After retiring from the State Department, former US diplomat Edward Abington took a job as chief lobbyist for the PLO that paid $750,000 a year.

And that investment by terrorists continues to pay dividends; yesterday he testified on behalf of the Hamas-linked Holy Land Foundation: Former Ambassador Defends HLF.

A former U.S. diplomat spoke in glowing terms Tuesday about the Palestinian charities supported by the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). Edward Abington, a former counsel general at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, was the first defense witness in the terror-support trial of the Richardson Tex.-based foundation and five of its former officers.

Prosecutors spent the past six weeks detailing links between the Palestinian charities, known as zakat committees, and HAMAS, a designated foreign terrorist organization. While much of the money went to humanitarian relief, anything that went to benefit HAMAS violated U.S. law, the government contends.

Jurors heard a much different account from Abington. For example, he described the Al Ghazi hospital in Jenin as “clean” and contrasted that with the Israeli military hospital where he found conditions “abysmal.”

The hospital has been linked to HAMAS. In June 2002, Israeli security forces arrested Mustafa Amjad, a doctor at the Al Ghazi hospital, who had been recruited by HAMAS to smuggle suicide bombers from Jenin into Israel.

To Abington, HAMAS is a “radical fundamentalist” group, but not Islamist. He described an Islamist as a “pious Muslim” who follows the five pillars of Islam, including charitable giving (zakat) and undertaking the Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca.

Abington also testified that he found information from Shin Bet and other Israeli intelligence agencies to be unreliable and believed the Israelis have an “agenda” to “influence US thinking.”

He accused Israel of using documents seized during Operation Defensive Shield, a military offensive launched by Israel in response to terrorist attacks in April 2002, as propaganda material “to undermine the reputation of the Palestinian Authority.” Documents from that military operation have been presented as evidence by Israeli security officials who testified anonymously.

During cross examination, prosecutor Barry Jonas noted that Abington earned $750,000 a year during seven years as the chief lobbyist for the PLO, which led the Palestinian Authority, after leaving the State Department. Prior to resigning from the government in 1999, Abington negotiated a $400 million deal between the State Department and Yasser Arafat.