Sir, - After years of negotiations and 36 meetings which failed to produce any conclusive agreement, Ehud Olmert nevertheless unequivocally declares that Abbas is a 'partner for peace'. These many lengthy meetings he feels, have provided him the opportunity not only to assess Abbas's character, but to recognize his genuine desire for peace.
Permit me to suggest a different reading and interpretation of the events. Mahmoud Abbas, who embarked on his career as one of the world's better known deniers of the Holocaust, served as Yasser Arafat's deputy, and persistently rejects any Jewish claims to an historical attachment to the Land of Israel or to Jerusalem, found a sympathetic ear in his discussions with Ehud Olmert. Abbas found Olmert to be spineless and lacking any deep commitment to Jewish history and tradition.
Is it therefore at all surprising that after their many meetings Ehud Olmert 'caved in' to Abbas and offered to retreat to the 1947 indefensible borders, to the division of Jerusalem, and the abdication of sovereignty over the Temple Mount?
Abbas indeed found a partner for peace in Ehud Olmert!
ZEV CHAMUDOT
Petach Tikva
