09/07/2004: "How dare you kill our terrorists!"

In the wake of Israel's attack against a Hamas training camp in Gaza (in which 14 members of the terrorist organization were killed in retaliation for the simultaneous bombing of two Israeli civilian buses), Arabs sputter:

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia condemned an Israeli airstrike that killed 14 Hamas militants in unusually harsh terms Tuesday, warning the attack will invite a tough response from the militant group and saying retaliation will be "justified."

Qureia, speaking at a Palestinian Cabinet meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said he was outraged.

"No crime goes unpunished," he said. "For sure there will be retaliation, and the retaliation will be justified if it happens."

Of course he's "outraged." He and the puppet-master Arafat lost 14 terrorists who weren't able to kill any Jews in the process. That's got to be frustrating. (His response to the bus bombings was considerably more temperate: "The Palestinian government reiterates that our higher national interests are not served by such actions and they should be stopped immediately," was the limp dishrag reaction from Qureia's office, according to Reuters. Not that bombing civilians in buses is wrong (much less outrageous), mind you, it just isn't politically expedient at the moment.)

A weirder reaction comes from Egypt:

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit condemned the airstrike, saying it "raises doubts about the real intentions of the Israeli government." He said the strike undermined Egypt's efforts to bring calm to the area.

Actually, I think it makes the intentions of the Israeli government crystal clear: terrorism will not be rewarded, and terrorists (or those training for future terrorist operations) will be killed. What's so murky about that?