The United States State Department published its annual report on world terrorism this week (on May 21).
The central "conclusion" of the State Department document is that there is no hard evidence that the Palestinian Authority is involved in terror. Such a conclusion is equivalent to a statement in early 1945 that there is no hard evidence that Nazi Germany has been involved in murdering Jews.
The main goal of this report was to whitewash the role of the PLO in terror and to serve as a major instrument of disinformation, allowing the State Department to continue to pursue its agenda of coddling the PLO. The Americans are acting as Arafat's spin doctors in order to allow US President George Bush to pursue his goal of maintaining the facade of Arab support for his planned attack on Iraq. Bush and Powell know as well as you and I that the PLO is a terrorist organization no different from Al-Qaida - and no doubt with ties to that gang, as well.
This packet of lies comes out only weeks after an Israeli delegation presented to the Americans a dossier of documents and evidence proving that not only the Palestinian Authority, but its head, Yassir Arafat, has been directly responsible for, and have directly and personally ordered, mass terrorist atrocities. Those are in addition to countless earlier proofs. These include Arafat's Tanzim movement being ordered to conduct suicide bombings and other atrocities. They include Arafat's personal offices producing chemical weapons. They involve Arafat and his henchmen ordering the mass smuggling of illegal armaments and their deployment. They involve Arafat ordering rocket attacks on Jewish civilians. They involve Arafat personally ordering payments of rewards to the families of suicide bombers. They involve Arafat's own "police" placing bombs. They involve Arafat ordering shootings into Jerusalem civilian homes. They also involve the ties of Arafat and the PLO to the Hizbollah, to Iraq and to Iran.
The disinformation document goes on to whine about how Israel's defending itself has "damaged the ability of the PLO to fight against terror," and that is exactly as persuasive as a statement in 1944 that the bombings of Berlin have damaged Hitler's ability to put a stop to the Holocaust.
Let us note that the liars at the State Department are able to get away with this disinformation in part because they are backed up by similar liars and whitewash artists from the Israeli Left, led by Shimon Peres, the man who would not consider Arafat a terrorist if he saw Arafat with his own eyes setting off a bomb on a Jewish school bus.
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Steven Plaut teaches Business Administration at the University of Haifa.
The central "conclusion" of the State Department document is that there is no hard evidence that the Palestinian Authority is involved in terror. Such a conclusion is equivalent to a statement in early 1945 that there is no hard evidence that Nazi Germany has been involved in murdering Jews.
The main goal of this report was to whitewash the role of the PLO in terror and to serve as a major instrument of disinformation, allowing the State Department to continue to pursue its agenda of coddling the PLO. The Americans are acting as Arafat's spin doctors in order to allow US President George Bush to pursue his goal of maintaining the facade of Arab support for his planned attack on Iraq. Bush and Powell know as well as you and I that the PLO is a terrorist organization no different from Al-Qaida - and no doubt with ties to that gang, as well.
This packet of lies comes out only weeks after an Israeli delegation presented to the Americans a dossier of documents and evidence proving that not only the Palestinian Authority, but its head, Yassir Arafat, has been directly responsible for, and have directly and personally ordered, mass terrorist atrocities. Those are in addition to countless earlier proofs. These include Arafat's Tanzim movement being ordered to conduct suicide bombings and other atrocities. They include Arafat's personal offices producing chemical weapons. They involve Arafat and his henchmen ordering the mass smuggling of illegal armaments and their deployment. They involve Arafat ordering rocket attacks on Jewish civilians. They involve Arafat personally ordering payments of rewards to the families of suicide bombers. They involve Arafat's own "police" placing bombs. They involve Arafat ordering shootings into Jerusalem civilian homes. They also involve the ties of Arafat and the PLO to the Hizbollah, to Iraq and to Iran.
The disinformation document goes on to whine about how Israel's defending itself has "damaged the ability of the PLO to fight against terror," and that is exactly as persuasive as a statement in 1944 that the bombings of Berlin have damaged Hitler's ability to put a stop to the Holocaust.
Let us note that the liars at the State Department are able to get away with this disinformation in part because they are backed up by similar liars and whitewash artists from the Israeli Left, led by Shimon Peres, the man who would not consider Arafat a terrorist if he saw Arafat with his own eyes setting off a bomb on a Jewish school bus.
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Steven Plaut teaches Business Administration at the University of Haifa.