Editorial: Heinous act of terrorism

Tuesday, April 18, 2006 | 7:14 a.m.

On Monday, during the Passover holiday, a Palestinian suicide bomber killed nine other people in a crowded restaurant in Tel Aviv, Israel. The terrorist group Islamic Jihad, which has close ties to Iran, said it carried out the bombing that occurred only two hours before members of Israel's newly elected Parliament were sworn into office.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the barbaric bombing. But that wasn't the case with the terrorist group Hamas, which recently won a majority of seats in Palestinian legislative elections. Hamas defended the bombing.

Monday's carnage follows renewed calls for Hamas to renounce violence and its long-standing policy of seeking Israel's destruction. Hamas has refused to take such steps, and as a result the United States and the European Union are withholding hundreds of millions of dollars from the Palestinian government in the wake of Hamas' victory in January's elections.

In response to the West's move, Iran, whose president repeatedly has called for Israel's annihilation and clearly is taking his country on a path to build nuclear weapons, has said it would provide financial assistance to the Palestinian government. The AP reports that Qatar has pledged that it would provide $50 million to Hamas, but so far other Arab nations have yet to make similar pledges, heeding the concerns expressed by the United States and the European Union.

Israel is holding Hamas responsible for the bombing, and the Associated Press reports that Prime Minister-designate Ehud Olmert said his country will react with appropriate means to the attack. For other Western democracies, it is clear that the United States and the European Union need to continue to work together to effectively contain Iran and terrorist groups such as Hamas, all of which pose a genuine threat to Israel and to stability in the region.