As Palestinian Arab terrorists were preparing to make their second attack in two weeks on a Tel Aviv suburb — this time the suicide bomber positioned himself next to a group of people playing cards in a park — the State Department was preparing to release its latest edition of “Patterns of Global Terrorism.” The report is compiled annually, but it has of course taken on extra significance in the wake of September 11, and it is an incomparable whitewash. To read the State Department’s report, Saudi Arabia might as well be Canada, and the Palestinian Authority might as well be England.

For the eighth year running, the same seven countries are listed as state sponsors of terrorism: Cuba, Libya, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria. Under the entry for Saudi Arabia, the report says that the Saudi government “reaffirmed its commitment to combat terrorism and responded positively to requests for concrete action in support of Coalition efforts against al-Qaida and the Taliban.” At Foggy Bottom, it seems, to “combat terrorism” means to pay rewards to the families of Palestinian Arab suicide bombers and to aid Coalition efforts it means refusing American forces the use of Saudi air bases.

The section dealing with the Palestinian Authority is even worse. The State Department compliments Yasser Arafat, saying he “forcefully denounced the September 11 attacks.” It also notes that the kifiyeh-wearing killer “issued a public statement urging adherence to his call for a cease-fire.” The report reports credulously that Hamas “publicly distanced itself from Usama Bin Laden.” It takes pains to note that “Jewish extremists attacked Palestinian civilians and their properties in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” while neglecting to mention in its “Chronology of Significant Terrorist Incidents” 86 attacks in Israel’s list of attacks on the Jewish State.

For those who are seeking clues to why this is happening, we commend the dispatch on page one today by our Washington bureau man, T.A. Starks. It turns out that Congress is weighing the idea of sending yet more American taxpayer dollars to the Palestinian Arabs. What the State Department wants to do with its dishonest report is protect that aid program. A lonely fight against this insanity has been waged by Congressman Anthony Wiener of Brooklyn, who has issued a galling chart showing that as aid has increased, so has the murder of Jews in Israel. At some point voters are going to start to connect the dots here and see through the whitewash in Washington.