Interviewer: "Don't you think that it was the resistance that managed to liberate a thousand prisoners?
"Negotiations must always be accompanied by a measure of force. There can be no negotiations without resistance. This has been shown by the experience of people – in Ireland and all countries."
Mahmoud Abbas: "That's true, but our circumstances are different. We are not able to wage military resistance.
"Hamas kidnapped – or rather, captured – a soldier, and managed to keep him for five years, and that is a good thing.
"We don't deny it. On the contrary, it’s a good thing that on a small strip of land, 40 × 7 kilometers, they were able to keep him and hide him." [...]
You see, the "moderate" Abbas that the West sees is against terrorism and "armed resistance." But he knows quite well that there is always the Al Aqsa Brigades, Al Quds Brigades or Al Qassam Brigades who are willing to do the dirty work of actually killing Jews, and he applauds them. The terror groups do what he wishes them to do, but he can claim that he is personally against such actions (at this time, of course.)
And the Western media swallows the myth of a moderate Palestinian Arab leader whole, mostly because they want to believe in it so darn much.
By the way, did you notice that Abbas never condemned the murder of Moshe Ami in Ashkelon, killed by a Grad rocket on Saturday?
(h/t CHA)