October 15: 4th Anniversary Of The Murder of 3 Americans By Palestinian Terrorists

Jeff Jacoby wrote in The Boston Globe 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 U.S. 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.

The fact that the Palestinian terrorists who murdered the 3 Americans have never been brought to justice indicates how unwilling the US is to pursue the murderers at the expense of burdening the Palestinian leadership.

Keep in mind that World Net Daily reported in 2004:

Musa Arafat, the head of PA military intelligence and a cousin of Yasser Arafat, said, "The Palestinian security forces know who was behind the killing of three Americans in Gaza nearly a year ago, but cannot act against the factions while the fighting with Israel continues."

And the US seems willing to accept that. Apparently the US puts as little value to the lives of those murdered Americans as it does to the survival of Israel--such is what America's involvement in the conflict has come to.

Meanwhile, on October 11, instead of renewing efforts to pursue the killers, President Bush sent a very different message by following the same ritual he has followed every 6 months ever since he took office, signing a waiver of the bill requiring the closing of the PLO office:

Pursuant to the authority and conditions contained in section 534(d) of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2006, Public Law 109 102, as carried forward by the Revised Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2007, Public Law 110-5, and the Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2008, Public Law 110-92, I hereby determine and certify that it is important to the national security interests of the United States to waive the provisions of section 1003 of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987, Public Law 100-204. [emphasis added]

The stagnation is contagious. H.R. 2293, which would "require the Secretary of State to submit to Congress a report on efforts to bring to justice the Palestinian terrorists who killed John Branchizio, Mark Parson, and John Marin Linde" has not had any progress since July:

	Introduced	May 14, 2007
	Scheduled for Debate	Jun 26, 2007
	Passed House [details]	Jul 16, 2007
	Voted on in Senate	-
	Signed by President

And next month there is supposed to be a meeting to push forward the creation of a Palestinian state without requiring the end of terrorism first.

The message is clear: both American and Israeli lives are cheap.

Technorati Tag: John Branchizio and Mark Parson and John Martin Linde.