PARTLY?

Abbas: EU ministers 'alarmed' (Reuters, September 6, 2003)

European Union foreign ministers said they were alarmed by the resignation of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.

Speaking at a meeting of EU foreign ministers, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the 15-nation bloc was "deeply worried by the serious risk of dangerous instability at the head of the Palestinian executive." [...]

Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh said the United States and Israel bore some responsibility for the crisis, saying Abu Mazen (Abbas's alternative name) had been given "the kiss of death" when they decided to deal only with him and not with Arafat.

"We (the EU) have all along agreed that this U.S.-Israeli policy of trying to exclude Arafat was very dangerous for Abu Mazen, and that there was a risk it could lead to Abu Mazen's fall. That is what we have seen now," she told reporters.

But Lindh also said Arafat was partly to blame: "Arafat's role in this is clearly negative and it is obvious Arafat must accept the continuation of the peace process."

Mr. Abbas has, at least temporarily, lost a power struggle with Palestinian extremists--chiefly Yasar Arafat and Hamas. But the Europeans, who refuse to disavow those extremists, blame the U.S. and Israel. No, no, no...you don't get to be objectively pro-terror and then whine when the terrorists win.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 6, 2003 8:26 AM