Stardate 20020519.2242

(On Screen): So we're back to business as usual in Israel. Maybe. A suicide bombing yesterday killed two Israelis and wounded perhaps 35, and another bomber was intercepted today by Israeli police and blew himself up, causing no other casualties.

And right on schedule, the Palestinian Authority condemned the bombing, something they've done dozens of times before, and something which will make just as much difference this time as it always has before i.e. none at all.

A member of the Palestinian Parliament has played the "moral equivalence" card:

But one prominent member of the Palestinian parliament, Hanan Ashrawi, compared the bombing in Netanya to Israeli army attacks.

"On our side, the people who do it are people who are individuals or small groups who are driven to desperation and anger by the Israeli activities, whereas when Israel does it, it does it as a matter of policy," she told the BBC.

"We don't see the same horror as the result of the massive killing of thousands of Palestinians."

The "individuals or small groups" to which she refers are the PFLP and Hamas, both of which are large and well organized and well financed. But she's trying to claim that suicide bombings aimed directly at Israeli civilians going about their everyday lives is the same as Israeli military operations which are directly targeted at Palestinian militants who actively plan attacks against Israel.

There is evidently no difference at all between arresting and deporting top officials of al Aqsa Brigade and breaking into a five year old girl's bedroom and blowing her brains out as she slept.

And then there's Ashrawi's last statement. One good reason we're not seeing horror about "massive killing of thousands of Palestinians" is that there haven't been "massive killings of thousands of Palestinians."

What there have been are inept attempts by the Palestinians to fool the world into thinking there were such massacres in Jenin even though there weren't any. What she's really bitching about is that we refuse to be gullible and to swallow Palestinian fabrications and propaganda.

I've reached the point where I assume that anything that any high ranking Palestinian says is a lie unless I see independent evidence supporting it. Ms. Ashrawi has not convinced me to change that policy.