Photo Credit: Flash90
IDF at scene of shooting in Psagot Saturday night.

Palestinian Authority  chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who has vowed that a new Arab state within Israel’s borders will keep Israel secure, demands that the IDF stop entering Arab-controlled cities.

Israeli soldiers do not visit Shechem and Jenin to buy cheap vegetables. They enter to arrest terrorists, while the PA security forces give out parking tickets, try to catch criminals and occasionally search for rival terrorists from Islamic Jihad and Hamas. The Palestinian Authority almost never arrests terrorists belonging to the ”military branch” of the ruling Fatah party.

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Abbas has done an incredible job on the international diplomatic front since taking over from Yasser Arafat nine years ago next month. He has painstakingly built up a world-wide image of Israel as an Occupier and Palestinian Authority Arabs as innocent victims.

But  on the ground, nothing is moving.

He insists on all of his demands, including a total withdrawal of the IDF  while claiming that his security forces will protect Israel.

Abbas told visiting Knesset Members two days ago that security coordination with Israel “has reached the highest point” but in the same breath demanded that the Israeli military stay out of areas where the PA is supposed to maintain security.

Just about the same time he was speaking, the IDF arrested two brothers who are suspected of shooting at a nine-year-old in Psagot, next to Ramallah, Saturday night.

As for the attack, whether he did not did not condemn it demands on what website you read.

Here is how Ynet headlined its article this week:  “Abbas Condemns Attack on Israeli Girl.”

That  is not a misleading headline; it simply is wrong.

The text of the article states that he told the visiting MKs, “We oppose, on principle, aggression against anyone, and the spilling of blood.” That is a broad generalization that makes no reference to any specific attack. There also was no reference to a Facebook posting on Fatah’s official Facebook page that praised the sniper on Psagot.

The same article in Ynet reported Abbas’ reaction to the IDF’s arrest of suspected terrorists, who carry out attacks that he opposes “in principle.”

He said, “The Israeli army’s incursions are unjustified. There’s security coordination with us, so why carry out these raids that harm (our efforts)? Seven years ago we began security cooperation (with Israel),” which he said has reached “100 percent.”

To this day, Abbas has not condemned two murders of Israelis soldiers last month at the hands of Palestinian Authority terrorists, nor has he explained why his security forces did not arrest the perpetrators, let alone prevent the attacks.

Meanwhile, the PA propaganda machine is running in high gear. The Bethlehem-based Ma’an News Agency reported on the MKs’ visit by quoting senior Fatah party official Mohammed Al-Madani as saying that “the Palestinian side denounced the attack in Psagot settlement, the killing in Hebron, the murder in Kalandiya refugee camp and the Israeli incursions into Palestinian cities and the ongoing settler assaults against our people.”

There is a big difference between what Abbas said and what someone said he said. Ynet did not report any such condemnation, except for its wrong headline. Nor did the Jerusalem Post, which reported that all Abbas said concerning the attempted murder of the girl in Psagot was, “Two days ago a girl was shot or stabbed. That is not the topic of discussion for today. Four Palestinians were killed in Kalandiya, too. We should all condemn murder and bloodshed of innocents.”

Abbas also made sure to welcome his Knesset guests without displaying the Israeli flag.

Instead, he outlined why there is no peace with Israel, which he said must stop “settlers” from attacking Arabs, must not pray at the Temple Mount, and must not build in “settlements.”

If Israel simply would cooperate and believe Abbas that he wants peace by not recognizing Israeli as a Jewish state,  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and President Barack Obama can laugh all the way to the Nobel Peace Prize.

There is just one big problem for Abbas with this scenario: It won’t happen.

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Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu is a graduate in journalism and economics from The George Washington University. He has worked as a cub reporter in rural Virginia and as senior copy editor for major Canadian metropolitan dailies. Tzvi wrote for Arutz Sheva for several years before joining the Jewish Press.