Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday, the 10th anniversary of the death of Yasser Arafat, that Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas is even worse than his predecessor.
“There is no difference between Arafat and Abu Mazen [Abbas],” he said. “Both of them hate Jews and believe in terror. The only difference is that Abu Mazen is more dangerous because he knows much better how to mask his true face.”
Lieberman put on the finishing touches Wednesday morning when he told Israel that Abbas also is worse than Hamas.
Abbas said in his speech on Tuesday commemorating Arafat that Israel is “contaminating” the Temple Mount. He even had the chutzpah to declare that Christians would never recognize eastern Jerusalem as part of the capital of Jerusalem.
International media have published so much propaganda against Israel that they have virtually erased from history the era of the Jordanian occupation, when Christians, as well as Jews, were barred from all holy sites under Jordanian rule.
Abbas’ outright incitement in his speech included praise for Muslim “heroes” at the Temple Mount who “have the right to defend themselves,” referring to Jews who “attack” by setting foot on the holy site, where they are barred from praying by the Muslim authority.
Abbas apparently fears that Jews might have prayers in mind, and that certainly is dangerous to Allah.
His incendiary speech fired up Lieberman, who is not a fan of Jews parading to the Temple Mount but who also is not too big on diplomatic charades.
He tore into Abbas Wednesday morning and said that he is an “illegitimate” leader of the Palestinian Authority because he has stayed in office for five years beyond the date for new elections.
Abbas “does not respect agreements and does not want peace but instead promotes terror.” He added, “His incitement is more dangerous than that of Hamas.”
Lieberman reiterated his previous suggestion that riot-plagued areas of Israel, such as the Triangle region between Netanya and Kfar Sava, and the Wadi Ara area around the Arab city of Umm el-Fahm to the north, could be part of a new Arab country.
“Once everything is made clear, the rioters certainly would be happy to live in a Palestinian state where they can enjoy freedom of speech, democracy, welfare assistance and unemployment insurance,” Lieberman said with enough bitter sarcasm that could turn honey into sour milk.
So is Abbas really worse than Arafat?
With all due apologies for throwing in a contradictory comparison with the Biblical Noach, the only difference between them is a generation.
The Torah cites Noach as a righteous mean, and Torah sages point out that he was a righteous man for his generation but certainly could not be compared with Abraham, ten generations later. However, each one was righteous in his generation.
Arafat terrorized Israel when ISIS did not exist, when even some Israelis on the center-right believed there could be some kind of compromise with the Palestinian Authority, and when the world had not yet realized that it was on the eve of a radical Islamic revolution and an Iran that seeks nuclear weapons to threaten the world with an Islamic universe or nuclear destruction.
Arafat was a terrorist when terrorism was appreciated by the world so long as it only killed Jews in Israel. He got away with wearing a pistol on his hip while talking about peace. He managed to turn the Nobel Peace prize into a mockery of truth.
Arafat set the stage for Abbas to put on a suit and tie, travel around the world to build up support for a “peace plan” that was a con game to set up Israel for destruction as a Jewish state.