by David Isaac
"It actually accused Israel of carrying out that massacre. This is a complete reversal of truth," said the Israeli prime minister.
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| Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Nov. 19, 2023. Source: YouTube. |
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the Palestinian Authority on Sunday for claiming Hamas didn’t carry out a massacre of Israeli civilians on Oct. 7 and instead blaming Israel.
“Today, the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah said something utterly preposterous. It denied that it was Hamas that carried out the horrible massacre at the nature festival near Gaza. It actually accused Israel of carrying out that massacre. This is a complete reversal of truth,” Netanyahu said.
P.A. chief Mahmoud Abbas, who is a Holocaust denier, has now become an Oct. 7 massacre denier, said Netanyahu.
On Sunday, the P.A. denied that Hamas terrorists, despite the fact that they themselves documented their massacre, were responsible for the deaths of some 350 young people at the Nova music festival, blaming instead “Israeli helicopters.”
According to a statement from the P.A. Foreign Ministry distributed to the United Nations and foreign ministries worldwide: “The preliminary investigation by the Israeli police proved that on October 7 Israeli helicopters bombed Israeli citizens who participated in the nature festival…. The result of this investigation casts doubt on the Israeli reports regarding the destruction and killing that took place in that area.”
The P.A. based its assertions on an Oct. 18 Haaretz report which referred to an investigation of the massacre and which cited an unnamed Israeli police official saying that the investigation found that an IDF combat helicopter had arrived at the scene and fired at the terrorists, inadvertently hitting some of the revelers.
The Israel Police repudiated the Haaretz report entirely on Sunday, saying the probe in question only focused on the heroism of officers on Oct. 7.
“Contrary to the publication, the police investigation does not refer to the activity of the IDF forces, and therefore no indication was given of any harm to civilians caused by any aerial activity at the site,” according to a statement by the Israel Police Spokesperson’s Office.
“Particularly at this time, we call on the media to show responsibility in their reporting, and to base their journalism on official sources only,” added the statement.
Netanyahu took the opportunity to reiterate that the P.A. cannot be given control of the Gaza Strip once Hamas is destroyed.
“My goal is that the day after we destroy Hamas, any future civil administration in Gaza does not deny the massacre, does not educate its children to become terrorists, does not pay for terrorists and does not tell its children that their ultimate goal in life is to see the destruction and dissolution of the State of Israel,” said Netanyahu.
Netanyahu’s position puts Israel at odds with the United States, which has repeatedly said it wants to see the P.A. placed in charge of the Gaza Strip following the war.
In a Washington Post op-ed on Saturday, U.S. President Joe Biden reaffirmed his administration’s stance that “Gaza and the West Bank should be reunited under a single governance structure, ultimately under a revitalized Palestinian Authority, as we all work toward a two-state solution.”
A spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office put a positive spin on Biden’s comments, saying that Washington and Jerusalem see eye-to-eye on the need to remove Hamas from the equation.
“[Biden] was adamant in that column that Hamas’s control of the Gaza Strip must end and that whatever comes after must not allow Gaza or the West Bank to be platforms for terrorism. That is entirely consistent with our declared war aims for the demilitarization, de-radicalization and sustainable reconstruction of the Gaza Strip,” PMO Spokesman Eylon Levy told JNS.
“I would note the [U.S.] president said that Gaza and the West Bank should be reunited, ultimately, under a revitalized Palestinian Authority and I don’t think that word was there by accident,” he added.
Levy made clear that an unreformed, terror-sponsoring P.A., which has now “gone full 9/11 truther on the facts of the massacre,” is not a suitable candidate to govern Gaza.
“An entity that pays financial incentives to terrorists to perpetrate attacks against Israel with the so-called pay-for-slay scheme is not consistent with the goal of making sure that Gaza does not export terrorism,” he said.
“Our partners, whoever is involved in rebuilding the Gaza Strip after Hamas, must fight terrorism. It cannot be an entity that funds terrorism,” added Levy.
David Isaac
Source: https://www.jns.org/netanyahu-slams-preposterous-pa-for-denying-oct-7-massacre/
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