American-Israeli relations expert Yoram Ettinger, a former Congressional liaison in Israel's Washington embassy, says the Palestinian Authority has always taken a pro-terror slant - in opposition to U.S. policy and interests.
In the latest edition of his "From the Jerusalem Cloakroom" newsletter, Ettinger continues what sometimes appears to be a one-man crusade against the creation of a Palestinian state. His latest theme is that the PA openly supports Moslem terrorism and incitement, in opposition to US policy and interests.
The newsletter has dealt with the issue of a Palestinian state of late, in anticipation of the Middle East conference scheduled for next month outside Washington at which U.S. President Bush hopes to make such a state a reality.
Ettinger directly and sharply targets Palestinian Authority/Fatah chairman Mahmoud Abbas, known in terrorist circles as Abu Mazen, and the entity he governs. "Abu Mazen's PA/PLO," Ettinger writes, "has been a systematic ally of Bin-Laden, Saddam [Hussein], Iran, North Korea, China and Russia. It has been a deadly threat to the Hashemites [of Jordan] and moderate Gulf regimes."
Furthermore, Ettinger charges, the PA has been "a role-model of inter-Arab treachery, hate-education, terrorism, homicide and car bombing, hijacking and murder of diplomats (e.g., murdered US ambassadors in Sudan), human rights violation, oppression of Christian Arabs and corruption. PLO mentors were allies of the Nazis and of the ruthless communist regimes in Moscow and Eastern Europe."
Ettinger, who still serves intermittently as an Israeli government consultant, cites cartoons recently published in the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida that honor the perpetrator of 9/11, Osama Bin-Laden, even as the US continues to mourn the nearly 3,000 victims of those attacks. The cartoons "echo sermons and text books in Abu Mazen’s controlled mosques and schools," Ettinger notes.
Palestinian terrorists fought US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past, Ettinger said, and if they are granted a state, will simply provide an east Mediterranean platform to US enemies and will add yet another anti-US vote at the United Nations.
