IsraelNatlNews

Arafat Gave The Orders, Now He Condemns

Yasser Arafat convened the PA leadership for an emergency meeting today, at which it was decided to declare a state of emergency, to ban weapons in public, and to arrest those responsible for the latest attacks. Only five days ago, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Sha’ul Mofaz told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Arafat was directly responsible for many terrorist attacks. Arafat did not merely give a "green light" to terrorism, Mofaz said, but was the very initiator of many attacks. Arutz-7's Haggai Seri reports that Arafat convened the leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in February 2000, and told them to commit terrorist attacks within pre-1967 Israel with the purpose of getting Israel to "surrender." Later, he gave a similar order to Tanzim (Fatah militia) heads.

The PA issued an official statement of condolences to the "people of Israel" following last night's attack in Jerusalem. Although some Israeli media termed the statement "unusually firm," media analyst Michael Widlanski notes that it painted the PA and the Palestinian people as the victims of the "explosions," and concentrated more on the damage caused to Palestinian interests as opposed to the essential evil of the murders.

Although between 95% and 98% of the Arab population in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza are under Palestinian Authority control, this is apparently not enough for the Arabs. Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat continued to make demands on Israel: "[You] want action from us, fine, we're taking action. But... the Israeli occupation must come to an end!"

-- Anonymous, December 02, 2001