I reported last week that Mahmoud Abbas planned to visit Samir Kuntar on his visit to Lebanon.
Either I have better intelligence than the Shin Bet, or Israel's leaders chose to ignore this outrage - until after it happened.
Even then, their criticism has been muted, only being mentioned in passing in an Arutz-7 news brief and in the very end of a NYT report yesterday, plus a few other Jewish and Israeli media outlets. (h/t Boker Tov Boulder)
Just to recap: The person that the Western world is pinning their hopes on for being a reliable peace partner, despite his clear weakness and lack of any real following, in fact goes out of his way to honor a known murderer, a vicious and unrepentant child-killer. This man who the world look towards as the most moderate Palestinian Arab leader is enthralled to be in the presence of a murderer of Jewish civilians.
The sad part is, that there is no contradiction there. The most moderate Palestinian Arabs are still thrilled when Jews are murdered in terror attacks and they will go out of their way to pay homage to the murderers, whether through their media or public ceremonies, by naming streets and public squares and summer camps after them. Their "moderation" is in saying that they themselves do not want an immediate genocide of all Zionists in the Middle East, but rather a somewhat slower process that would take decades.
Instead of chiding Abbas, Israel's inept leadership should have immediately announced that all "peace" - really capitulation - talks are to be halted immediately until the Palestinian Arabs can find a leader who actually accepts Israel's existence as a Jewish state and a permanent fixture in the area. Otherwise, the "peace" talks are a farce, and Abbas just proved that yet again.
