As the Palestinians dropped in their perfidious condemnation of the Sinai bombings, Khaled Abu Tomeah of the Jerusalem Post gets the reaction from the street.
In Ramallah, many Palestinians on Saturday expressed support for the attacks in Sinai, which they said, were a "natural response to Israel's crimes in the Gaza Strip." "The Israelis deserve what happened to them," said Bassam Abu Halaweh, a taxi driver. "In the last two weeks Israel killed about 100 Palestinians. It was clear that there would be some kind of retaliation."
Maha Odeh, a secretary for a local law firm, said she was "delighted" when she heard about the bombings.
"I don't know any Palestinian who is sad on a day like this," she added. "We hope that Israel and the US, which is perpetrating daily massacres against the Iraqi people, will learn the lesson and stop the killings."
In the nearby town of Bir Zeit, several shopkeepers blamed Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for the Sinai bombings. "Sharon is responsible for the bloodshed because of what he's doing in the Gaza Strip," said Hassan Khalil, who works in a grocery.
Fayez Ibrahim, a student at Bir Zeit University, said he and many of his colleagues were hoping that there would be more attacks like the ones in Sinai. "We want to see such attacks in the heart of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv," he said.
Other Palestinians told the Post that they did not rule out the possibility that Israel was behind the bombings. "I think the Israeli government is behind the attacks in Taba in order to drive a wedge between the Palestinians and Egypt and show the world that we are terrorists," said Abu Haitham, a teacher at an UNRWA school. "Sharon is the only one who benefits from such attacks, which provide him with an excuse to escalate his aggression on our people."
At a Hamas rally in Nablus on Friday, hundreds of Palestinians expressed support for the bombings and called for stepping up Kassam rocket attacks on Israel.
Addressing the crowd, local Hamas leader Sheikh Maher al-Karaz said: "We welcome the attack on the Taba (Hilton) Hotel. Sharon has been boasting that he is killing our women and children, but he does not know that the (armed wing of Hamas) Izzaddin Kassam Brigades are ready to teach him and his army a painful lesson.
"The suicide bombers of Hamas and the Palestinian people are waiting for him. The Palestinians won't succumb and the resistance will continue as long as there are young men and women determined to sacrifice their lives for the homeland. Our motto is, an eye for an eye, blood for blood, and a building for a building."
Yes Michael Tarazi, a one state solution will work out just fine...
Until Israel launches total war against palestinian terror, attacks like Taba will continue. But, of course, Israel is always hindered by terror-appeasers in the UN and even it's own government! Israel MUST confront and eliminate terror, not react to it! This will upset the palestinian flag-wavers the world over, but it must be done for Israel to be safe. Israel must launch massive (and when I mean massive, I mean the callup of nearly all reservists) offensive maneuvers against palestinian, Egyptian, Lebanese, Iranian, and Syrian terror groups and sponsors.
Posted by: Rob | October 12, 2004 at 07:10