Fatah Praises Seminary Attack

Jerusalem -?Following the Jerusalem seminary terror attack last Thursday in which eight young students were murdered by a Palestinian terrorist, the Israeli and international media were quick to publish a statement in the name of Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and chairman of the Fatah, saying that Mr. Abbas had condemned the heinous attack in the strongest of terms.

“President Mahmoud Abbas condemns the attack in Jerusalem that claimed the lives of many Israelis, and he reiterated his condemnation of all attacks that target civilians, whether they are Palestinians or Israelis,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters after the attack.

However, immediate praise for these murders echoed from major media outlets of the PA and the Fatah, both under Mr. Abbas’ direct control.

“In a heroic act of martyrdom, at least one hero infiltrated a Zionist school in occupied Jerusalem,” stated the beginning of a news dispatch on Fatah’s Firas Press Web site translated by World Net Daily and reported by the WND bureau chief in Jerusalem, Aaron Klein, a native Philadelphian.

Mr. Klein also brought to light the praised lauded on the killings by another Fatah-affiliated news site, PalPress, which also used the term “heroic” to characterize the terror attack in Jerusalem.

In addition, the Palestinian Media Watch organization reported that Mr. Abbas’ official PA daily newspapers honored the killer of the eight high school students gunned down this week with the status of Shahid (“holy Islamic martyr”). The official PA daily Al Hayat Al Jadida, operating under Mr. Abbas’ editorial control, prominently placed a picture of the murderer on the front page, with the caption, “The Shahid Alaa Abu D’heim.” In a page-one article on the terror killings, his act is again described as a “Shahada achieving” action.

At the same time, Khaled Abu Toameh, writing in the Jerusalem Post on Monday, reported that Fatah’s armed wing, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, on Sunday welcomed the killing of the eight yeshiva students in Jerusalem. In a statement issued in Ramallah, the group said the “option of resistance remains the only method to restore our rights, free our prisoners and liberate all our lands.”

Expressing its full support for the attack, the group described it as a “heroic” operation that came in response to “Israeli atrocities.” The group also called for carrying out more attacks against Israel.

The U.S. Security Coordinator Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, dispatched by the U.S. State Department to work with the security forces of the PA, has launched an unprecedented verbal lashing against Israel’s security establishment, telling a meeting of foreign consuls in the virtual Palestinian capital city of Ramallah that Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Israel’s security establishment have “become an obstacle to the Palestinian Authority’s success in instilling order and security in the West Bank cities.”

The Palestinian news agency Maan, which reported these statements, quoted an associate of one of the foreign consuls who attended Lt. Gen. Dayton’s briefing.

Lt. Gen. Dayton said at the meeting that the PA was working very seriously in the security realm as part of its responsibility to instill security in its territory and that Israel had heaped obstacles in its path in order to obstruct it.

Lt. Gen. Dayton asked the consuls how the PA could succeed in governing areas that are still under Israeli control.

In Lt. Gen. Dayton’s words, “When I put this question to the Israelis and Israel’s security establishment, I don’t get answers.”

The Israeli Prime Minister’s office, the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Israeli Defense Minister’s office have been reluctant to say anything on the record that criticizes Mr. Abbas, the al-Aqsa Brigades or the official PA media.

Incidentally, Lt. Gen. Dayton was the American representative responsible for training Mr. Abbas’ security forces and equipping them with U.S. arms, which fell into the hands of the Hamas regime after their takeover of the Gaza Strip.

Last night, in Bethlehem, a special squad of the Israel Defense Forces attacked and killed four top leaders of the al-Aqsa Brigades who had planned the killing in the Mercaz Ha Rav Seminary last Thursday night, including their leader, Muhammad Shahadah, wanted by Israeli law enforcement authorities for more than 18 years.

These four leaders were part of Mr. Abbas’ security forces being trained by Lt. Gen. Dayton.

David Bedein can be reached at Media@actcom.co.il. His Web site is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com

©The Bulletin 2008