The U.S. State Department has released its annual report entitled \"Patterns of Global Terrorism.\" The report identifies seven countries as state sponsors of terrorism: Syria, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Cuba, Sudan and Libya.
In the section entitled \"Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip,\" the report appears to cleanse the PA of responsibility for terrorism. Noting that Israel has \"traditionally been one of the United States\' staunchest supporters in fighting terrorism,\" the report continues by praising PA groups: \"There is no known al-Qaida presence in the [autonomous areas], and Palestinian Authority Chairman Arafat forcefully denounced the September 11 attacks. Even Hamas publicly distanced itself from Usama Bin Ladin.\" The report does note attacks against Israel by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PFLP, and the Tanzim. However, IMRA \"www.imra.org.il\" notes that the last organization, \"responsible for the majority of terror attacks in the last period\" and directly controlled by Arafat, is described in the report only as \"small and loosely organized cells of militants drawn from the street-level membership of Fatah.\" The report also mentions favorably one of Arafat\'s cease-fire declarations.
IMRA also notes that the report leaves out the terror activities perpetrated by PA security forces themselves, as well as Arafat\'s calls and praise for terrorism. IMRA further notes that in the section on Egypt, the report does not even mention the \"terror underground tunnels highway\" from Egypt to the Gaza Strip that is the primary source of weapons and explosives in the Gaza Strip.
To add insult to injury, of the nearly 100 fatal terrorist attacks perpetrated against Israelis in 2001, the State Department\'s Chronology of Significant Terrorist Incidents \"http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/pgtrpt/2001/html/10250.htm\" includes only nine of them. Omitted from the list of \"significant\" attacks were such incidents as the purposeful bus crash into a bus stop south of Tel Aviv [Feb. 14; 8 killed]; the suicide bombing of a bus in Haifa [Dec. 2; 15 killed]; the massacre outside Emanuel [Dec. 12; 11 killed]; drive-by murders such as that of a young woman and her husband - Sharon and Yaniv Bar-Shalom - and her brother on the Modiin highway [Aug. 25]; and dozens of other murderous attacks that the State Department considers \"insignificant.\"