A revealing Web site

The Palestinian resistance movement has turned to the Internet to tell its story to the American people, to seek approval and support, and, perhaps most important, to raise funds for the weapons it needs for what amounts to a war against Israel.

In going after American dollars, the Palestinian leadership has learned from the Irish Republican Army, which raised money in the United States for guns, ammunition and bombs. The Web site, www.qudscall.com, carries a message from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad (or holy war) which claim credit for the almost daily attacks against not only Israeli soldiers but also civilian men, women and children.

Here is a sampling of the 85 items in what Hamas calls “The Glory Record”:

24. Soldier Aloun Kervaty Being Kidnapped: A group belonging to Al Qassam Brigades was able to kidnap an Israeli soldier, Aloun Kervaty, near Al-breij Camp after they had disarmed him. They proceeded to exterminate him and threw his corpse near a bus station on 18 September 1992.

56. The Revenge Operation: As soon as the Israeli forces announced the execution of the six heroes, Al Qassam Brigade militants put explosives in a 15-story shopping center in Tel Aviv on 16 May 1993. The building was completely destroyed and several Israelis were killed and others injured. The Israeli forces admitted that one Israeli had been killed and 40 were injured as a result of a gas bottle explosion in order to cover up the operation.

81. Al-affouleh Operation: It was the first operation in a series of revenge operations for the Al-ibraheemy Holy Shrine massacre on 6 April 1994. The militant Ra’ed Abdallah Zakarneh, a member of Al Qassam Brigades, drove a booby-trapped vehicle with an Israeli registration plate into Al-affouleh bus station at 12:25 p.m. and detonated it. Nine Israelis were killed and more than 150 were injured. A statement revealed that the car was carrying 57 kilograms of explosives. It also warned the Israelis to leave their settlements and added, “otherwise we are not to be blamed for any operations against them.”

When “militants” were killed, they were invariably described as being “martyred,” meaning the highest honor in dying in service to the Jihad.

Other sections of the Web site, giving a history and theoretical basis for the war against Israel, leave no doubt that its objective is not peace or co-existence but the complete destruction of Israel. A related Web site, www.jihadislami.com, entirely in Arabic, calls for supporters to “donate money for the military Jihad.” The request for funds goes on: “Our struggle with the sons of Israel in Palestine is on civilization, ideology, history, and existence. Our war with them is long and difficult. Our base is the Qur’an [Koran]; our way is the Jihad; our goal is to enter the (Al-Aqsa) Mosque as promised by he Lord, and as we did it the first time.”

The translation was furnished by Steven Emerson, director of the Investigative Project, a pro-Israel research organization in Washington, D.C. Mr. Emerson is co-author of an article in the Aug. 13 Wall Street Journal calling attention to the Web sites and asking that the U.S. government close them down under a 1996 law authorizing it to freeze the assets of terrorist groups including the Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

There is no reason to believe the mutual tragedy in the Middle East is provoked solely by Palestinians to conclude that these web sites speak for themselves as efforts to enlist American support to perpetuate war by terrorist.

Palestinian leaders contend that their militants are freedom fighters and that the Israelis are the terrorists. Of course, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. But there is a distinction: The Palestine Resistance seeks the destruction of Israel. Israel has offered land and self-government to the Palestinians, repeatedly but to no avail.