At today\'s Cabinet meeting, Defense Minister Ben-Eliezer said that there had been a \"toning down\" of the PA media\'s incitement today. Prime Minister Sharon said that Arafat\'s ceasefire announcement and any toning-down of incitement are just \"tactics\" by Arafat, in fear of an Israeli military response. Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch discussed with Arutz-7 today whether there has been a noticeable change in Palestinian broadcasts:
\"This morning, Friday\'s terrorist attack was condemned. But regarding incitement, hate songs are still being broadcast on TV, calling for martyrdom and hitting the \'Zionist enemy.\' Even more significant, though, is the fact that in the official PA newspaper, Al Hayat al-Jadida, the first page mentions Arafat\'s call for a ceasefire - flavored with an attack on Ariel Sharon for violating his own self-proclaimed ceasefire - but then on the second page, there is an ad from the \"National and Islamic Forces\" This is the name of the umbrella organization of Fatah, Hamas, Force 17, etc., and its ad says that the intifada will \"continue until victory,\" \"Long live the intifada,\" and the like... In short, on the first page you have Arafat telling the whole world that he has ordered a ceasefire, but on the second page of the official PA organ - in which everything is published only with Arafat\'s approval - you have everything continuing as usual, with the same militant calls for the continuation of the intifada and the like...\"
Marcus also noted the significance of the an attack on new Russian immigrants to Israel:
\"The topic of Russian immigration to Israel is something that greatly occupies Palestinian attention. This is because the Arabs have a demographic plan to, within a few decades, outnumber the Jewish population, based on simple calculations of their much higher birthrate than the Jews. But they feel that the immigration from other countries will mess up their plans. In an article in the official Al Hayat al-Jadida a few months ago, a clear call for terrorist attacks against the Russian immigrants was published: \'We must choose targets that will cause them death and fear... that will lose them sleep and give them all sorts of torture. We long for the tears of the prostitutes of Tel Aviv who came from Russia and elsewhere, and that their mothers\' hearts will burn... We must transfer the war to the lands of the enemy - if we may use this phrase, with the knowledge that all of Palestine is conquered, and the time has come for us to wake up and fight them on every centimeter - let\'s move the fight to the land that has been conquered since 1948.\" Marcus concluded that Friday night\'s attack shows that the Palestinians were quite serious in their threats.
\"This morning, Friday\'s terrorist attack was condemned. But regarding incitement, hate songs are still being broadcast on TV, calling for martyrdom and hitting the \'Zionist enemy.\' Even more significant, though, is the fact that in the official PA newspaper, Al Hayat al-Jadida, the first page mentions Arafat\'s call for a ceasefire - flavored with an attack on Ariel Sharon for violating his own self-proclaimed ceasefire - but then on the second page, there is an ad from the \"National and Islamic Forces\" This is the name of the umbrella organization of Fatah, Hamas, Force 17, etc., and its ad says that the intifada will \"continue until victory,\" \"Long live the intifada,\" and the like... In short, on the first page you have Arafat telling the whole world that he has ordered a ceasefire, but on the second page of the official PA organ - in which everything is published only with Arafat\'s approval - you have everything continuing as usual, with the same militant calls for the continuation of the intifada and the like...\"
Marcus also noted the significance of the an attack on new Russian immigrants to Israel:
\"The topic of Russian immigration to Israel is something that greatly occupies Palestinian attention. This is because the Arabs have a demographic plan to, within a few decades, outnumber the Jewish population, based on simple calculations of their much higher birthrate than the Jews. But they feel that the immigration from other countries will mess up their plans. In an article in the official Al Hayat al-Jadida a few months ago, a clear call for terrorist attacks against the Russian immigrants was published: \'We must choose targets that will cause them death and fear... that will lose them sleep and give them all sorts of torture. We long for the tears of the prostitutes of Tel Aviv who came from Russia and elsewhere, and that their mothers\' hearts will burn... We must transfer the war to the lands of the enemy - if we may use this phrase, with the knowledge that all of Palestine is conquered, and the time has come for us to wake up and fight them on every centimeter - let\'s move the fight to the land that has been conquered since 1948.\" Marcus concluded that Friday night\'s attack shows that the Palestinians were quite serious in their threats.