06/19/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09954

TERRORIST BOMBS JERUSALEM BUS

Terrorism has claimed still more lives in Israel. On June 18^th, a young Palestinian man set off a bomb on a crowded bus in Jerusalem. He killed himself and at least nineteen others, including children. More than fifty people were wounded. In less than two years, Palestinian terrorists have carried out more than sixty suicide attacks against Israelis.

The terrorist group Hamas claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing. This is the same group that killed twenty-nine Israeli men, women, and children in Netanya as they gathered to observe the Jewish Passover on March 27^th. Hamas was also responsible for a suicide bombing in June 2001 that killed twenty-two young Israelis at a Tel Aviv disco. As President George W. Bush has pointed out, "Hamas is an extremist group that calls for the total destruction of Israel. It is one of the deadliest terrorist organizations in the world today."

Hamas receives funding from Palestinian expatriates, the government of Iran, and individuals in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. It has also conducted fundraising in Europe and the United States. In response, the U.S. has frozen the assets of groups raising money for Hamas. They include the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. Money raised by this group, said President Bush, "is used by Hamas to support schools that indoctrinate children to grow up into suicide bombers."

Less than a month ago in Damascus, Syria, Khaled Mashaal, a Hamas leader, said his group plans to continue its suicide bombings, which he falsely called "martyrdom operations."

Those who commit such terrorist crimes are not martyrs. They are murderers, plain and simple. As President Bush said, "There are people that don’t want peace, and therefore they’re willing to kill to make sure there is no peace. And all of us. . .involved in the process, Arab nations, the Palestinians, Americans, Europeans, Israelis, must do everything we can to stop terrorist action."