The Hamas-led Palestinian Authority underscored the nature of their regime when they praised the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, calling the murder of at least nine civilians and the maiming of dozens "self defense":

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas -- whose Fatah Party was ousted in January parliamentary elections -- condemned the Tel Aviv terrorist attack. But Hamas -- the group that came to power -- called the bombing justified. ...

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the Palestinian people "are in a state of self-defense."

"We assure our Palestinian people of the right to defend themselves, and this operation is surely a natural reaction to the continued Zionist crimes carried out against our Palestinian people," said Zuhri.

Mahmoud Abbas rejected the argument and condemned the bombing, but the Palestinians under Fatah management never lifted a finger to disarm the terrorist groups or to stop suicide bombers from targeting Israeli civilians. They issued meaningless promises to increase security, but the only effort that has had any effect at all on suicide attack has come from Israel's construction of their security barrier. Hamas has the dubious distinction of avoiding hypocrisy in their celebration of this abhorrent crime.

The IDF assumes at this point that the bomber came through the unfinished portions around Jerusalem. People expect the Olmert government to attack the PA in response to this bombing, but they might just accelerate the barrier construction around Jerusalem as an answer. In fact, one possibility for Israeli retaliation may be to encraoch further on the territory claimed by the Palestinians, especially around Jerusalem. The annexation of this disputed territory would signal that Israel has dismissed Palestinian promises and will commence to imposing its solution on the West Bank for good. After all, if the elected representatives of the PA continue to endorse suicide bombing, then negotiations have no rational basis at all.

Here are a few of the people that Hamas feels constitute a threat that required "self defense":

Interestingly, and despicably, the Yahoo! News photo slideshow has more than a dozen pictures of the suicide bomber and his family ahead of any of the victims. I gave up on the slideshow at picture 28 after at least half of them were of the dead terrorist or dead-terrorist wannabes signing up for jihad operations, presumably against more of those menacing falafel stands and pizzerias.

See Michelle Malkin for even more pictures of the threatening civilians that dare to eat fast food in Tel Aviv and in so doing create an existential threat to those manly Palestinians ....

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