Read the following words "from the horses mouth" (of course all in Arabic so those in the West wouldn't see or hear them)and tell me if the PA is any more credible then the Taliban:

Here are the words of Faisal Husseini a so called "moderate" Palestinian
[link|http://www.memri.org/sd/SP23601.html|Interview with Faisal Husseini]

"The Oslo Accords Were a Trojan Horse; The Strategic Goal is the Liberation of Palestine from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea
...
Similarly, if we agree to declare our state over what is now only 22% of Palestine, meaning the West Bank and Gaza \ufffd our ultimate goal is [still] the liberation of all historical Palestine from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea, even if this means that the conflict will last for another thousand years or for many generations."

This is what the PA broadcasts on state sponsored TV

[link|http://www.memri.org/sd/SP27601.html|Friday Sermon on Palestinian Television]
"Our belief is that this war, between us and the Jews, will continue to escalate until we vanquish the Jews and enter Jerusalem as conquerors, [and] enter Jaffa as conquerors. We are not merely expecting a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital; we are heralding [the creation of] an Islamic caliphate with Jerusalem as its capital\ufffd"

Following are excerpts from the Friday (August 17, 2001) sermon broadcast live on Palestinian TV from the Sheik 'Ijlin mosque in Gaza. The preacher is Sheik Isma'il Aal Ghadwan:
[link|www.memri.org/sd/SP26101.html|PA TV Friday Sermon Calls for Jihad and Martyrdom]
"This good news... has passed down to our people who still make great sacrifices, defending the honor of the Islamic nation. The sacrifice of convoys of martyrs [will continue] until Allah grants us victory very soon. The willingness for sacrifice and for death we see amongst those who were cast by Allah into a war with the Jews, should not come at all as a surprise..."
"Oh believing brothers, we do not feel a loss... The martyr, if he meets Allah, is forgiven with the first drop of blood; he is saved from the torments of the grave; he sees his place in Paradise; he is saved from the Great Horror [of the day of judgment]; he is given 72 black-eyed women; he vouches for 70 of his family to be accepted to Paradise; he is crowned with the Crown of glory, whose precious stone is better than all of this world and what is in it\ufffd"

The following excerpts, broadcasted on PA TV, are from the Friday sermon [August 3, 2001] given by Sheik Ibrahim
Madhi at the Sheik 'Ijlin Mosque in Gaza:
[link|http://www.memri.org/sd/SP25201.html|Friday Sermon on Palestinian Television]

"Whoever can fight them with his weapons, should go out [to the battle]; whoever can fight them with a machinegun, should go out; whoever can fight them with a sword or a knife, should go out; whoever can fight them with his hands, should go out; This is our destiny. The people who are the most hostile toward the believers are the Jews and the Polytheists... The Jews have exposed their fangs. Nothing will deter them, except the color of their filthy people\ufffds blood; nothing will deter them except for us voluntarily detonating ourselves in their midst. They have nuclear power, but we have the power of the belief in Allah..."
"The Prophet [Muhammad] said: 'The Jews will fight you, and [Allah] will establish you as rulers over them...' We blow them up in Hadera, we blow them up in Tel Aviv and in Netanya, and in this way, Allah establishes us as rulers over these gangs of vagabonds. The Jews fight you, but Allah will establish you as rulers over them. Until the Jew would hide behind a stone or a tree, and the stone or the tree would say: Oh Muslim, Oh servant of Allah, a Jew is hiding behind me, come kill him, with the exception of the Gharqad tree which is the tree of the Jews...'"
"In several years, Allah willing, we will enter Jerusalem as conquerors, to Jaffa as conquerors. To Haifa as conquerors, to Ashkelon as conquerors. We are certain that victory is near..."

There is a fundamental difference here. You may find cases where soldiers do things wrong (I seem to recall allegations against Canadian soldiers on a peacekeeping mission), however in the PA the government is sponsoring an incitement campaign against Israel and Jews. The government sponsored TV broadcasts sermons calling for the people to kill Jews, as does the government sponsored newspapers. Do Israeli TV/Radio/Newspapers do the same? In fact, one of the complaints about Israeli radio and TV is that they interview Palestinians and provide a platform for their propaganda (look at what is happening in the US with Bin Laden and Al Jazeera). Read Haaretz, (a popular left-wing Israeli newspaper, you can read it in English www.haaretzdaily.com), some of the columnists for that paper are more critical of Israel then the Palestinians. Where is the Palestinian equivalent? An Israeli growing will hear all these different viewpoints. A simple question, where is the Palestinian equivalent of Peace Now? Throughout the 90's hundreds of thousands of Israelis demonstrated for peace, has such a thing EVER happened in the Arab world? Why is it that while over 70% of Palestinians support suicide bombers against civilians in Israel? Why is it that Palsetinian textbooks repeat all the old anti-semitic slogans. Even after 1+ years of terrorism, the majority of Israelis still wnat peace and are willing to compromise.

There is no question that there are Israelis who hate Arabas etc., the major difference is that the government, press and spiritual leaders condemn these people. When Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (the spiritual leader of the Shas party) called Arabs snakes (btw he explained that he was talking about terrorists not all Arabs), every major politician denounced it including the President and Prime Minister, and it was the topic of discussion in every newspaper and radio program. Have you ever seen a similar reaction to any of these sermons?

After Sept. 11, there were some attacks on Muslims in the US, defacing of mosques etc., does that mean that the US is a racist and anti-Muslim society? The fact is that all the leaders, from President Bush on down condemned these acts and this is the major difference between the US, Israel and the PA.

A challenge for you, find four tolerant Palestinian perspectives.