PA President Mahmoud Abbas with US President Barack Obama. Photo: Wikipedia.

The official Fatah Facebook page featured two posts about the bus bombing in Jerusalem on Monday.

The first one was an official statement from Fatah, saying that the bombing was a “natural reaction to Israeli practices against the Palestinian people from killing and arrests and the siege and frequent incursions to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

The statement went on to contradict itself in the next sentence, saying, “We do not look for nor do we want violence, but at the same time we want to live in dignity and safety; yet the occupation government’s policy is to want to drag the region into a spiral of violence and we warned repeatedly of the Israeli right-wing government saying that their escalating policy will not bring safety and security to the Israelis.”

So they pretend to be against violence, yet they say that violence is exactly what they expect their people to perform.

Even that pretense of not supporting terror was destroyed by the subsequent post. The official Fatah page chose to publish the statement issued by the Abu Nidal Brigades (part of Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades), which praised the bombing without any reservations.

The Fatah terror group called the bombing “a victory” that “led to the injury of dozens of Zionists.”

The statement went on to say that this was a “natural response to the crimes of the occupation,” and said that “martyrdom operations are the perfect way to respond to the crimes of the occupation in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.”

The “moderate” terror group went on to call for all its fighters in the West Bank and Jerusalem to “fight the battles with all available means,” and expressed joy at the prospect of the resumption of “armed struggle” against Israel.

“It is a revolution until victory,” the statement concluded.

The Fatah members behind the Facebook page know very well that by publishing these statements praising suicide bombings, Fatah is condoning it. Its audience understands this as well.

Mahmoud Abbas must be held responsible for the incitement that is seen and heard daily in these groups that he leads. He has never been called to account — by world leaders or the media — for his two-faced lies, where he claims to want peace when talking to the West, but his organization explicitly praises and supports terrorism when talking to his people.

The buck stops with Abbas, the leader of Fatah. Any other national leader would be mercilessly criticized if they tried to play the games that Abbas plays. He should be held to the same standard as any other leader.