Obama Rescinds Claim Of Responsibility For Henkin Murders

The administration can safely return to the diplomatic de rigueur of condemning violence by “both sides” and calling on “both sides” to exercise restraint.

Washington, October 2 – US President Barack Obama walked back earlier comments today, saying that he did not intend to claim credit for the terrorist attack last night that killed two Israelis, and that his words had been misunderstood.

Obama had initially said his administration was behind the attack, but this morning he modified that position, saying instead that while the actual terrorism was perpetrated by operatives of Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, White House policies and diplomacy played a key role in making the murders of Eitam and Naama Henkin possible. The couple’s four children were unhurt in the shooting attack on the family’s car, a factor that Obama acknowledged made it easier to relinquish claiming credit for the act.

“I do not wish to steal the thunder of those who risked actual life and limb to destroy other people’s lives and limbs,” said the president at a press conference. “My remarks last night must be understood as underscoring the important role my administration continues to play in the Middle East, and not, heaven forbid, to imply that our friends and allies in the Palestine Liberation Organization are somehow uninvolved. My words were cobbled together in haste, and as such, were too easily prone to misinterpretation. For that offense I apologize.”

Palestinian President Abbas welcomed the clarification after an initially heated reaction to Obama’s claim. “The Rais wishes to assure the US president that his apology is accepted,” said Abbas aide Yasser Abd Rabbo. “It is, after all, primarily American funding that allows us to pay handsome pensions to terrorists and their families, and to foster an environment of incitement to violence while claiming to the UN General Assembly that we promote peace.”

Rescinding the claim of credit resolved a potential diplomatic conflict. Now that the Obama administration is no longer saying it was behind the terrorist attack, it can safely return to the diplomatic de rigueur of condemning violence by “both sides” and calling on “both sides” to exercise restraint, as if both murderer and victim are to be treated equally.

The fact that Obama was no longer claiming direct credit for the murders has also made it easier for organizations such as Hamas to offer unreserved praise for the operation. “This noble act of jihad can be now celebrated without the complications of an imperialist American having a hand in it,” explained Hamas spokesman Moussa Abu Marzook.

Israeli leftists presented Hamas with no such conflict, expressing justification and support for the murders as legitimate acts of resistance, without explicitly mentioning the important role they play in perpetuating the violence.