Palestinian official longs to nuke Israel

Thursday, May 09, 2013 |  Israel Today Staff  

There is a very good reason for Israel taking the Iran nuclear threat so seriously. There are a lot of people in this region, many of them holding positions of authority, who would like nothing more than to use a nuclear weapon against Israel, the consequences be damned.

One such figure admitted as much in an interview with Lebanese TV last week.

"I swear that if we had a nuke, we'd have used it this very morning," said Jibril Rajoub, Deputy Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee and Chairman of the Palestinian Authority Olympic Committee.

Rajoub explained that the Palestinian Authority only continues to play this "negotiating game" with Israel because it currently lacks the military strength to defeat the Jewish state.

This revelation validates one of Israel's chief concerns in the peace process - that in the absence of actually being educated for peace and coexistence, the inhabitants of an independent Palestinian state will, as a first order of business, work toward acquiring the military means to engage in renewed warfare against Israel.

In his previous role as head of Palestinian police and security adviser to former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Rajoub was widely praised as a "moderate" by Western leaders.

[Thanks to Palestinian Media Watch for translation of Rajoub's television appearance.]