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How can you seriously argue that Mahmoud Abbas

(Abu Mazen), who has clearly not sworn off violence against Israel, is a partner for Israel?

They say: How can you say that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is a "partner" for peace? He may sound good when he talks to left-wing Americans, but he shows his true colors when he talks to other Arabs: Earlier this year he told the Jordanian daily "al-Dustur" that he was currently opposed to armed struggle against Israel, but that "maybe in the future things will be different." How can you seriously argue that this man, who has clearly not sworn off violence against Israel, is a partner for Israel?

We say: As people who care about Israel, we are interested in what Abbas says, but we are much more interested in what he does. And what he is doing is actively fighting terrorism in the West Bank, in cooperation with Israel's security establishment. He is deploying Palestinian police forces to fight militants and to confiscate illegal weapons. He is trying to revive the West Bank's economy, and is negotiating the terms of a final settlement peace agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Together with his prime minister, Salam Fayyad, Abbas is fighting anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement in the Palestinian public arena, including in West Bank mosques. Abbas and Fayyad are working with U.S. military envoys to train Palestinian security forces, some of which have already been deployed in West Bank towns, fulfilling both counter-terrorism and law-enforcement tasks.

Abbas has indeed said things that we don't like. But it would be na‹ve to expect Abbas to only make statements that resonate positively in Israeli ears, just as it would be na‹ve to expect all of what Israeli leaders say to resonate positively with Palestinians. Abbas is not a Zionist and should not be expected to be one -- he is a Palestinian nationalist and speaks the language of Palestinian nationalism. However, most of what Abbas says - both in English and in Arabic, both to non-Palestinians and to the Palestinian public - clearly indicates a solid commitment to peace with Israel. This one unfortunate newspaper quote, which came in the context of pressure from the Jordanian journalists for Abbas to acknowledge the success of Hamas in forcing Israel to make concessions, is the exception that proves the rule. Unfortunately, it is an exception that has been enthusiastically seized by people hoping to discredit Abbas and undermine the negotiating process.

Israel, for the sake of its own interests, needs to negotiate an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and realize the two-state solution. Unfortunately, after decades of occupation, intifada, and the political dominance of Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian political arena suffers from a dearth of committed, moderate leaders who can serve as credible partners with whom Israel can conclude such a negotiation. Abbas is undoubtedly one such leader. He was overwhelmingly elected as the Palestinian president in free and fair elections - elections in which Abbas ran on a platform of achieving a negotiated peace with Israel. He has consistently and repeatedly committed himself, in word and deed, to achieving a negotiated peace agreement with Israel.

Whether Abbas is strong enough to make peace remains unclear. What is clear is that Israel has a strong interest in empowering him. We think that both Israel and the international community could and should be doing much more to empower Abbas. It's not too late to empower Abbas and build support for his pragmatic policies.