The U.S. administration funding Abbas and his army...again?

Dear Lord, are you all hearing this? What's going on? The U.S.
administration funding Abbas and his army...again?

As reported by Caroline B. Glick

History's dangerous repetition

By Caroline B. Glick

It would seem that Karl Marx got things backwards. History does not
repeat itself first as tragedy and then as farce. Rather, it repeats
itself first as farce and second as tragedy. This, perhaps more than
anything else is the conclusion one should reach from North Korea's
nuclear test on Columbus Day.

It was the Clinton administration, which back in the Roaring '90s
began the policy of appeasing North Korea. Throughout the decade the
US wined and dined the North Korean Stalinists who always responded
by pocketing US concessions and escalating their nuclear and
ballistic missile activities and threats against the US and its Asian
allies.

The farce was then US secretary of state Madeleine Albright's visit
to Pyongyang in late October 2000, two weeks before the US
presidential elections. There, after the North Koreans tested the
Taepo-Dong 1 ballistic missile off the coast of Japan in 1998 and
refused to end either their missile programs or missile exports to
Iran, Albright tripped the night fantastic with Kim Jong-Il. Her
buffoonery was a perfect capstone to eight years of the Clinton
administration's addiction to ceremony over substance.

While America's tone towards North Korea chilled under the Bush
administration, there was little substantive change in its policies.

Secretary of state Colin Powell met with his North Korean counterpart
Pak Nam Sun and to this day US attempts to strike a deal with
Pyongyang have not ended. And now, Pyongyang, with its medium- and
long-range ballistic missiles, has tested a nuclear bomb.


THERE IS of course also North Korea's ally Iran. Toward Iran, too,
the substance of the Bush administration policies is little different
from that of his predecessor. Like North Korea, the Iranians respond
to US attempts at appeasement by escalating their rhetoric and
redoubling their offensive military build-ups of missiles and nuclear
capabilities.

The great shift, then which occurred under the Bush administration, a
shift for which President George W. Bush has been pilloried by his
political rivals, has been rhetorical.

While hypocritical, the division between rhetoric and substance has
something to recommend it. The benefit of the current US position
toward North Korea and Iran is that the rhetoric has left open the
possibility that the policy itself will finally be suited to reality.
Today, unlike the situation in the 1990s, the American public is at
least aware that these states are a threat to US national security
interests.

In the aftermath of North Korea's nuclear bomb test, the US can
support military actions by Japan and South Korea against North
Korea; build up its missile shield; and perhaps end its 14 year self-
imposed moratorium on nuclear testing and so revamp its nuclear arsenal.

Were the Bush administration to change its policy tomorrow regarding
Iran — begin shaming Europe into ending its appeasement, and
threatening Russia with trade sanctions if Moscow continues
supporting Iran, Syria and Hizbullah, while building up its military
options to strike at Iran's nuclear installations — the American
public would understand why the policy change was necessary. Indeed,
such a move could even help the Republican Party in the upcoming
elections.


DISTURBINGLY, WHILE Bush has paved the way rhetorically for a shift
in policy toward North Korea and Iran, he has done no such thing in
the US's relations with the terror-ruled Palestinian Authority. And
as is the case with Iran and North Korea, the stubborn and ill-
considered continuation of the Clinton administration's appeasement
policy toward the PA during the Bush years has only exacerbated and
escalated the threat posed by the PA to US national security
interests and to the national security of US allies — first and
foremost, of Israel.

In the 1990s, the father of modern terrorism, Yasser Arafat, was the
most frequent foreign visitor at the White House. The head of the PLO
was the object of adoration by the Clintonites. It didn't matter to
them that Arafat never revoked the PLO Charter calling for Israel's
destruction. It didn't matter that he indoctrinated a generation of
Palestinian children to become suicide bombers in jihad against the
Jews. It didn't matter that he used billions of dollars of American
and European taxpayer money to build the largest terror army in the
world. Arafat showed up at signing ceremonies. He was the poster
child of appeasement.

