‘Whose partner is Abu Mazen?’

On the eve of President Bush’s White House meeting today with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Center for Security Policy released a "web ad" raising serious questions about the guest’s true intentions and the risks – to America as well as Israel – associated with his actions.

 The ad points out that Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen, has proven to be less a partner for peace with Israel than a partner with terrorist organizations like Hamas. This can scarcely come as a surprise since, as the right-hand man of Yasser Arafat for decades, he is not exactly a new leader "not compromised by terror" – whose election Mr. Bush made, nearly three years ago, a precondition for U.S. recognition of a Palestinian state.

Neither has Abbas, since his election nearly six months ago, made perceptible progress towards Mr. Bush’s other preconditions, including "entirely new political and economic institutions, based on democracy, market economics and action against terrorism."

Center for Security Policy President Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. observed, "The danger is that by tolerating Abu Mazen’s actual performance – to say nothing of rewarding and reinforcing it by providing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of U.S. aid indirectly or, worse yet, directly to an unreformed, corrupt, unaccountable and terrorist-supporting Palestinian Authority – U.S. interests in dismantling state-sponsors of terrorism will be seriously undermined."

The web ad’s script is as follows:

"Everyone hoped Palestinian President Abu Mazen would prove to be a partner for peace with Israel. Instead, he’s become a partner with terrorist organizations like Hamas that are determined to destroy Israel.

"His security services are training and arming known terrorists. He’s done nothing about powerful weapons being smuggled into Gaza and their use against Israelis. Shockingly, Abu Mazen’s controlled media are urging Palestinians to kill Christians and Jews and to hate America. And he’s letting millions of our tax dollars be used to create a new state-sponsor of terror called ‘Palestine.’

"Mr. President. Don’t be deceived. Abu Mazen is no friend of America – and no true partner for Israel."

To view the ad click here.