Arafat condemned recent bombings against Israelis, but also charged that right-wing Israelis were tied to the attacks. Rabbi Doug Kahn, executive director of the JCRC, offered a mixed reaction to Arafat's missive. I'm pleased that we received a response from Mr. Arafat. On the other hand, I'm troubled by most of the content of the letter. But Kahn said he sees substantial room for Arafat to do more to combat terrorism.
Words are nice.
The Palestinian leader also reproached Israel for closing the territories after the string of suicide bombings. It isn't the first time that Palestinian officials have tried to link Jews to Islamic-organized terrorist attacks. This has been a recurrent theme of his. Kahn also noted that the letter in English from the PLO's Washington office contained a logo of a Palestinian state displaying the entire state of Israel. The JCRC started the faxing campaign last month after the Feb. 25 terrorist attacks in Jerusalem and Ashkelon to pressure Arafat to crack down on the Islamic militant group Hamas.