Reactions to the new membership of the Palestinian Authority in the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the The Hague have not been long in coming.

With the signature of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on the Rome Statute sealing the entity’s membership in the Court, Israeli leaders immediately issued their responses.

As Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu noted, the move may very well be a signature on a death warrant for the Palestinian entity.

“The one who should fear the International Criminal Court at The Hague is the Palestinian Authority, which is in a unity government with Hamas, a declared terrorist organization like ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) that commits war crimes,” Netanyahu warned.

“We will repel this latest effort to force diktats on us, just as we have repelled the Palestinian turn to the [United Nations] Security Council.”

Legally, the ICC’s Rome Statute forces the Palestinians to undergo the same scrutiny as any other member nation, and to abide by the same human rights standards as well. Thus the PA “unity government” — which includes Gaza’s Hamas terrorist organization — can now legitimately be held culpable at the ICC for its use of its citizens as human shields, among other war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by its terrorists during its war with Israel in summer 2014.

Abbas signed the Rome Statute and 21 other international treaties just a day after a draft resolution submitted by Jordan on behalf of the PA was voted down at the United Nations Security Council.

The resolution called for the withdrawal of all Israel Defense Forces from Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria (all areas conquered in the 1967 Six Day War) by 2017. The move would have left more than half a million Jews living in those areas completely defenseless in the face of an already escalating deadly intifada.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman also had harsh words for Abbas, saying he “can sign whichever treaty he wants. [But] the only ones who have committed war crimes in the conflict here are the Palestinians.”

Citing countless lethal attacks and “indiscriminate murderous terrorism against babies, children, women and men over the past 100 years” by PA Arab terrorists, Liberman warned Abbas not to threaten Israel, “the nation with the most moral army in the world.”

Economics Minister Naftali Bennett also scored Abbas, saying that “he who has the evil of terrorism spread throughout his head should not venture out into the sunlight.”

Bennett labeled the PA leader as one of the “greatest inciters of terrorism,” noting that Abbas is a “veteran Holocaust denier who should approach the Court as a defendant only.”

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is playing ‘chicken’ with U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli leaders.

The Arab leader, known to locals by his terrorist name, ‘Abu Mazen,’ signed papers Wednesday for the PA to officially join the International Criminal Court at The Hague. In doing so, Abbas called the bluff issued by Washington and by Israel’s government, a warning that such a step would lead to dire consequences.

The move came one day after a vote at the United Nations Security Council nixed a PA resolution sponsored by Jordan, demanding Israel withdraw its forces from all areas conquered in the 1967 Six Day War. These include much of Jerusalem, areas restored to the capital that were lost when Jordan seized parts of the city during the 1948 War of Independence.

More than half a million Israelis now live and work in the areas of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria demanded by the PA. Sites holy to the three monotheist faiths that were cleaned of the filth and garbage that accumulated during the years of Jordanian occupation are also situated therein.

“There is aggression practiced against our land and our country, and the Security Council has let us down; where shall we go?” Abbas said dramatically in a speech delivered from his headquarters, the Muqata, after signing the Rome Statute – the founding charter of the ICC – and 21 other international treaties and conventions.

“We want to complain to this organization. As long as there is no peace and the world does not prioritize peace in this region, this region will live in constant conflict. The Palestinian cause is the key issue to be settled.”

The fly in the ointment here is the fact that the Rome Statute stipulates once a nation has joined the Court, it then also becomes culpable for the crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide committed by its own government as well. Abbas may well have signed the death warrant for the Palestinian Authority all on his own, without the United States or Israel ever having had to do a single thing.

Visiting Indiana Gov. Mike Pence attended a Christmas dinner hosted by Palestinian Authority  chairman Mahmoud Abbas but snubbed Abbas’ presumptive attempt to talk with the governor at a private meeting.

The Indianapolis Star contradicted reports that Pence, a possible candidate for the GOP nomination as presidential candidate in the 2016 elections, did not attend the dinner with Abbas.

Pence, a devout Christian, is on a nine-day visit to Israel sponsored by the Christians United for Israel group.

Abbas holds an annual Christmas dinner for dignitaries, and Pence attended but then refused an invitation from Abbas for a private meeting after the event.

Pence spokeswoman Kara Brooks told the Indiana newspaper, “The governor is in Israel to strengthen economic ties between Indiana and Israel, to support Israel and to enjoy Christmas with his family. He declined to meet with President Abbas because that was not the purpose of the trip.”

Pence did meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu this week and issued a statement that “our industries are finding their stride in the innovation sectors of life sciences, technology and advanced manufacturing, while our educational institutions share bonds in thought.”

Obviously, Pence did not see much use, politically or economically, in meeting with Abbas.

The official WAFA Palestinian Authority news agency has honored the murderers with the supreme Islamic status of “Shahids” who were “escorted… to the place of their final rest.”

Palestinian Media Watch translated and published on Tuesday the WAFA report from last Friday  in which it stated in the Arabic language newspaper  Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, “Yesterday [Dec. 25, 2014], the citizens of Jerusalem escorted the bodies of Martyrs (Shahids) Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal, from the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood of south-east Jerusalem, to the place of their final rest in the Al-Sawahreh Al-Sharqiyeh cemetery, after they were held by the occupation for 37 days, and transferred to their relatives after midnight.”

