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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/05/opinion/05safi.html
Abu Mazen is "Playing with Fire"
(New York Times) William Safire - In Gaza, the leading candidate to replace Arafat in Sunday's election, Abu Mazen, has embraced the radical Arabs who want not peace but conquest. These terrorists are firing rockets and mortars at nearby Israeli civilians in the hopes of making Sharon's planned withdrawal appear to be a surrender to the warriors of Hamas. When Israeli defenders returned fire this week, Abu Mazen called all Arab casualties "martyrs who were killed today by the shells of the Zionist enemy." He hopes to win extremists' votes by adopting their hate-filled rhetoric as well as Arafat's platform of a "right of return" of Arabs to overwhelm Israel. By appeasing his fiercest faction of die-hards, Abu Mazen is playing with fire. To reach a settlement, he will have to make compromises that these warring radicals totally reject.