Dear friends:

On June 17, 2007, The Jerusalem Post reported:

A senior official in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said Saturday that "there is an opportunity to be able to work with the moderates, with the Palestinian government that actually recognizes Israel, and to really show what the benefits of moderation are.... Now we have the opportunity to work with a leader we can really work with, both on security issues - the issue of roadblocks and access - and also on financial issues, but it will only be on the West Bank," the official said.

Will somebody please give me a break? Just the other day Hal Lindsey described the truth of the situation, not a popular thing to do.  He said:

The State Department is trying to cast Abbas in the role of "peacemaker" simply because his party is seeking an easier way to destroy Israel, not because Abbas has suddenly rejected the PLO Charter. Fatah is following founder Yasser Arafat's Phased Plan for the Destruction of Israel. Arafat's "Phased Plan" in brief, goes like this:  

Through the "armed struggle" (i.e., terrorism), to establish an "independent combatant national authority" over any territory that is "liberated" from Israeli rule. (Article 2) Continue the struggle against Israel, using the territory of the national authority as a base of operations. (Article 4) Provoke an all-out war in which Israel's Arab neighbors destroy it entirely ("liberate all Palestinian territory"). (Article 8)

The Phased Plan was adopted at the 12th Session of the Palestinian National Council in Cairo on June 9, 1974. It is part of the PLO's foundation Charter.
The last time Fatah agreed to amend its Charter, (including the Phased Plan) was on April 25, 1996. The relevant articles of the PLO Charter include:
Article 19: The establishment of Israel is fundamentally null and void, whatever time has elapsed.
Article 15: [We call for] the liquidation of the Zionist presence in Palestine.
Article 22: The liberation of Palestine will destroy the Zionist and imperialist presence and will contribute to the establishment of peace in the Middle East. ...
Despite numerous promises to amend the Charter, it remains unchanged.

If anyone believes Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah are true peace partners for Israel, please let me know because I have a bridge in San Francisco I would like to sell you cheap!  No money down. :)

Jim