The terrorist group Islamic Jihad has taken responsibility for the suicide bombing of a market in the central Israeli town of Hadera. Five people were killed and dozens more injured. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement saying the bombing harms Palestinian interests.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack calls the attack "a heinous act of terrorism":

"The Palestinian Authority needs to do more to prevent these attacks. They need to act against terrorism. They need to. . . .act to prevent terrorist attacks and they need also to dismantle those terrorist networks, which are responsible for these attacks. Those are their obligations. They are well known and we expect the Palestinian Authority to fulfill these obligations."

Mr. McCormack says "It's important for the Palestinians to provide a secure environment for their own people as well as to prevent terrorist attacks":

"There's no political cause that justifies the use of terrorism. I think that's what the Palestinian people on the whole want. President Abbas was elected on a platform of providing peace and security for the Palestinian people. It's what everybody wants."

The Palestinians, says Mr. McCormack, "need to resolve a fundamental contradiction":

"That fundamental contradiction is that you cannot have groups that, on one hand, want to reserve the right to. . . .commit acts of terror; yet on the other hand say want to participate in the political process."

"As for the how and the when of resolving this fundamental contradiction," says State Department spokesman McCormack, "that's a decision for the Palestinian people to make."

The preceding was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government.