Just when you think that the NYT cannot stoop lower, they do. This time even the editors recoiled. I do not know how to explain the strange title change. The name that caught my attention in the printed version was"Palestinian Front-runner Gets Tough." I just could not believe my eyes. Since when is pandering to terrorists by a Palestinian leader who made sure he has no serious opponent called getting tough? Indeed, Abbas pretended nothing of that sort. On the contrary, he actually told his audience that he is committed to the destruction of Israel. How? By announcing that he came to Raffah"to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the revolution" began by Abu Ammar (Arafat's nom de guerre). Forty years ago is 1965, i.e., it was prior to the Six Day War and the revolution then meant the destruction of the state of Israel. Of course, Greg Myre conveniently forgot or is ignorant of that fact. Maybe Taghreed el-Khoudary, his reporter from Rafah failed to explain it to him or they thought the reader does not need to know.

Why is it important? Because Abbas is a shrewd strategist and his backpedaling may just mean that he concluded that the US will be pressured to sell Israel down the tube. In other words, the Palestinians are again about to lose an opportunity and their supposed friends may just help them do so. Thank G-d, Powell used the opportunity given to him by Russet to say that pictures of Palestinian candidate Abbas on shoulders of wanted terrorists “are disturbing.” He stressed: if new Palestinian leadership elected in a week does not deal with terrorists, “we'll all be stuck again.” In other words, Powel to Abbas:"Get real tough!"

The NYT at least got the message.. When I googled the article I discovered that the NYT directed me to a different title - Abbas Sees Duty to Shield the Militants This title is factual, for a change.