NEW YORK- In classic Palestinian Authority double-speak, the PA has told the Western media that it “condemns” the latest Palestinian Arab bus bombing in which eight Jews were massacred while praising the bomber as a “martyr” to Arab audiences.
The PA issued a statement to the Western media in which it “condemned” the bombing, while equating it with Israeli self-defense actions: “The Palestinian leadership condemns the blast and absolutely condemns the killing of all civilians, whether Israelis or Palestinians.”
But Prof. Michael Widlanski of Hebrew University reports that the PA’s official “Voice of Palestine” radio station “referred to the man who committed the bombing of the bus in Jerusalem yesterday as a martyr (‘shahid’) in their news programs. They treated him royally both yesterday and today. ‘Shahid’ is an honorary term given to someone who dies in battle. It is not conferred to a criminal. If the act was considered a criminal act then he would not be termed a martyr ‘shahid’ … yesterday’s bombing was repeatedly described on VOP as ‘an explosive operation’ without any negative terminology associated with it.
“In sharp contrast, the announcement of the demolition of the ‘martyr’s house’ by the IDF was termed ‘barbaric’ with VOP urging Palestinians to come out of their houses to show resistance to the ‘racist Israeli threats’. At 6:00 PM last night, right before the main evening news program last night, PA TV broadcast film clips openly encouraging attacks against Israelis. For example, they ran a clip of a small child no older than 6 or 7 years old singing to himself ‘by stone or by knife I will attack the enemy.’ The clip was several minutes long and this chorus was repeated many times.”
Meanwhile, Israel Radio reports that Yasir Arafat’s Fatah sponsored a mass rally in Jenin to praise the massacre as “a heroic military operation.” Candies were distributed as part of the celebration.
Morton A. Klein, National President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), said: “The PA’s glorification of the latest mass-murderer as a ‘martyr’ proves that if the PA is given a sovereign state, it will be a terrorist state. The time has come for the Bush administration to withdraw its support for the creation of a Palestinian Arab state and cut off America’s annual $215-million aid to the Palestinian Arabs.”