Abbas pledges to protect gunmen from Israel

[drdon326]

PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) on Saturday pledged to protect Palestinian gunmen from Israel, stepping up his courtship of rejectionist groups in the run-up to elections. Israel has demanded that Abbas confront terror groups as a precondition for substantive negotiation with him.

Abbas took his election campaign over the weekend to the Gaza Strip, where he reiterated his pledge to follow in the footsteps of Yasser Arafat and received a hero's welcome from hundreds of Fatah gunmen.

Abbas defended a series of recent public appearances with gunmen, indicating he has no plans to crack down on them as demanded by Israel, and saying the Palestinian leadership has a responsibility to protect its people.

"When we see them, when we meet them, and when they welcome us, we owe them," Abbas said. "This debt always is to protect them from assassination, to protect them from killing, and all these things they are subject to by the Israelis."

snip

Abbas's encounter with the Fatah gunmen in the Gaza Strip was the second of its kind since last Thursday, when he was enthusiastically received in the Jenin refugee camp by members of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1104568242557


...........................................................

Can you say "nobel peace prize"?

[Jim Sagle]

1. The "nobel peace prize" ain't nuthin' but shit.

[Forkboy]

2. We can agree on that

[andjustice4all]

3. Abbas and Ashrawi

are cinches for this year's Nobel.