Picture this: a program fashioned after "Sesame Street," with children (some as young as 5 years old, most about 10) seated in a semi-circle around a group leader, dressed in costumes and party clothes. Disney characters decorate the walls. From among the group a young girl stands up, raises her fist and cries: "When I wander into the entrance of Jerusalem, I will turn into a suicide warrior in battledress! In battledress!"

She smiles, takes a bow, is applauded by the others in the group. The adult leader cheers: "Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!"

This scene was broadcast in February 1998 on "The Children's Club." The show appears on the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, a television channel based in the West Bank city of Ramallah under the direct control of Yasser Arafat. The Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation came into existence after Israel and the PLO signed the Oslo accords in 1993, and it was launched in part with dollars supplied by the U.S. government.

The footage is chilling. A beautiful, dark haired young girl who looks to be about 7 years old sings the following words like an automaton, with barely a blinking of her eyes: "Each and every part of your soil I have drenched with all my blood. And we shall march as warriors of Jihad. Oh, my exalted martyr, you are my example. Oh, my companion, you are beside me. Oh, my sister, sing constantly about my life as a suicide warrior, how we remain steadfast. Oh, my country, you are my soul. Oh, my dawn, you are my heartbeat."

On another program, this one designed for educators, the shapers of young Palestinian minds are taught this poem: "Oh, to those who achieved eternal glory and to the lovers of exalted martyrdom. Oh, steadfast leaders, we bless you with the most fitting tribute of all, for you have reached the highest summit, together with the righteous and the prophets. Do we say to you good-bye? No, instead we declare, see you again in heaven! For this is the meeting place, the loving faithful one."

Excerpts like these reveal that Arafat is acting in direct contradiction to the Sept. 9, 1993 promise he made to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin - the promise to remove from the Covenant of the Palestine Liberation Organization the articles denying Israel's right to exist.

That hasn't happened. Indeed, shows like "The Children's Club" reveal how thoroughly committed Arafat and his authority are to the idea that their struggle against Israel is a jihad - a holy war - that will end with a Palestinian flag flying over territory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean. In the Oslo accords and later agreements, the Palestinian Authority agreed in no uncertain terms to take all necessary measures to prevent violence, or the incitement of violence, against Israel.

But those guarantees meant less than the the PLO Covenant's Article 7, which reads: "All means of information and education must be adopted . . . He must be prepared for the armed struggle and ready to sacrifice his wealth and his life . . ."

The U.S. government is not ignorant of the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation's programming. At a Senate subcommittee hearing in March, Assistant Secretary of State Martin Indyk actually watched footage from "The Children's Club." Indyk knows full well that the incitement to violence is in violation of the Declaration of Principles signed by Israel and the PLO. But when the U.S. government makes demands for concessions, it makes them of Israel, not of Arafat and his crew.

"The Children's Club" and other programming could not have made it to air without support from American taxpayers. The Sept. 7, 1997 Philadelphia Inquirer reported that "the network was nurtured with about $500,000 in equipment and training from the U.S. Agency for International Development," and cited as its source the network's chairman, Raddwan Abu Ayyash.

Analysts of the Israel-Palestinian peace process excuse Arafat by saying that he has to negotiate carefully between the moderates and hardliners among his people. But what is the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to do when American diplomats insist that Israel cede a large swatch of land to the Palestinian Authority at the same time Palestinian children are being indoctrinated to become "suicide warriors" at the "entrance of Jerusalem" on a kids' TV show?

* Ferne Hassan is U.S. coordinator of the Jerusalem-based Peace For Generations.