Tel Aviv got hit by a suicide bomber this morning, an attack claimed by Islamic Jihad that killed at least six people in a fast-food restaurant. The terrorist group that had sent rockets into Israel from Gaza pledged a "non-stop" offensive against Israelis in the latest example of the Hamas-Fatah-IJ triangle strategy:

A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up near a fast-food restaurant in a bustling commercial area of Tel Aviv during the Passover holiday Monday, killing six people and wounding at least 35. ...

The Islamic Jihad militant group claimed responsibility in a telephone call to The Associated Press. The attack came a day after the group had pledged to carry out more attacks.

Hamas and other militant groups have been observing a ceasefire with Israel for more than a year, though the new Hamas-led Palestinian leadership has refused to condemn attacks against Israelis. Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility for all six of the previous suicide attacks inside Israel since the ceasefire was declared.

The bomber struck a falafel restaurant targeted in an attack on Jan. 19. In that attack, 20 people were wounded. The restaurant is in the bustling Neve Shaanan neighborhood near Tel Aviv's central bus station, which was crowded with holiday travelers.

The Palestinian Authority has done nothing to disarm or restrain terrorists in their areas, regardless of who ran the autonomous government. Fatah promised to do so in negotiations but refused to disarm terrorists later. Hamas will not even consider doing so. Instead, they both point to the cease-fire their organizations have supposedly observed while doing nothing about the continuous attacks from Islamic Jihad.

As I have written before, this triangle offense allows the supposedly moderate Fatah and the political Hamas to deny any responsibility for attacks while the radical IJ carries them out. Later, if Hamas falls from power, IJ may claim to honor a cease-fire while Hamas attacks Israel, and so on. This strategy gives at least one and usually two factions deniability that is transparent to everyone except European diplomats, Russian autocrats, and the Middle Eastern kleptocrats that just pledged millions of dollars to keep the Palestinians in business against the Israelis:

Iran said Sunday it would give the Palestinian Authority $50 million in aid, moving in for the first time with money after the United States and Europe cut off funding to the Hamas-led government. ...

Iran's hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called for other Islamic nations to give money as he met with Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal.

"Muslim governments and nations should provide comprehensive support to the Palestinian government to liberate Jerusalem," Ahmadinejad said.

The Palestinians will never disarm under their present political structure. They have proven over and over again to have Israel's annihilation as their national goal. The only hope that the world has in ending this conflict is either to allow Israel to complete its withdrawal and border wall to seal off the Palestinians altogether, or to allow both sides to fight an open war with the entire area as a winner-take-all. The Palestinians have voted for this approach twice. They will not change until they understand that they still have something to lose in the process. Until the impulse for peace and rational co-existence comes into being in the West Bank and Gaza, we have to acknowledge the reality that the Palestinians do not want either.

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