Palestinians Slaughter Israeli Family in West Bank

Following the Sabbath, a family of five including three children aged 11, 3 and one month were stabbed to death inside their home in Itamar, a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

Although the Palestinian Authority has arrested three Hamas members in connection with the attack the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack. They are affiliated with the Fatah movement led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. For his part, Abbas has publicly condemned the attack as has P.A. Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn't letting Abbas, Fayyad and the Palestinian Authority off so easily. Netanyahu said, "A society that allows wild incitement like this, leads to the murder of children."

Uzi Landau, Israel's Minister of National Infrastructure, went a step further and held Abbas responsible for the attack. Landau said, "Behind the murderer of the family in Itamar stands Abu Mazen (Abbas), the "peace partner," who founded the official educational system in the Palestinian Authority, which teaches hatred of Jews and presents child killers as role models."

Back in October, Jonathan Chait of The New Republic described Abbas, Fayyad and the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank as "blessedly moderate." Here is what I wrote in response to Chait:

There is nothing either blessed or moderate about Mahmoud Abbas or Salam Fayyad.

If Abbas and Fayyad were "blessedly moderate" then they would not permit garbage like this to go over the airwaves of Palestinian Authority state run television suggesting "all mothers should sacrifice their child for Palestine."

There's something deeply wrong with Palestinian civil society when a mother's highest ambition for her child is that he become a martyr or a shahed instead of being a doctor or a lawyer.

Well, we have this blessed moderation to thank for the deaths of this Israeli family who were sleeping peacefully inside their homes. The day I believe that Abbas, Fayyad and the Palestinian Authority want to live peaceably with Israel is the day they take they remove all anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli imagery from their televisions, their schools and their mosques and replace them with messages of acceptance and respect of Jews and Israelis. Until that day, I strongly maintain that the Fatah run Palestinian Authority wants to destroy Israel every bit as much as Hamas does.