A Palestinian Authority official has admitted that the siege of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativiety in 2002 was staged.

A Fatah official who served as chief of a terrorist organization that holed up for over a month inside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity in 2002 while fleeing a massive Israeli anti-terror operation admitted in a recently released book the infamous church siege was orchestrated by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.

Israel was widely criticized during the ordeal for laying siege to the Nativity Church - where Christians believe Jesus was born - after dozens of Bethlehem-area gunmen, including wanted senior Hamas, Tanzim and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorists, stormed the structure and refused to come out. Tanzim and the Brigades are part of Fatah.

Following that admission, can we expect Church leaders who condemned Israel at the time for this cynical piece of wrong-doing by the PA to apologise? Or can we expect them to condemn the Palestinian leadership for its actions?

I think we know the answer to that.