Dennis Ross, who served until last year as the American mediator in the Middle East, blamed official Arab media incitement for the wave of terrorism. Some samples of this incitement:
Excerpts from the Friday sermon delivered by the PA-appointed \"Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine\" Sheikh Ekrima Sabri at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount on July 11, 1997, broadcast over Voice of Palestine radio:
\"Oh Allah, destroy America, for she is ruled by Zionist Jews... Allah will paint the White House black! ... The Muslims say to Britain, to France and to all the infidel nations that Jerusalem is Arab. We shall not respect anyone else\'s wishes regarding her. The only relevant party is the Islamic nation, which will not allow infidel nations to interfere... Allah shall take revenge on behalf of his prophet against the colonialist settlers who are sons of monkeys and pigs...\"
Palestinian Media Watch (pmw@netvision.net.il) reports that Arafat\'s denunciation of the attacks is in direct contradiction to the atmosphere of hatred he has been promoting through his tightly controlled media. Tuesday\'s edition of the official PA paper Al Hayat Al Jadida wrote,
\"The suicide bombers of today are the noble successors of their noble predecessors... the Lebanese suicide bombers, who taught the US Marines a tough lesson in [Lebanon]... These suicide bombers are the salt of the earth, the engines of history...They are the most honorable among us...\"
Hafez Barghouti, Editor-in-Chief of the official PA daily, wrote on Aug. 29 of this year:
\"…The writers Charles Krauthammer, William Safire and Michael Malley try to portray us as if we are threatening New York and as if fighting us is an American need and that a good Palestinian is like a good Indian - dead. This is the culture of the Zionist Lobby that rules even over the bedrooms of the senior Members of Congress and the White House. It whips them in the morning and evening lest they awaken from their servitude... And the last to judge us in this area is the pathetic scoundrel Thomas Friedman who called upon NATO to conquer the [West] Bank and Gaza in order to protect his beloved Israel.
\"These examples of beastly writings which surpass Nazism, require that their authors be tried in an international court, for they are considered inciters who have committed crimes against humanity....\"
\"Saher Habash, a member of the central committee of [Yasser Arafat\'s] Fatah, ... expressed his hope that the Arab and Islamic world will act against America and Israel... Habash demanded to strike and to threaten the American interests in the Arab world...\" [Meeting with journalists in El Birah, Al-Quds, Aug. 30, 2001]
\"[Maher Taher] a member of the political bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ... said, \'We say to the Arab nation: Hit American interests and threaten them. The United States is a fundamental enemy…\' He asked the Arab countries to take a clear and strict position towards the US, which is the a fundamental enemy of the Palestinian people and the Arab Nation.\"[Al Hayat Al Jadida Aug. 28, 2001]
Excerpts from the Friday sermon delivered by the PA-appointed \"Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine\" Sheikh Ekrima Sabri at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount on July 11, 1997, broadcast over Voice of Palestine radio:
\"Oh Allah, destroy America, for she is ruled by Zionist Jews... Allah will paint the White House black! ... The Muslims say to Britain, to France and to all the infidel nations that Jerusalem is Arab. We shall not respect anyone else\'s wishes regarding her. The only relevant party is the Islamic nation, which will not allow infidel nations to interfere... Allah shall take revenge on behalf of his prophet against the colonialist settlers who are sons of monkeys and pigs...\"
Palestinian Media Watch (pmw@netvision.net.il) reports that Arafat\'s denunciation of the attacks is in direct contradiction to the atmosphere of hatred he has been promoting through his tightly controlled media. Tuesday\'s edition of the official PA paper Al Hayat Al Jadida wrote,
\"The suicide bombers of today are the noble successors of their noble predecessors... the Lebanese suicide bombers, who taught the US Marines a tough lesson in [Lebanon]... These suicide bombers are the salt of the earth, the engines of history...They are the most honorable among us...\"
Hafez Barghouti, Editor-in-Chief of the official PA daily, wrote on Aug. 29 of this year:
\"…The writers Charles Krauthammer, William Safire and Michael Malley try to portray us as if we are threatening New York and as if fighting us is an American need and that a good Palestinian is like a good Indian - dead. This is the culture of the Zionist Lobby that rules even over the bedrooms of the senior Members of Congress and the White House. It whips them in the morning and evening lest they awaken from their servitude... And the last to judge us in this area is the pathetic scoundrel Thomas Friedman who called upon NATO to conquer the [West] Bank and Gaza in order to protect his beloved Israel.
\"These examples of beastly writings which surpass Nazism, require that their authors be tried in an international court, for they are considered inciters who have committed crimes against humanity....\"
\"Saher Habash, a member of the central committee of [Yasser Arafat\'s] Fatah, ... expressed his hope that the Arab and Islamic world will act against America and Israel... Habash demanded to strike and to threaten the American interests in the Arab world...\" [Meeting with journalists in El Birah, Al-Quds, Aug. 30, 2001]
\"[Maher Taher] a member of the political bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ... said, \'We say to the Arab nation: Hit American interests and threaten them. The United States is a fundamental enemy…\' He asked the Arab countries to take a clear and strict position towards the US, which is the a fundamental enemy of the Palestinian people and the Arab Nation.\"[Al Hayat Al Jadida Aug. 28, 2001]