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PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' (above) condemnation of Netanya attack: "A crime against Palestinian people" (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners July 13, 2005 |
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PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas ignored the Islamic Jihad terror attack on Shavei Shomron and condemned the Netanya attack, but only because it "worked against Palestinian interests". The U.S. and EU condemned both attacks, but downplayed the fact that they represent a major breach of the PA's road map requirements, and still expect Israel to move forward with the disengagement. And BBC reports seem to suggest that it's only "terror" when it happens in London.
According to a report in the Associated Press (AP) Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas condemned the Islamic Jihad suicide bombing that killed four Israeli women in Netanya "using unusually strong language".
Abbas said, "We condemn this terrorist attack. It's a crime against the Palestinian people," and afterwards denied that the attack had been committed by Islamic Jihad (which claimed credit).
Abbas didn't even mention of the terror attack of 40 minutes earlier, when a bomber in a stolen Israeli car packed with gas canisters and shrapnel exploded prematurely next to a kindergarten in the Samarian settlement of Shavei Shomron, seriously wounding himself, exclusively. Apparently attacks on civilians in a Jewish settlement is no crime and not worthy of condemnation.
In the meantime, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice offered condolences to relatives of the victims of the bombings. She said the attack "demonstrates that there will always be terrorists who are determined to try and frustrate the hopes of people everywhere for peace." Despite the warmth of her gesture, the U.S. went ahead and "advised" Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to "move ahead" toward establishing a Palestinian state which experts expect will be led in large measure by Islamic terror groups.
Although he also condemned the attack, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Israel's immediate focus should be withdrawal from Gaza and part of the West Bank, as Sharon has pledged to do later this summer.
Evidently concerned that Sharon might stop at that point because Palestinian leaders have not dismantled terror groups, Casey said, "Obviously, that progress would have to continue, and ultimately we want to see the president's (Bush's) vision of two states living side by side in peace achieved".
And while he affirmed Israel's right to self-defense, he appeared to caution Israel about any retaliation. "We ask them to consider the consequences of any actions they might take," he said.
Visiting European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana congratulated Palestinian officials' condemnation of the suicide bombing, but did day it wasn't quite enough.
"I am very pleased to see the (Palestinian) president and prime minister have condemned this terror act, but I think that the condemnation will not be enough, there has to be an action and I think somebody has to be arrested," Solana told reporters after a meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia in Ramallah.
Unlike their coverage of the terror attacks in London, which actually utilized the word "terror" several times, in the BBC coverage of the terror attack in Netanya, the word mysteriously disappeared. "Bomber strikes Israeli coast town," read the BBC's headline.
In a separate article published on the same day (July 12) BBC, "Press anger over Israel attack" the BBC wrote that, "newspapers in both Israel and the Palestinian territories condemn the suicide attack in Netanya"
Conspicuously absent was the word terror used by the BBC when suicide bombers attacked civilians in London.
Palestinian newspapers criticized only the tactics of the attacks. "The operation was wrong in place and time and has turned us into hostages to the Israeli pursuit of Islamic Jihad. Both sides fail to acknowledge the lull and continue to fight a mini war. Days after the London bombings, this serves to give Israel an additional victory in the media which could enable it to cover up its settlement activity," opined the Palestinian Al-Hayat al-Jadidah.
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