Abu Mazen was elected leader of the Palestinian
Authority in a general election and chosen leader of the Palestinian Liberation
Organization by its leadership council.
Don’t confuse Abu Mazen with Ahura Mazda also called Zarathustra, the Zoroastrian god. The names sound alike.
Abu Mazen is the successor to Adolph Arafat, Mazen seems to be more wily. He has been in power for seven weeks and has sent every possible signal that he wants to look like a peacemaker and is completely unwilling to negotiate any form of peace treaty.
Abu Mazen has gotten the killer brigades to stop killing
Jews, something Adolph Arafat claimed was not possible. Just after his election
he began saying that he supported the Road Map plan for peace negotiation. The Road Map is based on the early creation
of a Palestinian State within tentative borders, with central issues
(Jerusalem, final borders and refugees) to be worked out later. Beginning in mid-February, in an interview
with the NYTimes, Abu Mazen began saying he wanted to move to an Oslo Accord
structure, with final settlement worked out before a Palestinian State is
created. He can’t negotiate from both
positions.
Then the week before Israel was to transfer Jericho to the
PA, he said he would free the prisoners who are currently being guarded by Americans and
Brits. The prisoners were murderers in the compound when Arafat was surrounded by Israeli troops. Based on an Internationally supervised agreement with Arafat the prisoners were moved to prison in Jericho in order to allow outside visitors to see Arafat in
Ramalah.
The Israelis know Abu Mazen is a fake, but they have to pretend to be willing to negotiate. In fact the Israelis are going ahead with their non-negotiated moves out of Gaza and finishing the barrier.
I expect to see Israel demand to negotiate only with the PA, not the PLO and to ask sympathetic countries like the U.S. and India to replace all PLO consulates with PA consulates. Israel is unified and has no further patience for Arab lies.