Can Tom Perry tell the truth?

In one of his "Analysis" pieces -- aka an op-ed -- on PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Reuters' Tom Perry mendaciously suggests:

Abbas has reiterated his opposition to any form of violence -- a stance which puts him at odds with the Hamas Islamist movement and some members of his own Fatah party... For, Abbas, 74, more armed action by the Palestinians is a non-starter.

"Reiterated his opposition to violence"?  "Armed action a non-starter"?  We wonder if Perry is referring to Abbas' rallying cry on the 42nd anniversary of the founding of Fatah:

We have a legitimate right to direct our guns against Israeli occupation.

Or perhaps Perry is characterizing the Fatah platform endorsed by Abbas and adopted at the party Congress in August which reaffirmed the Fatah Constitution:

Armed public revolution is the inevitable method to liberating Palestine. (Article 17)

Armed struggle is a strategy and not a tactic, and the Palestinian Arab People's armed revolution is a decisive factor in the liberation fight and in uprooting the Zionist existence, and this struggle will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished and Palestine is completely liberated.  (Article 19)

Nah, Perry must be referring to the new and improved Mahmoud Abbas, seen here calmly reconciled to a Jewish state:



Perry suggests:

When he [Abbas] took over after Yasser Arafat's death in 2004, one of his first steps was to rein in militants still fighting the second Intifada, or uprising.

Apparently, that was before Abbas signed a law approving the payment of stipends to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers.

But despite Abbas having "hit a dead end" in peace talks with Israel, Perry quotes Palestinian political analyst Hani Masri:

I don't think there will ever be a president as moderate as Abu Mazen.

We think Masri and Perry may have inadvertently stumbled upon the truth here.