By Stan Goodenough
PLO/PA chief Mahmoud Abbas, whose cause successfully attracted international support through decades of terrorism and Jew-killing, tried Monday to increase the pressure on Israel via Washington:
If the Bush administration does not immediately intervene and get Israel to reach a deal with the "Palestinians" before the end of 2008, he warned, the world can kiss Middle East peace goodbye.
[Difficult to say goodbye to something that never arrived to begin with-Ed.]
Abbas chided the US leadership immediately following a closed-door meeting with Jordan's King Hussein.
If Washington fell down on its commitment to "make 2008 the year to broker peace ... there will never be any future chances to achieve this goal," he said, according to the Associated Press.
US President George W. Bush "must understand it is to play an active role, not just as a supervisor, by intervening directly to help make peace."
As for Israel, which is weathering daily and increasingly bloody rocket attacks from "Palestinians" in the Gaza Strip, Abbas said it had better "stop escalating the situation in the Palestinian territories [sic] and stop all attacks in the Gaza Strip, including firing missiles there."
Abbas' ultimatum comes hard on the heels of a similar threat from the Arab League, which last week warned it would withdraw its so-called peace initiative if Israel did not accelerate progress towards the creation of Palestine on the Jews' ancient homeland.
Jerusalem called that bluff and also hardly appears phased by this one.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert responded Tuesday by freely airing his doubts about the chance of arriving at a deal before year's end.
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