LOST IN TRANSLATION: ABBAS THREAT TO ISRAEL

http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=32480 ^ | Michael Widlanski

[ventanax5]

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas made a very militant anti-Israel speech this week, but most of its violent message was lost in translation, because Abbas used a somewhat obscure wording in Arabic.

"Let a thousand flowers bloom, and let our rifles, all our rifles, all our rifles, be aimed at the Occupation," declared Abbas using an apparent reference to the old oratory of Communist leader Mao Tse Tung.

Even non-Arabs well-schooled in Arabic had trouble figuring out the strange verb form "da'a" used by Dr. Abbas, but it is a command form that means "let us" or "leave us begin to" from the weak Arabic verbal root Wa-da-'a (Waw, Dal 'Ayin). [See Hans Wehr, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, p.1058]

The phrase is important in many ways, because it shows .--That Dr. Abbas, who studied at the KGB's Patrice Lumumba University for Third World leaders, continues to heed Communist revolutionary rhetoric and tactics;

[xcamel]

So that's where Sheets Byrd learned it!

[mcshot]

And we're going to supply these flaming rejects with 86 million in rifles and ammo. Bad picture.

[SJackson]

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[PGalt]

Abbas earned his Ph.D. in history from Moscow's Oriental College. His doctoral thesis denies that six million Jews died in World War II.

...http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_current_mahmoud_abbas.php