Mahmoud Abbas - AKA Abu Mazen

I have to admit that even I fell for it, albeit for less than a day.

I was happy that Arafat finally died. His death was a worthy purpose by itself, but I was one of the many people who could not help but hope that after his death, things would improve.
It was a silly dream, and that was all it was. I really should have known better. Because everything I knew about Abbas leads to no other conclusion that in essence, there is no difference between him and Arafat.
Abbas wears a suit, which goes 90% of the way to make him look like a serious, respectable human being. But the suit, and the civilized manners that go with it are the ONLY things that separate him from Arafat.

The facts:

Abbas is a Holocaust denier, in fact based his dissertation on it.
Abbas insists on the 'right of return', meaning he wants to flood Israel with hostile Arabs, while also demanding a Juden-rein state in Judea-Samaria.
Abbas refuses to deal with the other terrorists groups in any way other than 'persuasion'. In other words, he won't even talk harshly to them.
Abbas could not help but revert to old habits. Less than a week after his election, he called Israel the 'Zionist enemy'.

BTW, here's Abbas in a recent outfit. Nice dishwashing rag. Remind you of anyone?

So where does Israel go from here?

It will take a lot of time, at least many months but probably a year or more before the US will have to admit that dealing with Abbas is as sensible and useful as dealing with Arafat was.
In the meantime, Israel will have to proof again that IT is willing to come to a satisfactory solution fort both sides by suffering countless attacks, deaths and wounded by 'other' terrorist groups while Abbas pretends to try and control the murderers. Israel will pay the price (again) for the world in general and the US in particular accepting that Abbas has the exact same goal that Arafat had, and that still claims a dominant place in the PLO covenant: The destruction of the Jewish state.

Of course, until the world can no longer deny that Abbas is what he always was, namely a founding member of one of the worlds oldest terrorist organizations, and nothing else, he will be invited to the White House and the various European centers of power. As always, the world will be ready to deal with any terrorist who can hold up even the slightes semblance of civility and decency, especially if his designated target is the Jews.

Arafat is dead. Long live the new Arafat. And for Israel nothing has changed. And I am convinced nothing ever will until Israel starts dealing with the Arabs on a basis of what is good for Israel, and not what is good for the Arabs, or the Americans, or even the Europeans.