"We extend our hands to our neighbors," Abbas declared late Monday after a meeting with international observers who monitored the election. "We are ready for peace, peace based on justice. We hope that their response will be positive."

"Peace based on justice?" That's it? What happens if there's no justice, does that mean that there's no peace. Of course it does. That's how Arafat justified all the violence since 1993. Since Palestinian aspirations were not addressed there was no peace. That's a nice little rhetorical trick. It's a way of sounding concilliatory but making a veiled threat. He's not something new and improved. He's an Arafat in a suit. That's not just my estimating, that's the estimation of Ha'aretz, lefty PLO watcher Danny Rubinstein, "Analysis: An Arafat in a suit who means business":

But make no mistake: He may wear a suit, he may not jump on tables or shout that a million martyrs will march to Jerusalem, but his demands from Israel are no different than Arafat's were.

And Rubinstein up to his old tricks too, effectively detaching any responsibility from the Palestinians:

Abu Mazen is not expected to order his security forces to wipe out terror or to stop firing missiles from Gaza, as many in Israel would wish him to do. Instead, very soon we will representatives of all the Palestinian factions, headed by Fatah and Hamas, convening in Cairo for a dialogue sponsored by President Hosni Mubarak.

Well it's not just what "Israel would wish him to do." It's what any normal country would expect of an enemy trying to make peace to do. Earlier in the article Rubenstein wrote:

To judge from the exit polls published Sunday night, business won out. A majority of more than 60 percent of people voting for the Palestinian Authority chairman chose Fatah candidate Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), one of whose election slogans was to put a stop to the "military intifada" - or, as we would put it, to terror attacks.

"[a]s we would put it"? No as any normal person would put it. It's hard to take the idea of peace seriously when so many are out to upgrade his actions and downgrade his responsibilities. How about just reporting on what he says or doesn't say and does or doesn't do without resorting to explaining them? Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.