Abbas can say anything and the media will never criticize him (poster)

Why doesn't any reporter ever confront Mahmoud Abbas with his bigoted and often ridiculous statements?

Last year I published a list of questions reporters never asked Mahmoud Abbas:

1. What, specifically, have you done to prepare your people for peace with Israel?

• 2. Followup: Twenty years after Oslo, 60% of your people say the five year goal of the PA should be the destruction of Israel. Isn't this from your own state-run media and school curricula?

3. Why does the PA name institutions after terrorists who targeted innocent civilians? Isn't that inconsistent with the message you are giving to the West?

4. Why is there still daily incitement on PA TV against Israel?

5. Do you believe, as Arafat did, that there was never a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem? Do you realize that this position is at odds with what Muslims said openly before 1967?

6. Describe your position on "normalization" with Israelis today. Can Israeli pro-peace groups visit Ramallah?   Would you allow an Palestinian-Israeli sports camp?

7. Why did you threaten your citizens who dared to shop in a Jewish-owned supermarket that has low prices?

8. Recently you said that you believe that the Holocaust occurred. You wrote a book that claimed that it was exaggerated.Were you lying then, or are you lying now?

9. Do you really believe that Jews are raising dogs and wild boars and training them to attack Arab farms, as you have stated?

10. Do you really believe that Hamas would accept Israel's existence if you reconcile with them? Do you believe that Hamas still subscribes to its charter? Why or why not?

11. As leader of Fatah, why do the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group still exist? How do they get funded? Why didn't you denounce their shooting hundreds of rockets to Israeli civilians? Aren't you against that?

• 12. If they do not report to you, then why do you not distance yourself from them? And why did you say they were dismantled when they clearly weren't? Why did you allow them to hold an armed parade recently in Ramallah?

13. Do you agree with the Fatah platform that terrorism is legal under international law?

14. Why does some 6% of the PA budget go towards terrorist prisoners and released terrorists?

15. Do you consider the Mufti of Jerusalem who collaborated with Hitler to be a hero?

16. If you are so interested in peace, why did you go out of your way to meet with child-murderer Samir Kuntar?

17. You have publicly praised terrorists released from Israeli prisons, even embracing murderers.How do you reconcile that with your claims to be against terror?

18. Why did you, in September 2014, praise a terrorist who targeted Jewish children at a circus?

19. What percentage of the PA budget goes, directly or indirectly, to Hamas?

20. Can you explain your statement in 2013 that "it's better [Syrian Palestinians] die in Syria than give up their right of return"? How many Syrian Palestinians have died because of that position?

21. Do you support the rights of Lebanese Palestinians, if they choose, to become citizens of Lebanon? Why or why not?

22. Why are there still Palestinian "refugee" camps in the West Bank? Do you not consider their residents to be full citizens of Palestine? Are you keeping them away from having permanent homes in your country for a reason?

• 23. In 1950, Israel told UNRWA that it would be insulted to have an outside organization be the primary support for refugees, and it mainstreamed Arabs into becoming full citizens within a couple of years, negating their need for perpetual UN support. Do you disagree with that sentiment?

We can add more:

• 24. Do you really believe that Israel has engaged in genocide in Gaza, as you claimed in 2014?
• 25. When you say you don't want Israelis on the Temple Mount, are you including Israeli Arabs or only Jews? Would you allow non-Israeli Jews to go to the Mount and silently pray? Why or why not?
• 26. Would you allow Jewish settlers to remain in their homes if they agree to become Palestinian citizens?

Mahmoud Abbas will be in New York to address the General assembly this month. At some point he will almost certainly meet with reporters. If the past is any guide, none of them will ask any of these questions, and instead toss him softballs to give him a reason to rail against Israel.

The fact that no one asks these questions reveals two things: Reporters are not interested in opposing the false meme of a moderate Abbas going against a hawkish Israeli government, and that they do next to no research on their own and rely on their own circle of other like-minded reporters as providing them with the only facts worth knowing.

Every question I wrote here is backed by research and facts. But you won't find most of them ever reported in the mainstream media. 

And that is the real scandal.