The PA’s empty condemnation of terror

Fayyad admitted that the death, pain and destruction unmistakably constituted terror. That was more than Reuters was willing to concede.

By JPOST EDITORIAL
Jerusalem bus bombing FOR GALLERY 521 2 (photo credit: Moshe Milner GPO)
Jerusalem bus bombing FOR GALLERY 521 2
(photo credit: Moshe Milner GPO)
Shortly after the explosion of the bomb packed with steel balls, nails and screws that killed Briton Mary Jane Gardner and wounded 50 people – including two critically – Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad publicly condemned what he specifically called a “terror attack.”
Unfortunately, but not uncharacteristically, the prime minister detracted from that condemnation by adding that the act was “despicable,” particularly in light of the huge damage such attacks have inflicted on the Palestinians in the past. The implication from Fayyad, the ex-IMF economist touted by both local and international media as a “moderate reformer,” was that were it not for the potential negative ramifications for Palestinians resulting from the attack, beginning with possible restrictions on Palestinian movement, the attack would not have been quite so despicable.
Still, at least Fayyad admitted that the death, pain and destruction caused Wednesday unmistakably constituted terror. That was more than what Reuters was willing to concede. In a news report describing the incident, the news agency noted that “Police said it was a ‘terrorist attack’ – Israel’s term for a Palestinian strike.” Apparently, for Reuters, the intentional, indiscriminate murder of civilians with the purpose of terrorizing might constitute something other than terrorism when it is directed against Israel.
Fayyad’s condemnation was accompanied by another from PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Unfortunately, but not uncharacteristically, in the same breath the president also denounced the killing of nine Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. The foul attempt at moral equivalency was clear: The intentional targeting of Israeli civilians was comparable with an IDF operation to stop the launching of Grads, Kassams and mortars at civilians, but which had the unintentional and tragic result of causing civilian deaths.
Fayyad’s and Abbas’s reactions were, of course, somewhat more palatable than Hamas’s declaration that Wednesday’s attack in Jerusalem was a “natural response to Israeli crimes against Palestinians,” a presumed reference to the IDF's ongoing attempts to stop the barrage of various lethal ballistics launched by Hamas and other Gaza-based Islamist groups at civilians in the south. Somewhat more palatable. But not much more than that.
AS LONG as the Palestinian people remain under their present splintered leadership – Hamas in Gaza, the PA on the West Bank – there will not be peace with Israel.
While Hamas sets in place yet another reactionary Islamist fiefdom in the region and avowedly advocates the destruction of Israel, the PA has been devoting most of its diplomatic energies to obtaining international recognition of a Palestinian state along the 1949 Armistice Lines, including east Jerusalem.
Former chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said this week that the PA has prepared a draft document that will be presented to the UN in the coming weeks. This is the same Erekat who was forced to resign after documents leaked by Al-Jazeera revealed that in negotiations with the Olmert government in 2008 the PA showed some willingness to compromise on core issues such as Jerusalem, refugees’ “right of return” and territorial swaps. The publication of even the most modest of concessions offered by the PA resulted in a huge backlash of Palestinian criticism.
Not only hasn’t the PA taken remotely sufficient steps to prepare its people for peace with Israel, its official TV, radio and newspapers are regularly used as platforms for incitement against Israel. Under such circumstances Palestinians rightly ask their political leaders: If Israel is so terrible, why are you negotiating with the Israelis?
The regular demonization of Israel and the Jewish people, such as the present campaign launched by PA-controlled media against the very idea of schools teaching Palestinians about the Holocaust, diverts attention away from the repressive PA’s abuse of basic human rights such as freedom of assembly and freedom of the press. But it also makes a negotiated peace with Israel impossible.
That’s part of the reason why the PA squandered most of the 10-month settlement freeze put in place on the West Bank by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the request of US President Barack Obama, instead of entering into direct negotiations with Israel, and that is why it is now pursuing unilateral measures such as seeking a UN declaration of a Palestinian state.
Only if the PA, or some other more enlightened Palestinian leadership, utterly rejects terrorism, introduces true democratic reforms to Palestinian society, stops incitement against Israel and internalizes the right of the Jewish people to political autonomy and peace alongside a Palestinian state, will there be peace.
Until then, the hateful extremism which produced Wednesday’s bombing, and which continues to produce the ballistic assault emanating from Gaza, will preclude hope of a better future.