The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has pointed to the falsity of the alleged “moderation” of Palestinian Authority (PA) prime minister Salam Fayyad, who this week paid his second condolence call in six weeks to the family of a Palestinian terrorist killed after attempting to murder Jews. Fayyad visited the family of Faiz Faraj, who was killed after attempting to stab to death an Israeli soldier. Six weeks earlier, Fayyad paid a visit to the families of the three Palestinian terrorists who murdered Rabbi Meir Chai but who were later tracked down and killed by Israeli security forces.

According to the PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida,  “The [PA] Prime Minister [Salam Fayyad] paid condolences to the family of the Shahid (Martyr) Faiz Faraj, who was killed on Friday evening by the occupation forces (Israel), having been fired upon directly in the old Al-Shalala neighborhood in Hebron. Fayyad denounced in extremely harsh terms the actions of the occupation forces, carried out as part of the ongoing campaign to suppress the non-violent protests of residents in the various regions” (Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 14, 2010, translation courtesy of Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, ‘PA Prime Minister honors dead terrorist with condolence visit,’ Palestinian Media Watch, February 14, 2010).

Only six weeks ago, in late December 2009, the PLO news agency, WAFA, reported that “Prime Minister [Fayyad] visits Nablus and conveys condolences to the families of the Shahids (Martyrs). Prime Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad today visited the city of Nablus in the wake of the Israeli military operation, and presented condolences to the families of the three Martyrs who were murdered by the occupation forces … The Prime Minister condemned the Israeli military operation in the city” (WAFA news agency, December 26, 2009, translation courtesy of Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, ‘Abbas turns 3 latest terrorists into Palestinian heroes,’ Palestinian Media Watch, December 29, 2009).

ZOA National Chairman of the Board Dr. Michael Goldblatt said, “The ZOA has long maintained that Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad, who head the PA, are unreconstructed supporters of terrorism and not genuine moderates and peace makers. This is the same PA that recently named a town square in honor of Dalal Mughrabi, who commanded the terrorists that perpetrated the 1978 coastal road bus hijacking, in which 37 Israelis, including 12 children, were slaughtered. We have recently seen PA president Mahmoud Abbas refuse to disown the glorification of terrorism by the PA to which much of the international community, including the United States, gives billions of dollars annually.

“There is an easy way to spot a true Palestinian moderate. This is one who jails terrorists, not one who demands that Israel free terrorists; one who condemns terror attacks, not Israeli operations that kill terrorists; and one who ends incitement to hatred and murder within the PA, not one who fosters it. A Palestinian leader like Salam Fayyad, who neither arrests terrorists nor ceases to honor them – but on the contrary, publicly visit their families and praises them – is not one who will lead Palestinians on a new path of peace and reconciliation.”