Palestinian People Support Terrorism

Last week, Mahmoud Abbas, chairman of the Palestinian Authority and head of Fatah, said: "It is not required of Hamas, or of Fatah, or of the Popular Front to recognize Israel" (Al-Arabiya, October 3). We must also remember that Hamas, leaders of the PA, openly calls for Israel's destruction, as does Fatah's Charter. Both the Saudi Arabian initiative and the Abbas-backed "Prisoners Document‚" call for the "right of return," which is clearly incompatible with Israel's existence as a Jewish state.

This is also consistent with Palestinian views. A September poll, carried out by the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, found that 57 percent of Palestinians support terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians within Israel's pre-June 1967 borders. Another poll the same month conducted by the Center for Opinion Polls and Survey Studies at An-Najah University found that 61.3% of Palestinians support terrorist attacks upon Israelis inside Israel.

On top of all this, not a single map in the PA or in any Arab country displays a country called Israel, only "Palestine."