israel, Condoleezza Rice says the U.S. will prevent a repeat of previous attacks on Israel with arms supplied to PA forces. “Shooting at your brother is forbidden,” PA…
She has got to be kidding! How is she going to enforce this?
They lie. They say something “in the moment”,,then a moment later it doesn’t count any more.
Check out this piece. I have only got an Arabic URL at the bottom, but it was sent out by Naomi Ragen
LOST IN TRANSLATION: ABBAS THREAT TO ISRAEL
By Michael Widlanski
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas made a very militant
anti-Israel speech this week, but most of its violent
message was lost in translation, because Abbas used a
somewhat obscure wording in Arabic.
“Let a thousand flowers bloom, and let our rifles, all
our rifles, all our rifles, be aimed at the Occupation,”
declared Abbas using an apparent reference to the old
oratory of Communist leader Mao Tse Tung.
Even non-Arabs well-schooled in Arabic had trouble
figuring out the strange verb from “da’a” used by Dr. Abbas,
but it is a command form that means “let us” or “leave us
begin to” from the weak Arabic verbal root Wa-da-‘a (Waw,
Dal ‘Ayin). [See Hans Wehr, ADictionary of Modern Written
Arabic, p.1058]
The phrase is important in many ways, because it shows
.–That Dr. Abbas, who studied at the KGB’s Patrice Lumumba
University for Third World leaders, continues to heed
Communist revolutionary rhetoric and tactics;
.–That Dr. Abbas is committed to the “revolutionary path”
of Yasser Arafat, who also saluted those using violence
against Israel;
.–And that Abbas believes that the Palestinian revolution
requires continued violence against Israel, and that this
violence can actually be a unifying factor among
Palestinians, though Abbas has said that the timing of the
violence is of critical.
“I say to the master of the martyrs,” declared Abbas,
saluting Arafat, “your sons will continue your march. I say
to you, your lion cubs will continue this struggle (nidal),
this battle (kifaah) until a Palestinian state is
established on the land of Palestine with Jerusalem as its
capital.
Abbas, who spoke for more than 30 minutes on Jan. 11 in
Ramallah, made it clear that he was distinguishing between
the “struggle” or “battle” against Israel and the “fighting”
among Palestinians.
“Firing weapons at a my brother my friend, my neighbor,”
declared Arafat’s successor, “is forbidden, forbidden,
forbidden,” repeating his words and waving his left hand
strongly.
But Abbas said the Palestinian struggle would continue
despite setbacks.
“They have killed us everywhere, but this revolution, by
virtue of the determination of its people, by virtue of the
determination of its youth–this revolution has continued
and it will continue until we fulfill the Palestinian
dream.”
Abbas was speaking at the forty-second anniversary of
the founding of the Fatah organization-a day commemorating
the first Palestinian attack on Israel’s national water
carrier on January 1, 1965, and Abbas was trying to use the
occasion unify the divided Palestinian community, perhaps by
using Israel as a common enemy.
The Fatah Day speech was delayed by ten days of massive
fighting between Fatah and Hamas, both of which are
wrestling for leadership of the Palestinian Authority in the
wake of Yasser Arafat’s death in November 2004.
“Since our launching to this day, we have believed in
principles which we shall not relinquish. From the dawn of
our beginning we have said ‘Let a thousand flowers bloom
and let our rifles, all our rifles, all our rifles, be aimed
at the Occupation.’ And we will keep the oath, the renewed
national unity, for everyone who cares for the sake of the
homeland and in the path of the homeland,” declared Abbas.
Frequently throughout his speech, Abbas referred to
Arafat as martyr, similarly describing those Fatah gunmen
who died while carrying out attacks on Israel.
Abbas’s comments were interpreted by Palestinians
themselves as a clear reference to attacking Israel-a badge
of honor rather than something to condemn.
The Palestianin leader’s words were repeated almost
exactly in later television shows by other Palestinian
officials, such as Ibrahim Abu-Naja and Dr. Kamal Sharafy
who called Israel “the enemy” and “the Zionist enemy,”
respectively.
As if to remove any doubt about the militancy of Abbas’s
words and the place to aim Palestinian rifles, minutes after
Abbas’s own speech, Palestinian television’s senior
announcer, described Israel’s establishment as the beginning
of “occupation.”
“No one [here] is a criminal. All our people are as one
hand to free our land,” declared Abbas, speaking about the
struggle against Israel that unites all Palestinians. Not
once in his speech did he condemn or even disapprove of
continuing rocket attacks and attempted suicide assaults by
Hamas and by his own Fatah movement.
But Abbas made it clear that Palestinian violence had to
be curtailed for practical reasons, because it was
“crossing a red line,” endangering Palestinians.
“I have heard the sound gunshots here, and that is
forbidden,” asserted Abbas, the Fatah and PLO chairman,
remonstrating against the largely pro-Fatah crowd that
gathered to listen to his words in the town of Ramallah,
north of Jerusalem.
“Condemning and preventing internal fighting,” was his
goal, asserted Abbas, referring to the internal Palestinian
blood-letting in which about 300 Palestinians died last
year. Stopping this “falatan”-anarchy in Arabic- was his
regime’s first priority, said Abbas, but his words did not
seem to convince the crowd.
“Hamas is a bunch of Shiites,” cried members of the
crowd, using the term “Shiite” as a kind of curse, and
Abbas again rebuked his own Fatah members, saying, “This
[kind of talk] too is forbidden,” as he tried to strike
nationalistic and Islamic themes of unity, departing
slightly from his prepared speech.
[See Fatah website in Arabic
http://wafa.ps/arabic/cphotonews.asp?num=37134%5D