Israel Matzav

Murders of 4 Israelis just a question of bad timing

On August 31, 2010, with 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen in Washington preparing for a meeting with President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu, four Israelis were murdered in a particularly cold-blooded terror attack by what are claimed to be Hamas-affiliated terrorists. At the time, Abu Mazen made what seemed like a condemnation of the attack in English, while 'Palestinian Prime Minister' Salam Fayyad gave a statement in Arabic that criticized the timing of the terror attack.

Comparing statements made by 'Palestinian' leaders during the early part of September with statements made by the same leaders in the aftermath of the Mavi Marmara incident three months earlier, Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik show that the 'Palestinian Authority' was only critical of the timing of the August 31 attack outside Hebron, and not of the attack itself. When the 'Palestinians' really want to condemn what they consider an attack, show Marcus and Zilberdik, the 'Palestinians' know how to do so unequivocally.

The central and recurring theme of PA leaders and PA-controlled media in response to Hamas’s attack was criticism of the timing of the attack because of the damage done to the Palestinian cause, and not criticism of the killings themselves. The PA’s central and recurring theme in response to the deaths on the flotilla was strong condemnation of what the PA repeatedly defined as “a massacre” and “a crime.”

The day after the Hamas killings, official PA media reported that “Prime Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad said that the operation which took place tonight in the Hebron area and its timing, harms the efforts being made by the PLO to gather international support for the Palestinian position… He said: ‘We condemn this operation, which contradicts the Palestinian interests and the efforts of the Palestinian leadership to gather international support...’” [PLO news agency Wafa, Aug. 31, 2010]

Abbas, when he returned to Ramallah, like Fayyad, lashed out at his political rival, Hamas, for the timing of the shootings: “He [Abbas] said that the recent shooting operations in the West Bank did not constitute resistance: ‘… For why isn’t [Hamas] resistance happening every day, and isn’t happening at all, except on the day we went to negotiations?!… Why did resistance become legitimate only today?” [Al- Ayyam, Sept. 6, 2010]

The PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash in his Friday sermon after the killings continued this PA line as he condemned the timing, even accusing Hamas of trying to help Netanyahu: “What is the secret of the timing for carrying out armed operations in the West Bank? We want to know the secret of the timing… Suddenly! – the moment that President Abbas reaches Washington, the moment that Netanyahu finds himself in the corner, pressed, forced to adapt and accommodate himself to the international approach, suddenly there is a respite for Netanyahu, and the Palestinians are in distress [because of the attacks]…” [PA TV (Fatah), Sept. 3, 2010]

When the Palestinian Authority wants to send a clear message and seriously condemn what it perceives as terror, it knows how to do it. After the flotilla confrontation in May, the PA controlled daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida in a series of articles called Israel “pirates, murderers, barbarians, transgressors of international law, lacking any connection with humanity,” [June 3] and referred to Israeli conduct as “more than piracy and more serious than a massacre in its ugliness and its inhumanity. It is worse than a crime… a gang dressed up as a state,” [June 5] and called to “protect humanity from Israeli fascism… Another barbaric Israeli massacre, bringing shame upon humanity and the civilized world… Israeli savagery… a massacre against humanity.” [June 1] Tayseer Tamimi, then PA Chief Justice of Religious Court “denounced the shameful crime,” [Al- Hayat Al-Jadida, June 5, 2010].

Abbas himself demonstrated that when motivated, he too knows how to send a clear message of condemnation.“Israel has carried out a great crime” [Al-Ayyam, June 17, 2010], he said, referring to “the killing of innocent people,“ [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 27, 2010], terming it “premeditated and with determination to kill” [PA TV, May 31, 2010] and that Palestinians were “subjected to state terrorism” [Al- Hayat Al-Jadida, June 3, 2010].

WHEN THE PA wanted to condemn Israel’s conduct in the flotilla confrontations, the recurring themes were “a new crime”, “a great crime”, “a long list of crimes”, “enemy crimes”, as well as “massacre”, “bloody massacre” and “massacre against humanity.”

On the other hand, never once was the murder of four Israeli civilians called a “crime” and certainly not “a massacre.”

Read the whole thing.

The 'Palestinians' are not fools. They know how to say exactly what they want to say when they want to say it. But they're sure playing us and our allies for fools. They still cannot condemn terror with a straight face, and they have not and will not make the effort to put a stop to it.

Why are we still negotiating with them?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:25 PM