October 15, 2006: 3rd Anniversary of the Murder of 3 Americans by Palestinian Terrorists

Three years later, and nothing has been done about it.

Jeff Jacoby reported at the time:

THREE AMERICANS -- John Branchizio, Mark Parson, and John Martin Linde -- were murdered last Wednesday when terrorists in Gaza bombed the diplomatic convoy they were riding in. News accounts immediately described the attack as a first -- "an unprecedented deadly attack on a US target in the Palestinian territories," to quote the Associated Press. But Branchizio, Parson, and Linde were not the first Americans to be murdered by Palestinian terrorists. They were the 49th, 50th, and 51st in the past 10 years alone.

But instead, the murders were downplayed:

USA Today's Arieh O'Sullivan claimed that “the killings reflected a potentially dangerous new escalation in a conflict that for the past half-century has largely treated U.S. officials as bystanders. Terrorist Palestinian groups have generally avoided attacks on U.S. officials.”

The New York Times’ John F. Burns reported that “the bombing was the first fatal attack on an official American target since the current Palestinian uprising began three years ago .... In decades of conflict, attacks on American officials in Israel and the Palestinian territories have been almost unknown, notwithstanding Palestinian militants’anger at American support for Israel.”

Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, and Washington Times’ coverage was similar.

According to CAMERA, these are not the first American officials to be murdered by Palestinian Arabs:

On March 3, 1973, “Black September Organization” gunmen acting for Yasir Arafat's Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization kidnapped and later murdered U.S. Ambassador to Sudan Cleo A. Noel Jr., U.S. diplomat George C. Moore, and a Belgian colleague. Some reports state that National Security Administration communication intercepts show that Arafat approved the kidnapping and the murders (Inside the PLO by Livingstone and Halevy, p. 280; Wall Street Journal, Ion Mihai Pacepa, Jan. 10, 2002)

On Jan. 1, 1977, gunmen reportedly part of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, another P.L.O. faction, kidnapped and murdered U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Frances E. Meloy and U.S. diplomat Robert O. Waring in Beirut.

In addition to U.S. officials, approximately 103 American citizens have been killed, 119 wounded, by Palestinian terrorists in Israel and the disputed territories since 1968. At least 39 have been murdered since the Palestinians rejected the U.S.-Israeli offer of a West Bank and Gaza Strip state and launched the current terror war three years ago. Although many of these victims were not targeted for being Americans, reports stating that the three security guards murdered on October 15 are the first Americans killed by Palestinian terrorists, either following September 29, 2000, or before, are simply wrong.

The Republican Study Committee on December 10, 2003 published a detailed list of American Citizens Killed or Injured by Palestinian Terrorists, stating:

Since Yasser Arafat “renounced” violence in the Oslo Peace Accords on September 13, 1993, at least 52 American citizens, including women and children, have been murdered by Palestinian terrorists, and at least another 83 Americans have been injured.

Matthew Levitt, a senior fellow in terrorism studies at The Washington Institute, wrote on the same day as the murders that other Western diplomats have been targeted by Palestinian terrorists:

there is precedent for Palestinian groups attacking convoys of Western diplomats traveling in Gaza and the West Bank. On December 21, 2002, a Palestinian gunman fired on a German diplomatic vehicle at close range as it drove through Jenin. Similar incidents occurred in February 2001 and November 2002, when Palestinian gunmen fired on Canadian and Danish diplomatic vehicles, respectively.

Levitt specifies cases of anti-American rhetoric and attacks by various Palestinian terrorist groups--

On December 17, 2002, Hamas and Palestinian Islamist Jihad joined together in declaring that "Americans are the enemies of the Palestinian people . . . [and] a target for future attacks." The very next day Hamas declared that "Americans [are] now considered legitimate targets as well as Israelis." In June 2002, there was a chat-room discussion on an official Hamas website considering various options for killing Americans either in Israel or Gaza.

On March 26, 2002, members of Palestinian Islamist Jihad (PIJ) attacked the members of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH). They murdered two observers--Jinjis Twintuk of Turkey and Catherine Broyikes of Switzerland--and injured Hussein Asraslan of Turkey. Two members of PIJ were formally charged with executing the attack, and according to the indictment the terrorists fired at the observers' car even though they identified themselves as TIPH representatives.

When members of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades swore to avenge the arrest of Fatah and al-Aqsa leader Marwan Barghouti, a senior leader of al-Aqsa declared in late April 2002, "Now, American targets are the same as Israeli targets." A month later, on May 1, 2002, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) took credit for detonating a bomb in the garden of the British Council in Gaza City. They claimed it was in retaliantion for the transfer of five PFLP terrorists and a PA official to a Jericho jail where U.S. and British civilian observers were stationed to verify their confinement.

Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch notes anti-American rhetoric in the PA-controlled media leading up to the October 15 murders:

A recent sermon on official PA TV described the US as "the foremost enemy of the Muslim nation" and compared it to Pharaoh of the Bible saying: "There is no God besides me." [PA TV February 21, 2003]

This past Friday, the PA sermon broadcast on official PA TV included the following threats and warnings to the US: "We hear statements by the little American President, oppressive statements. He says Israel has the right to defend itself... These statements carry destruction for America itself... This president sees himself like one who has ascended to the mountaintop and like one expecting someone to push him so that he falls into the abyss, he and his people with him. We warn the American people that this president is dragging them to the abyss... [Allah] take vengeance on Your enemies, our enemies, enemies of religion." [PA TV Sheikh Ibrahim Madiras, Oct. 10, 2003]

A recent sermon on official PA TV told Muslim believers to anticipate the destruction of the US:

"If we go back 1400 years in time, we find that history is repeating itself, worshippers of Allah. The Prophet Mohammed was besieged by two powers, Persia in the east and Rome in the west. These represent the Soviet Union and America of today. Persia represents Russia in the east, and America stands for Rome in the west. Persia fell first in the east, just as Russia fell first in the east, and America will fall, may it be Allah's will, just as Rome fell..." [Official Sermon PA TV, September 5,2003,Sheikh Ibrahim Madiras.]

Clearly, the American diplomats were murdered today by Palestinians fulfilling their role in their war against Americans, as they have been taught by their leaders, through years of hate-mongering and calls for violence against Americans.

In response, the US has done nothing substansive or even symbolic.

Arutz Sheva reported on April 14, 2006:

The United States has enabled the PLO office in Washington to stay open despite the Hamas terrorist group’s rise to power. The US Ambassador to the UN, however, blocked an anti-Israel proposal.

A six-month waiver was enacted by the Bush administration Thursday allowing the PLO’s Washington office to stay open despite the fact that the movement’s Fatah group is responsible for dozens of terrorist attacks and attempts a week in Israel.

That Thursday was April 13. That means the 6-month waiver should be expiring any day now.
Bush will probably sign the waiver again--and it will be the closest thing we have to an American response to the Palestinian murder of Americans.

Crossposted at Israpundit

Technorati Tag: US and Terrorists and Palestinians.