Official Palestinian Authority media
glorified the terrorist who killed U.S. Army veteran Taylor Force in a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv in March that also injured 11 other civilians, Palestinian Media Watch reported.
Palestinian Bashar Masalha was shot and killed by police as he went on the stabbing spree in Tel Aviv. Israel returned the body a few days ago to his family, who held a funeral for him over the weekend.
Reporting on the funeral in which hundreds took part, PA media called Masalha a martyr 11 times. One example was a PA television reporter describing the terrorist: "Martyr Bashar Masalha ascended to Heaven in Jaffa on March 8 . . . He returned and was embraced by the soil of his homeland as a martyr."
Vice President Joe Biden was in Israel at the time of the attack and
criticized PA Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is supported by the US and the international community, for failing to condemn the killing.
In an unusually strong rebuke to the PA leader, Biden said "Let me say in no uncertain terms: The United States of America condemns these acts and condemns the failure to condemn these acts. This cannot be viewed by civilized leaders as an appropriate way in which to behave."
Force, 28, served as a field artillery officer for five years, including stints in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the time of his murder, Force was studying business and with his Vanderbilt University classmates on a school trip to see first-hand Israeli entrepreneurship and start-ups.
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