Over on SardonicViews, Chas Rich wondered if the Palestinian Authority's condemnation of the latest suicide-murder bomber attack was for English/media release only. The answer appears to be, "Well, yes," if the story at ArabNews.com is any indication.

ArabNews: 16 die in Tel Aviv attack

The first paragraph gives the bare facts of the attack, but the rest turns into a diatribe against Sharon, Israel, and the on-going siege at the Church of the Nativity.

Palestinian groups urged their leader Yasser Arafat to reject the deal to end the siege, saying that letting Palestinians be sent into exile played into Israel’s hands. Fatah, the faction headed by Arafat himself, issued a statement urging its leader not to ratify the deal and calling it a "dangerous humanitarian crime". Abdel-Aziz Al-Rantisi, a senior leader of the Hamas, said the deal was a disaster and would weaken Palestinian demands for the return of tens of thousands of refugees to their homeland. "It reinforces the principle of transfer adopted by Sharon and the rest of the Zionist gang," Rantisi said. An official of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said the deal amounted to Palestinian approval of an Israeli policy to expel and exile people. A spokesman for the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine described it as "a mark of shame".

No mention of the PA's "condemnation" of the Tel Aviv attack.