The Palestinian Virus: Abbas's Role Models

by Bassam Tawil 

• Abu Jihad was not assassinated by Israel because of any political activities or ideology. His assassination stopped him from masterminding more attacks and killing more Israelis.
• Abbas and his Fatah officials, nonetheless, believe that Abu Jihad and other Palestinian terrorists are honorable and decent men who were fighting for the sake of their people. What contribution did these terrorists make to Palestinian society? Did they build a school or a hospital for their people?
• When Abbas describes terrorists as heroes, he is actually telling young Palestinians that those who plan and carry out terrorist attacks against Israelis should serve as role models. Abbas evidently wants all Palestinians to be like Abu Jihad and the terrorists in Israeli prisons. For Abbas and other Palestinian leaders, the glorification of terrorists seems to be more important than the fight against a deadly virus.

By praising and honoring the memory of the assassinated terrorist Abu Jihad, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is actually encouraging his people to follow in the footsteps of an arch-terrorist who sent people to murder innocent civilians in Israel. Pictured: Posters of Abbas (left), Abu Jihad (center) and late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on the shutters of a store in the village of Kharbata, near Ramallah, on January 13, 2006. (Photo by Patrick Baz/AFP via Getty Images)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has not been seen in public since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the region last month. His absence, however, has not stopped Abbas from doing what he does best: praising and glorifying Palestinians who kill Jews.

On April 16, Palestinians marked the anniversary of the assassination of Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad), a PLO leader and co-founder of the Palestinian ruling faction Fatah, which is today headed by Abbas. Before Abu Jihad was assassinated by Israeli commandos at his home in Tunis in 1988, he had planned several terror attacks inside Israel against both civilian and military targets.

Last week, Abbas, who is supposed to be busy helping his people curb the spread of the coronavirus, found the time to publish a statement describing Abu Jihad as "one of the historic leaders" of the Palestinians who "played an important role during an "historic, difficult and dangerous phase."

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