The Facebook page of the Fatah movement, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, posted a picture last Thursday of the graves of the two terrorists and praised them:

    This is the place of eternal rest of Martyrs (Shahids) Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal of Jabel Mukaber [neighborhood] in occupied Jerusalem, who ascended [to heaven] a month and a half ago during an operation (i.e., terror attack) at an occupation synagogue in occupied Jerusalem. Early morning today, they were escorted to their graves at Al-Sawahreh Al- Sharqiyeh.”

Fatah called the terror attack “an operation at an occupation synagogue in occupied Jerusalem.”

Two Arab terrorists from eastern Jerusalem entered a synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood of western Jerusalem on November 18 and massacred worshippers with guns, knives and axes, killing four Jews and a Druze police officer, and wounding seven other Jews who were praying.

The terrorists were killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli police that arrived on the scene.

Earlier this month, Palestinian Media Watch reported that the PA Mufti likewise called them Shahids, when he demanded that Israel return the bodies of the killers because “it is the Shahids’ right for us to pray for them, and this is a right according to Shari’ah. Their relatives, friends and loved ones also have the right to see them one last time.”

Palestinian Media Watch also showed that Abbas’ condemnation of the synagogue massacre was later explained away by Fatah officials as a condemnation for diplomatic reasons only.

Israeli soldiers stopped another attempted murder by a knife-wielding Palestinian Authority terrorist Monday morning at the Nitzanei Oz checkpoint near Tulkarm, east of Netanya.

The soldier was not wounded.

The IDF said soldiers overpowered the attacker and brought him to security personnel for questioning.

Two other Arabs were questioned on Sunday after being discovered to be carrying knives, and attempted stabbings of soldiers and Border Police officers has become almost a daily routine.

Many of the terrorists are not linked with terror cells and simply are considered “lone wolves.”

It is more than decade too late to deal with the phenomenon because 20 years of Palestinian Authority incitement and brainwashing has produced results.

The Abbas regime in Ramallah for years has been systematically inciting children and youth to hate and murder Jews, using textbooks, media and official praise of “martyrs” to excite the Arab population. Those children and youth now are teenagers and young adults who believe with all their hearts and all their souls that all of Israel belongs to Arab “Palestine” and that killing Jews is the Islamic version of a mitzvah.

The Palestinian Authority has become a serial murderer. It killed the ”peace process,” which it still uses as a camouflage for its plan to do away with Israel as  a Jewish country.

It has encouraged an entire generation to kill Israelis, especially soldiers. It will continue and will even get worse if the Palestinian Authority ever becomes a country because the concept of ”two-states” is not a solution.

It is the problem.

Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas sent mixed messages Sunday regarding violence against Israel, claiming that the PA does not plan to take up weapons against Israel – but then warning of a potential “explosion” of terrorist violence.

Abbas’ comments to an Egyptian television station were translated by Israel’s Reshet Bet.

He stated that the PA would use diplomacy, not weapons, in its efforts to claim the entirety of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. However, he said, “if the Palestinian people feels there is no hope – it will explode.”

Abbas claimed that the PA would be powerless to prevent an outbreak of violence. His comments come in the wake of several brutal attacks on Jewish civilians.

While Abbas attempted to portray himself as an innocent observer of Arab terrorism, countless reports have shown that the PA intentionally, and systematically, incites Arab youth to commit acts of terrorism. Terrorism is lauded, and those who commit violence against Jewish civilians are embraced as heroes.

Abbas himself has referred to PA terrorists who murdered Israeli children as “heroic brothers.” Among the members of his government was Ziad Abu Ein, who suffered a heart attack in a clash with the IDF two weeks ago and  once murdered two Israeli children in a terrorist attack.

He has also aligned himself with Hamas, which openly seeks Israel’s destruction.

Abbas’ comments Sunday appear to be part of a long-term strategy of protecting his reputation as a “partner for peace” in talks with Israel without giving up his support for terrorism.

The Hamas “military” wing trained with machine-gunfire in an exercised ono the ruins of destroyed Jewish communities in the pre-dawn hours Thursday morning, hours after the European Union Court of Justice ruled that there was not enough evidence to justify the terrorist organization’s remaining on the list of banned terrorist groups.

The midnight-to-dawn exercise was carried out where Jews use to live in Dugit and Nissanit, from where they were expelled in the summer of 2005 as part of the Sharon government’s lunacy that the expulsion was the road to peace.

The number of soldiers – remember, the EU court says they are not terrorists – involved in the training indicates that It was the largest military exercise that Hamas has carried out since the Protective Edge campaign in the against Hamas in Gaza last summer, Israel Defense reported..

If the justices needed more evidence that Hamas is a terrorist organization, all they had to do was visit Jewish communities in the Gaza Belt – unless they wanted to take a chance on a one-way ticket to Gaza – and lose sleep just like the Israelis who heard explosions and gunfire for hours.

One of those explosions probably was the one that killed one Hamas member and wounded several others in a “work accident,” another semantic whitewash for terrorists preparing to kill Jews.

According to the European Union court, this is not terror. Maybe it is part of the peace process, or maybe it is the expression of “unity” with the rival Fatah movement headed by Mahmoud Abbas.

Speaking of Abbas, posters of the Palestinian Authority chairman were displayed in Gaza Thursday morning with one message that the European Union court might be interested in seeing. Abbas was pictured as being hanged, and the posters included the words ”dictator” and ”traitor.”

Is this the work of terrorists?

Perhaps the European Union Court of Justice – the most unsuitable name imaginable – views the posters as freedom of expression in a democratic society.