During the course of his negotiations with Damascus-based Palestinian terror
masters in Cairo this week, PA chieftain Mahmoud Abbas made two revealing
statements.

First, on Tuesday, Abbas said that upon receiving security control of
Jericho, he would release from custody all of the Palestinian terrorists who
have been incarcerated there since May 2002.

Those terrorists, who were transferred to Jericho from Yasser Arafat's
Ramallah headquarters as part of a British and US deal with Israel, include
the assassins of tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi in October 2001 and Fuad
Shubaki, the PA's chief arms purchaser who oversaw the Karine A terror
weapons ship purchase from Iran that was intercepted by Israeli commandos on
the Red Sea in January 2002.

On Wednesday, Abbas went a step further. He told the terror masters who are
now based in Damascus that after the exit of Israeli forces and civilians
from Gaza and the transfer of control over the international border with
Egypt to the PLO, they would all be invited to move their headquarters to
the Gaza Strip.

That is, Abbas said that in the aftermath of the implementation of Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to forcibly expel 8,000 Jews from their homes
and end all IDF counterterror operations inside Gaza, Abbas will respond by
transforming it into a base for global terrorism. This offer can be viewed
as particularly credible given that it was made in the presence of Syrian
Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Mualem, whose government is now facing
increasing international condemnation for enabling these global terrorists
to operate in its capital.

Surprisingly, the Sharon-Peres government reacted with near hysteria to
Abbas's statement about releasing the terrorists in Jericho. Government
members and spokesmen took to the microphones immediately after Abbas's
statement was published and said that if he dared to free Ze'evi's killers,
Israel would contemplate ending the peace process and hunt them down. The
government's reaction was frankly inexplicable, given that Sharon and his
fellows have given credence to Abbas's demand that Israel release all
Palestinian terrorists from its jails. Acting on this demand, the government
has already released 500 terrorists from prison and is planning on springing
another 400 in short order.

Indeed, every single demand that Abbas has made on Israel, like every step
he has taken to placate the various Palestinian terror groups, has been met
with understanding by Israel. Israel has accepted his policy - practically
if not publicly - of taking absolutely no action against any terror
organizations, leaders or infrastructures.

After all, if it hadn't, the government would not be transferring security
responsibility over Palestinian population centers to the PA as it did in
Jericho the day after Abbas's statement about the prisoner release.

Israel has accepted Abbas's demand that it stop trying to catch terror
fugitives. Israel has accepted his demand that it allow the Palestinian mass
murderers who violently took over the Church of the Nativity in April 2002
to return to Bethlehem from their European exile and receive amnesty for
their crimes.

The government has made no protest against Abbas's order to execute 15
Palestinians who are accused of having helped our security forces fight
Palestinian terrorists. And Israel has made no protest over the fact that
according to IDF sources, wanted Palestinian terrorists are being sheltered
in Abbas's offices in Ramallah.

...In their discussions in Cairo, the various terror chieftains have been
employing the explicit vocabulary of jihad to describe their various
positions.