Why are Bush and
Powell Silent?

NEW YORK – Two members of Yasir Arafat’s Fatah terrorist group who were involved in the murder of an American citizen are among the terrorists who have taken over the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

The Israeli government has revealed that among the approximately 250 terrorists holed up in the Church of the Nativity are Ibrahim Abyat and Ismail Hamdan. Abyat and Hamdan are prominent members of Arafat’s Fatah Tanzim and were involved in numerous terrorist attacks, including the murder of a 72 year-old U.S. citizen, Avi Boaz, on January 15, 2002.

Boaz, a building contractor, had close relations with many Palestinian Arabs and traveled to Bethlehem on the morning of January 15, 2002 for business purposes. As he entered the city, he was stopped at a Palestinian Authority roadblock, where he showed the PA policemen his U.S. passport. Fatah terrorists at the scene then abducted Boaz, while the PA police watched without intervening. The Fatah kidnappers took Boaz to nearby Beit Sahur, and murdered him there.

Morton A. Klein, National President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), said: “Arafat’s own terrorists, including the murder of an American, have seized one of the most important Christian religious sites in the world. Why is the Bush administration silent about this outrage? Instead of rescuing Arafat from Israel’s siege, Secretary of State Colin Powell should be demanding that Arafat order the Fatah terrorists to withdraw from the Church of the Nativity, surrender to the Israeli authorities, and hand over Ibrahim Abyat and Ismail Hamdan for prosecution, in the U.S., for the murder of Avi Boaz.”