US officials in the region to monitor Israeli and Palestinian compliance with the terms of the Road Map peace process recently criticized the Palestinian Authority for failing to combat anti-Israel terrorism, its primary obligation.
Ha'aretz reported that the monitoring team, headed by General William Fraser, faulted the regime of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas for only truly going after extremists when they were threatening its rule.
As for preventing Palestinian terrorism against Israelis, the Abbas government had systematically failed to follow an established "chain of prevention" that includes arrests, interrogations and trials, and had instead opted to merely "contain" anti-Israel terrorism to the extent necessary to avoid international pressure.
The Bush Administration continues to insist that Abbas is a "moderate" leader dedicated to ending Palestinian violence against Israel and establishing peace and co-existence with the Jewish state. Under that guise, Washington has and continues to shower the Palestinian leader with millions in US taxpayers' dollars.