The writers of Superman comics coined it in 1960, and Jerry Seinfeld (a huge Man of Steel fan) borrowed it – the notion of a “Bizarro World” where black means white, up means down, right means wrong.

Now we’re witnessing an entirely new take on Bizarro World – terrorists who act as though killing and maiming innocents will somehow advance their people’s cause toward statehood. It’s almost too Bizarro to be believed, and yet, from the radical Islamist perspective, almost nothing is too Bizarro when it comes to hating and attempting to delegitimize and destroy Israel.

With the potential for a United Nations General Assembly vote on Palestinian statehood in September, one would think that those in favor of such a declaration would want to be seen as peaceful, law abiding citizens of the world. But in Bizarro fashion, such voices are doing their best to wrest the process back toward the violence of street thuggery.

Thus we have seen renewed, repeated efforts at dismantling the elements of civil discourse in favor of attacking Israel and murdering Israelis. First it was the attacks on Aug. 18 that left eight dead outside Eilat. Then renewal of the missile attacks on southern Israeli communities like Sderot, which have faced thousands of such bombings over the last eight years.

And on Monday in the wee hours, an attack in Tel Aviv that left eight wounded, as a man ran over police in a stolen taxi, then exited and stabbed others. It could have been much, much worse, as the violence occurred outside a nightclub estimated by some accounts to have over 2,000 people present, many of whom were teens.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned earlier this week that groups based in Gaza are preparing another attack, so as we go to press, the potential for additional tragedy looms large.

Even the Palestinian Authority, which is shepherding the effort at international legitimacy for a new sovereign state before the U.N., denounced the barbarous attack in Tel Aviv, while keeping its backchannels to terrorist partners open by condemning Israeli retaliation.

This may be the PA’s way of straddling both worlds – the civilized and the Bizarro – but ultimately there will be a choice to be made. What the PA must ultimately acknowledge is that nations unilaterally attacked are nations entitled to self-defense. It cannot be any other way.

Hamas, Hezbollah, Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Jihad – the list of radical Islamist terror groups goes on – don’t see it from that perspective. They utilize claimed past injustices to over and again legitimize the initiation of attacks on Israel and Jews. And since the only sandbox they know how to play in is one where bullies reign supreme, it’s no surprise that the prospect of abiding by rules that call for getting along and resolving differences peacefully are anathema to them.

This isn’t new; there’s a historic tendency of such groups and their adherents upping extremist activity whenever the prospect of civilized discourse breaks out. The current thrashing compares to the typical incendiary efforts prior to the commencement of peace talks between Israel and Palestinians, or between Israel and its neighboring nations. If there’s diplomacy en route, so too is there Islamist-incited terrorism.

If the Palestinian-friendly General Assembly does succeed in moving a vote to embrace a Palestinian state (a largely symbolic act in the face of a sure Security Council veto by the United States at least – see related commentary on page 9A), the PA will be facing the euphemistic enigma wrapped in a conundrum – how does one simultaneously serve the masters of security and terror?

One can’t, of course. Ultimately a lack of respect for civil order turns back on itself. There’s no question that if Hamas and other Islamist radicals play a role in a Palestinian state, there will be no less ferocity of terror; in fact, there will be more – histrionic hatred toward Israel, and an equal antipathy toward their more sedate partners who interfere with their destructive agenda.

So whether today, tomorrow or down the road, the PA will be forced into a very difficult choice -namely, does it have more in common with those who favor the rule of law, or those Bizarros for whom anarchy equals society. The future of Palestinians, not to mention relations with Israel, will depend on how their leaders respond.