The Clinton administration tied itself to a policy toward the
Palestinians which, like its policies toward North Korea and Iran,
opened it to ever escalating blackmail. As the terror threat
emanating from the PA-ruled areas rose, empowering Arafat became the
obsession of the Clinton White House. He was showered with money,
guns and love. No Israeli security consideration could hold a candle
to the need to strengthen Arafat.

From bombing to bombing, Arafat was enriched and empowered. Israel's
security became the main obstacle to the signing ceremonies.

After seven years, the myth of Arafat the peacemaker exploded in the
faces of more than a thousand Israelis who would be killed over the
next six years of the Palestinian jihad. But the myth of the PA endured.

For the past six years, each bombing, every clear indication that the
PA itself is a terrorist entity is met by more breathless US
protestations of support for Palestinian empowerment and statehood.
The fact that the last six years have left the State Department
unfazed was made absolutely clear during Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice's visit last week.

Since Arafat appointed Mahmoud Abbas, his deputy of 40 years, PA
prime minister in 2003, the US has upheld Abbas as a man of peace, a
moderate and a respectable leader that the Bush administration wishes
to strengthen. To this end, the Bush administration has overlooked
Abbas's clear support for terrorism. It has excused his constant
appeals to merge his Fatah terror group with Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
It has ignored the fact that his Fatah terror group has committed
more acts of terror than Hamas and that Fatah's involvement in terror
and the sophistication of its attacks has only increased since Abbas
replaced Arafat after the latter's death in November 2004.

During her visit last week, at Abbas's request, Rice was scheduled to
meet with Fatah commander Hussein a-Sheikh in the American Consulate-
General in Jerusalem. The meeting was cancelled at the last minute
when Israeli activists demanded that Sheikh, who was directly
responsible for the murder of dozens of Israelis and several American
nationals, be arrested by Israel police upon arrival at the
consulate. Yet, Rice still met with other Fatah leaders, like
Muhammad Dahlan who has been directly implicated in the murder of
Israelis in terror attacks perpetrated by men under his command.


EVEN MORE disturbingly, Rice has officially sanctioned a policy put
together by US Army Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton to expand by up to 70
percent Abbas's presidential guard and personal army, Force 17. The
administration wishes to raise some $20 million to fund the training
and arming and expansion of Abbas's army from 3,500 to 6,000
soldiers. This move comes after the US transferred 3,000 rifles and 1
million bullets to Force 17 in June. Yet Force 17 is a terrorist army
led by terrorists.

Right after he received the weapons shipment, Abbas appointed Mahmoud
Damra commander of the force. Damra, who like many of the Force 17
officers and soldiers, doubles as a Fatah terrorist, was wanted by
Israel due to his direct involvement in the terrorist murder of at
least 15 Israelis. One of his deputies claimed that the US rifles
were immediately used to attack a bus carrying Israeli school girls
in Judea.

Israel arrested Damra at a checkpoint shortly after he received
Abbas's appointment. The US immediately began pressuring Israel to
release him.

In addition to Damra's direct involvement in Fatah terror, he also
has close ties with Iran and Hizbullah. In 2002, Arafat reportedly
appointed him Force 17's liaison officer to Iran and Hizbullah
forces. The fact that Abbas appointed Damra Force 17's overall
commander just weeks before Fatah and Hamas began Iran's proxy war
against Israel by attacking the IDF position at Kerem Shalom and
kidnapping Cpl. Gilad Shalit, should say something about Abbas's
intentions. Yet, last week, Rice couldn't praise Abbas enough.

North Korea's nuclear test and Iran's nuclear intimidation show us
what happens when failed policies are not abandoned. Due in part to
its continued US-backed legitimacy, the PA is used by Pakistan as an
excuse for terror sponsorship and nuclear proliferation and by
jihadists throughout the world as justification for attacks on
Western and Jewish targets.

No doubt the North Korean nuclear test is a turning point in this
world war.

The question is whether it will force the US to finally part with
appeasement, or whether Rice will convince President Bush to take his
chances by repeating history a third and fourth time.

***

Caroline B. Glick is the senior Middle East Fellow at the Center for
Security Policy in Washington, DC and the deputy managing editor of
The Jerusalem Post.