Killers, Murderers, traitors, fanatics, and usurpers. I watched a live transmission of Mahmoud Abbas' speech before the PLO's Central Council (is it not cute how the PA's puppet remember the PLO when it is convenient? They learned from the master, `Arafat). It was surreal. You really have to read the text or watch it. This weak and hesitant person, Abu Mazen--a man with no popular standing outside of Tel Aviv and Washington, DC--suddenly decided to sound strong and commanding. Did he not know that his master, Mr. Bush, is at his lowest point of his presidency, and that he has only few months to rule as president before the presidential competition marginalizes him further? I kid you not that he read from a speech that must have been written by an Israeli occupation official--and it probably was. With those puppets, it is a real possibility. He sounded like commanding generals in those famous Ba`thist military court trials: his enemies (Palestinian enemies) were consistently described as: killers, murderers, traitors, etc. This is from a man who once apologized for daring to refer to Israel as "the enemy." On what is he counting? On that "security plan" being prepared "by international authorities" which he made reference to in that speech? Don't you like those vague references when he thinks that he is fooling somebody? And he even talked about reforming mosques. That sounded like an Arab reform plan to me. Is democratic reform coming to Palestine now that it has established roots in Iraq and Somalia? And he talked about the fanaticism of the enemy: he who is supported by Mubarak and the rest of Arab kings and princes and that Sultan in Oman. He dares to criticize fanaticism? He did speak about the Israeli occupation but only referred to it as a footnote. A mere footnote to the narrative of Palestinian suffering. He faulted Hamas for not convening sessions of the Palestinian parliament-under-occupation forgetting that the speaker of parliament and some 40 members are sitting in Israeli jails. Hamas spokesersons are acting as they often do: foolishly and naively. A Hamas spokesperson wrote editorials in the Washington Post and the New York Times: thinking that if only we explain our case, they then would listen to us, and treat us fairly. Hamas operates from the same premise on which that lousy Palestinian leader, `Arafat, operated on. The notion that if we present our case well, the West will change its views. Let Hamas wait, and while they wait they will be going along the same path as `Arafat. I see it clearly. They will do the same: they will read from a faxed statement from the US government in which they condemn terrorism (as defined by Israel-always) and pledge respect and loyalty for Israel. Things are bleak? Yes, of course. But we are now more than 100 years after the convening of the Zionist congress in Switzerland in 1897 and the failure of Zionism is more clear than ever. In historical terms, it will be treated as a passing phenomenon in our region. People will be saying: Ben Gurion who?