PA and Hamas: Two Sides of Same Coin

We have been led to believe by many that it is Hamas that is the forger of terror while the Palestinian Authority, led by Mahmoud Abbas, is more moderate and a seeker of peace.

And then we read the jaw-dropping propaganda of the PA's own newspaper glorifying the murderer of innocent teenagers in Jerusalem and calling him a Shahid, or a Holy Islamic Martyr.

From PMW Bulletin:

Mahmoud Abbas's official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper has honored the killer of the eight high school students gunned down this week with the status of Shahid - Holy Islamic Martyr. In so doing, the PA is sending its people a straightforward message of support for the terror murders and the murderer. According to the PA interpretation of Islam, there is no higher status that a human being can achieve today than that of Shahid.

The official PA daily Al Hayat Al Jadida prominently placed a picture of the killer 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 defined as a "Shahada achieving" action.

This honoring of terror and terrorists by the PA has significant financial ramifications, particularly at this time. Last week the US Administration sent a request to Congress to allocate $150 million to the Palestinian Authority. In response to earlier PMW reports on the widespread Palestinian honoring of terror, Congress made it illegal for the US to give money to entities that "advocate" terror, as follows:

"[The US] shall terminate assistance to any individual, entity... which she has determined to be involved in or advocating terrorist activity." Congress further legislated that "none of the [US] ... assistance under the West Bank and Gaza Program may be made available for the purpose of recognizing or otherwise honoring individuals who commit, or have committed acts of terrorism."

-2008 Foreign Operations Bill Sec. 657.B - C.1

Since a society's honoring of terrorists is one of the greatest terror promotions, and as the budget for the PA newspaper comes from the PA's general budget, the incessant honoring of this and all recent terrorists by Abbas's PA as Holy Islamic Shahids should render the Palestinian Authority ineligible to receive any American money under the terms of US law.

We shall see if the US has the guts to hold Abbas' feet to the fire when the organization he supposedly leads engages in this sort of pathetic blood worshiping. While Abbas condemned the shooting shortly after it occurred for the digestion of the west, as with many things Islamic, one public story is for our notice while another story is to be publicized elsewhere.

Sooner or later the buck has to stop with Abbas, which means that our dollars must stop short of Abbas.

We cannot afford to allow terror to perpetuate unmitigated while we support an apparatus that supports the terror.

h/t Little Green Footballs

UPDATE 10:31

PMW stands for Palestinian Media Watch.