From this morning’s New York Times “news” dispatch about the possibility that the State Department will propose a new Middle East peace solution:

But with Israelis increasingly disenchanted after a Saudi-brokered deal last month in which the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, agreed to form a national unity government with the Islamist militant group Hamas, Ms. Rice is pressing Arab states to hold out normalized relations to give Israelis something to look forward to. [Emphasis added.]

In what sense is Abbas a moderate? Abbas, successor of Yasser Arafat, is the head of Fatah. As I noted here a few weeks back, the Fatah constitution still calls for the “eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence[,]” through an “armed revolution” which is to be the “decisive factor in the liberation fight and in uprooting the Zionist existence” — a revolution that “will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished and Palestine is completely liberated.”

How does the Times, or, for that matter, our government, ever expect to see the emergence of authentic moderates if it continues to wrap the mantle of ”moderate” around those who are anything but?