Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh (right) and senior Fatah official Azzam Al-Ahmed (left) raise their hands together at a news conference that announced a reconciliation agreement between the rival Palestinian factions in Gaza City on April 23, 2014. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib /Flash90

The mother of the Muslim terrorist who attacked Canada’s parliament building on October 22 says she is weeping for her son’s victims, not for her son. What a contrast with the mothers of Palestinian terrorists who murder Israelis.

Mrs. Susan Bibeau, the mother of Canadian terrorist Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, told the Associated Press on October 23: “If I’m crying it’s for the people, not for my son… I am mad at my son.”

If only Palestinian mothers felt the same way. Instead, they have the jihad mentality, too.

Last year on January 27, 2013, the Facebook page of Fatah, the movement headed by Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, posted a feature about the mother of 23 year-old Wafa Idris, the first female Palestinian suicide bomber. She murdered one Israeli, and wounded more than 100, by blowing herself up in a Jerusalem supermarket in 2002. The posting quoted Wafa’s mother as saying “She is a hero…My daughter is a Martyr (Shahida).”

The Fatah page added: “Wafa’s mother said that she is proud of her daughter, and hopes that more girls will follow in her footsteps.”

More recently, in an interview with Israel Television on June 29, the mother of one of the Hamas terrorists involved in the kidnap-murders of three Israeli teenagers said: “If they [the Israelis] accuse him of this [the kidnapping], and if it is a true accusation, I will be proud of him until Judgment Day. If the accusation that he did it is true…My boys are all righteous, pious and pure. The goal of my children is the triumph of Islam.”

Of course, that is not to say that no Palestinian mothers have any regrets about their children carrying out suicide bombing. But those regrets are not always the kind one would hope for. For example, on June 6, 2004,  PA Television broadcast these remarks by the mother of a 15 year-old who died during a suicide attack: “It was sad and joyous what happened to him, meaning, he always liked the Shahada (Martyrdom). All children at his age do. He always cared for me. I would have preferred that one of his other brothers would have attained Shahada instead of him, because he was the joy of my life.” (All translations courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch.)

How can one explain the stark contrast between the Canadian mother and the Palestinian mother? It’s not really so complicated. Different cultures have different values. Canadian culture promotes values such as democracy, equal rights, respect for minorities, non-violence.

By contrast, Palestinian society is dominated by a “culture of Jihad,” Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said this week.  On his Facebook Page, Ya’alon wrote that the latest Palestinian terrorist attacks are “clearly the outcome of those in the Palestinian Authority who educate the younger generation to hate Jews and expel them from their homeland.” He added: “The Palestinian Authority does not, and never did, have a culture of peace, but rather a culture of incitement and jihad against Jews. It starts with Abbas’s lying statements against Israel from the UN podium, continues with persistent Palestinian attempts to delegitimize us in the international arena and ends with incitement in the Palestinian education system. These are the harsh consequences.”

Moshe Phillips and Benyamin Korn are members of the board of the Religious Zionists of America.