Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud AbbasReuters

Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, Itamar Marcus, said in an interview with Arutz Sheva that the Arab terror campaign and incitement that began over three months ago in Israel can easily be stopped by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas.

Instead of pretending that Abbas is weak and ill equipped to run his own people, Israel must force his hand to stop the terrorists, said Marcus.

"This whole thing began with the Palestinian Authority. We’ve documented that there were dozens of hate campaigns, and a spike in incitement during the month of September. There was a poll that was conducted at the end of September that said that 50% of the Palestinians believed that Israel was going to destroy the Al Aqsa mosque, and the word went out through the Palestinian media." 

With a three month wave of terror which began in October, the PA has given their full support to terrorists, and continues to pay them salaries even if they end up in Israeli prisons. "The way that the PA glorifies the terrorists, makes everyone try to jump on the bandwagon and become a Palestinian hero," said Marcus.

"The incitement and the glorification of the terrorists is what started this and is keeping it going. The Palestinian social media went viral from private sources including videos explaining how to kill people." 

But the wave of terror is stoppable, he says, and it is stoppable at its source: Abbas.

"The international as well as the Israeli community has to isolate Abbas, punish him financially, and speak out against him. Abbas can stop this in a moment," Marcus added.  

One of the issues is that the Palestinians are prevented from dissenting and have no freedom of speech. They need to follow the party's agenda or face prison, if not worse. "There is no freedom of the press in the PA. When bloggers post insults about Abbas they are arrested."

Marcus believes that if Abbas wanted to stop this wave of terror, he could. "He could condemn the terror, that would be a good first step. He has not condemned even one attack, and the people around him have glorified the terrorists. The media is calling them heroes. The PA is calling those killed terrorists 'Shaheed' (martyrs). Meaning that this is what Allah wanted them to do. To kill Jews. The PA is actively promoting the violence even today. If Abbas wanted to stop it he would condemn it, he would send out instructions not to arm or help terrorists, not to praise them, and certainly not to pay them salaries."

Marcus says that the way the Israeli government and media are also to blame because of the way they are handling things. "If the Israeli government demanded on an international level, every day, that Abbas must condemn the terror attacks, and that they must cease to pay salaries of terrorists, maybe something would happen. But as long as Abbas is paying salaries to anyone in jail he is obviously not against it."

"The problem with Israel, is that we haven’t even made that demand yet. We should be posing sanctions, but instead we haven’t even made demands."

According to Marcus, the Israeli government needs to make that statement loud and clear.

Marcus is originally from New York; today he lives in Efrat in Judea.