Abbas admits getting carried away over 'Zionist enemy' remarks

[drdon326]

Palestinian presidential vote frontrunner Mahmud Abbas admitted in an interview that his reference to Israel as the "Zionist enemy" in a recent speech was an unfortunate slip of the tongue.


The PLO chairman, who is viewed as a moderate and has the tacit backing of the United States, was chided by Washington for his words, which he uttered after seven young Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites).


"In such dramatic circumstances, one doesn't always control one's words," Abbas said Friday in an interview with Israel's top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily.


"We pray for the souls of our martyrs who fell today in the Zionist enemy's tank shelling in Beit Lahia," Abbas had said Tuesday.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/afp/20050107/wl_mideast_afp/mideastpalestinianvotegazaabbas

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liar

[David__77]

1. Aren't they enemies? Isn't the Israeli state Zionist?

Regardless of one's position on the matter, I do not see how "Zionist" is a "bad word." And it is further quite clear that the IDF and the Palestinian people are enemies.

[The Magistrate]

2. The Usage Is A Little Problematic, Sir

Arab politicians have for decades been wont to employ a variety of circumlocutions such as this one to avoid pronouncing the word "Israel", on the principle well known to magicians, diplomats, and liability lawyers, that to say the name of a thing is to recognize and establish its actual existance.

Had Mr. Abbas said "the Israeli enemy" there would have been a good deal less outcry, and sharp customers might even have hailed the statement as progress of a sort....

[David__77]

3. As many Israelis will not say "Palestine."

Some might say "Palestinian" though many will only say "Arab." But I don't know of many Israelis who refer to "Palestine," in the noun form. There is an equivalence.

[eyl]

4. Given that

A State of Palestine does not now exist and has never existed (note this is irrespective of whether it should exist, but at the current time even the Palestinians have not declared a state), it is not exactly parallel to ignoring the existance of the State of Israel