Bush Blames Palestinian Authorities (for Gaza bombing of American diplomatic convoy)

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE - President Bush blamed Palestinian authorities Wednesday for the deaths of Americans in an attack in Gaza, saying their failure to create terrorist-fighting security forces "continues to cost lives."

"Palestinian authorities should have acted long ago to fight terror in all its forms," the president said in a written statement as he flew to California for an overnight visit en route to Asia.

Bush said he condemned the attack in the strongest terms and that the United States was working with authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Putting the blame squarely on the Palestinian leadership, Bush said, "The failure to create effective Palestinian security forces dedicated to fighting terror continues to cost lives. There must be an empowered prime minister who contols all Palestinian forces - reforms that continue to be blocked by Yasser Arafat."

"The failure to undertake these reforms and dismantle the terrorist organizations constitutes the greatest obstacle to achieving the Palestinian people's dream of statehood," Bush said.

He said the Americans who were attacked were in Gaza to help build a better future for Palestinians.

"The U.S. embassy officials traveling in Gaza were there to interview young Palestinian candidates seeking Fulbright scholarships to study in the United States," Bush said. "This is another example of how the terrorists are enemies of progress and opportunity for the Palestinian people."

Bush was notified of the attack in a telephone call by National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice before he left the White House.

An FBI legal attache is investigating the bombing, which killed three Americans. It was the first attack on a U.S. target in three years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.

The FBI's legal attache from Tel Aviv went to the bombing site and is working with Palestinian and Israeli authorities, said FBI spokesman Ed Cogswell in Washington.

The FBI has not yet determined yet whether more agents will be sent, but in the past it has taken a major role in overseas violence in which Americans are killed.

The bomb exploded under a U.S. diplomatic convoy, ripping apart an armored van in an unprecedented attack on an official U.S. target. There was no claim of responsibility for the bombing.

While targeting Israeli soldiers and civilians for years, groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad repeatedly insist they do not target U.S. officials - apparently to avoid a harsh retribution from the Americans and the anger of Palestinian officials trying to work with Washington.

The bombing, which also wounded a fourth American, will likely intensify U.S. pressure on the Palestinian Authority to take action against militant groups. Arafat, whom Bush has tried to sideline in favor of other leaders, condemned the attack as an "awful crime." Arafat said he ordered an investigation.

The explosion, detonated by a remote-controlled explosive device, occurred as the second vehicle of a three-car convoy had just cleared a checkpoint and entered Gaza, said State Department spokeswoman Brooke Summers.

The three persons who died were security personnel accompanying diplomats from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, who were heading to interview Palestinian candidates for Fulbright scholarships, she said.

The U.S. Embassy advised U.S. citizens to leave the Gaza Strip after the attack.

State Department officials said they were asking the Israeli government to help evacuate any American wishing to leave the Gaza Strip. The department also is urging all American citizens on the West Bank to take all available precautions against possible attacks.

On the Palistinian street, the word will spread that it was actually an Israeli plot to undermine the Palistinians (just like 9/11).

From IslamOnline.net:

Palestinian Factions Disclaim Gaza Blast

"Islamic Jihad always keen not to turn the Palestinian resistance against foreign targets," said Al-Batsh

By Mohamed Yaseen, IOL Correspondent

GAZA, October 15 (IslamOnline.net) – Palestinian factions immediately disclaimed responsibility for the road-side bombing attack on a U.S. diplomatic convoy that left at least three Americans dead in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, October 15.

Sheikh Adnan Asfour of the movement Hamas said the group's "unwavering position is against broadening the cycle of conflict or taking it outside the Palestinian territories.

"Resistance well understands that its main enemy is the one that had occupied Palestinian territories and killed Palestinians," he told IslamOnline.net.

Asfour said Palestinian attacks are meant to end Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and create the long-coveted Palestinian state with the holy city of Al-Quds as its capital.

But he accused the U.S. of being biased towards Israel, citing Washington's use of its veto power to kill a U.N. Security Council draft condemning Israel for the construction of its separation wall, which snakes through the Palestinian territories in the West Bank.

But the leading Hamas leader did not rule out the attack against the American convoy might have been "sparked up by the Washington's action in the world body".

The move was the second by Washington in less than one month, after it had vetoed an Arab-driven resolution condemning Israel for its decision to expel Palestinian President Yasser Arafat last month.

No Interests

For its part, the Islamic Jihad resistance movement said it had no interests to carry out the bombing attack against the American convoy.

"The group is always keen not to switch the Palestinian resistance against foreign targets," said the group's leading figure Khaled Al-Batsh.

Speaking to IOL, he set it as plain that "our main enemy is the one who had usurped our land and killed our children."

The Jihad leader pointed a finger of accusation at the Israeli occupation forces "which might have planted the landmine which caused the blast during their daily incursions in the Gaza Strip".

Nine Palestinians were killed, including two children and two teenagers, and about 80 injured during an earlier Israeli operation in Rafah in southern Gaza Strip that began on Thursday, October 9.

Israeli occupation forces also Pushed some 40 tanks and bulldozers backed by helicopter gunships in a new incursion into Rafah refugee camp on Tuesday.

"Although we realize that the Israeli aggressions are blessed by the U.S., we are against the Wednesday bombing," asserted Khedr Habib, another Jihad figure.

"The explosion might have been meant to target an Israeli security team, and if the attackers had known the vehicle carried Americans, they might have changed their minds," he said.

Habib said his group is not of the opinion to target Americans, despite the anti-American sentiments sprouting up among Palestinians jeering at its support for Israel.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigares, the armed wing of Fatah movement, also rejected the attack in a statement carried by al-Jazeera.

"The U.S. embassy officials traveling in Gaza were there to interview young Palestinian candidates seeking Fulbright scholarships to study in the United States"

“The demand side for terrorists must be considered as well as the supply side. Terrorist organizations may prefer highly educated individuals over less educated ones, even for homicide suicide bomb attacks. In addition, educated, middle or upper class individuals are better suited to carry out acts of international terrorism than are impoverished illiterates because the terrorists must fit into a foreign environment to be successful. This consideration suggests that terrorists who threaten economically developed countries will disproportionately be drawn from the ranks of the relatively well off and highly educated.

---- EDUCATION, POVERTY, POLITICAL VIOLENCE AND TERRORISM: IS THERE A CAUSAL CONNECTION? Alan B. Krueger and Jitka Maleckova, Working Paper 9074 (http://www.nber.org/papers/w9074) July 2002.

Our Department of State: educating terrorists for a more violent tomorrow.

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