INTRODUCTION: Within hours after the horrific terrorist attacks in the United States, there were spontaneous outbreaks of rejoicing in the streets of the Palestinian Authority. According to Israel Radio, at least two news organizations decided not to broadcast footage of these celebrations after senior officials in the Palestinian Authority - including prominent PA ministers - threatened their lives. Arafat´s denunciation of the attacks, which continues to be broadcast, is in direct contradiction to the atmosphere of hatred he has been promoting through his tightly controlled media. The following are but a few examples:

"The suicide bombers of today are the noble successors of their noble predecessors... the Lebanese suicide bombers, who taught the US Marines a tough lesson in [Lebanon]...and then, with no preconditions, they threw the last of the remaining enemy [Israeli] soldiers out of the [security] zone. These suicide bombers are the salt of the earth, the engines of history...They are the most honorable [people] among us..." [Al Hayat Al Jadida - Official Palestinian Authority daily, Sept. 11, 2001]

Hafez Barghoutti, Editor-in-Chief of the official PA daily: ".The writers, Charles Krauthammer, William Safire and Michael Malley, try to portray us as if we are threatening New York and as if fighting us is an American need and that a good Palestinian is like a good Indian - dead. This is the culture of the Zionist Lobby that rules even over the bedrooms of the senior Members of Congress and the White House. It whips them in the morning and evening lest they awaken from their servitude. It castrates them and supplies them with ´Monica Viagra.´ "And the last to judge us in this area is the pathetic scoundrel Thomas Friedman who called upon NATO to conquer the [West] Bank and Gaza in order to protect his beloved Israel. "These examples of beastly writings which surpass Nazism, require that their authors be tried in an international court, for they are considered inciters who have committed crimes against humanity...." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, August 29, 2001]

"Saher Habash, a member of the central committee of [Yasser Arafat´s PLO faction] the Fatah... said that the body goes but the spirit of the martyrs lives on. Habash expressed his hope that the Arab and Islamic world will act against America and Israel....Habash demanded to strike and to threaten the American interests in the Arab world..." [Meeting with journalists in El Birah, Al-Quds, Aug. 30, 2001]

"[Maher Taher] a member of the political bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ... said, ´We say to the Arab nation: Hit American interests and threaten them. The United States is a fundamental enemy.´ He asked the Arab countries to take a clear and strict position towards the US, which is the a fundamental enemy of the Palestinian people and the Arab Nation."[Al Hayat Al Jadida Aug. 28, 2001]

"We must. harm American interests in the Arab world, with all possible means, in all places, at all levels, because the United States does not understand the language of logic and wisdom, but only the language of interests and force." [Omar Helm Ghul, Al-Ayyam, Aug. 30, 2001] (PMW 09/12/01)