NEW YORK- For the second year in a row, the State Department’s annual report on global terrorism has acknowledged that senior Palestinian Authority (PA) officials are involved in terrorism yet the Bush administration still has not imposed sanctions on the PA.

The State Department report, Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003, noted that “The PA’s efforts to thwart terrorist operations were minimal in 2003,” and, moreover, that “some personnel in the security services, including several senior officers, have continued to assist terrorist operations.”

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said: “The latest confirmation that the PA security forces have been involved in terrorism against Israel demonstrates that the PA cannot be ‘reformed’; it is an evil regime that must be completely dismantled and outlawed. Why isn’t the Bush administration imposing sanctions on the PA, just as it imposes sanctions on other terror regimes?”

The language was identical to the previous year’s report, Patterns of Global Terrorism 2002, which stated: “The Palestinian Authority’s efforts to thwart terrorist operations were minimal in 2002” and “Some personnel in the security services, including several senior officers, have continued to assist terrorist operations.”

That marked a change from the report surveying 2001, which acknowledged only that “PA counterterrorism activities remained sporadic throughout the year,” and “a lax security environment allowed Hamas and other groups to rebuild terrorist infrastructure in the Palestinian territories.” But the State Department blamed that on Israel, asserting: “Israel’s destruction of the PA’s security infrastructure contributed to the ineffectiveness of the PA.”

In the report for the year 2000, the State Department made it appears as if PA involvement in terrorism was merely an Israeli accusation, rather than a fact, stating: “Israeli officials publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with PA counter-terrorism efforts during the crisis” … ” The Israelis also accused PA security officials and Fatah members of facilitating and taking part in shooting and bombing attacks against Israeli targets” … “The Israelis charged that the release of several prisoners during the crisis had facilitated terrorist planning by the groups and that Palestinian security officials had not been responsive to their calls for more decisive measures against the violence.”