Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin, February 28, 2008.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday that he
doesn’t rule out armed conflict against Israel. He also said that he was
“honored” to have fired the first bullet of the Fatah terror organization in 1965,
and to have taught terror tactics around the world, including to such groups as
Hizbullah.

In an in-depth interview published today in the Jordanian daily Al-Dustur on
February 28, Abbas said that the PA is “unable” to pursue armed conflict for
now, but said that “in the future stages things may be different.”

He rejected Israel as a Jewish state, and said that it was the PA’s rejection of
Israel’s Jewishness that almost aborted the Annapolis Conference last
November.

Abbas said that he won’t demand that Hamas recognize Israel. In fact, as PMW
has reported in the past, he said that the only “recognition” of Israel he
demands of a Palestinian unity government is to recognize Israel as its
adversary.

Here are some quotes from that interview:

“Now we are against armed conflict because we are unable. In the future
stages, things may be different… ”

The Palestinian President emphasized his rejection of what is described as the
Jewishness of the state [Israel], and said: “We rejected this proposal at the
Annapolis conference last November in the USA, and the conference was
almost aborted because of it…”

The Palestinian President spoke about the resistance [Editor's note: PA euphemism for terror], saying:

“I was honored to be the one to shoot the first bullet in 1965 [Fatah terror against Israel began in
1965] ,and having taught resistance to many in this area and around the world,
defining it and when it is beneficial and when it is not…
We had the honor of
leading the resistance.We taught everyone what resistance is, including the
Hezbollah, who were trained in our camps [i.e. PLO camps in the 60s and 70s].”

“I don’t demand that the Hamas movement recognize Israel. I only demanded of
the [Palestinian] national unity government that would work opposite Israel in
recognition of it. And this I told to Syrian President Bashir Assad, and he
supported this idea.”