Why Support Abbas?

Why should Israel, the US and Europe be so quick to send aid to Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen)?

The palestinian authority (PA), led by Abbas, was trounced in the most recent elections, losing to Hamas.

The palestinian arabs have spoken. A huge majority supports Hamas.

What do we hope to accomplish by sending money and arms to the PA? Will this shift majority support away from Hamas? Will money and arms make the PA stop using its terrorist Fatah organization to kill innocent civilians (Jewish and Arab)?

More likely, whatever money hasn't already been taken by PA leaders will go to Hamas when it reasserts its control and the arms will help build up the terrorist organizations who call the West Bank and Gaza home.

Abbas is no "moderate palestinian leader."

He's a terrorist, with a long history of supporting and planning terrorism -- hardly moderate.

He wasn't elected by a majority of the palestinian Arabs -- hardly a leader.

This is just another naive attempt by the west to install someone in a leadership position who they think will help them down the road.

When will we learn that this doesn't work. Arab leaders are looking out for themselves, exclusively and their goals are not aligned with ours. It's unrealistic to think we can buy much support from them. We certainly can't buy peace in the Middle East.