Thursday, September 02, 2010

Peace casualties

Throughout its history Israel has tried negotiating with the Arab side, but always under the threat of terrorism. The usual refrain, often heard from Arafat, was that if you don't give us what we want then violence will break out. In fact we knew that the terrorism was another side of the two-faced Palestinian approach. It may be that the 4 Israelis killed in a drive by shooting near Hebron yesterday were killed in just such a way, a warning to Israel to give in to Palestinian demands, or otherwise there will be more killings.

But, this time there is one big difference, there is a split between the so-called moderates of Fatah, now engaging with PM Netanyahu in talks in Washington, and the extremists of Hamas in Gaza. Notably the Hamas military wing Izzedin-al-Kassem claimed credit for these killings and it is reported that the Palestinian security forces on the West Bank are cooperating with the Israeli security forces. According to Hamas they are doing Israel's work, according to Israel they are finally showing their opposition to terror. Reports say up to 300 Hamas supporters were arrested throughout the West Bank. The PA spokesman specifically criticized the killings, although he mentioned all killings, including those of the Israeli occupation (which ones specifically?) and the incident was labelled a "military operation" by the official PA news agency.

It is a great pity that once again Jews have to pay with their lives so that one group or another can show their opposition to peace. By this act 7 more orphans have been created and greater enmity of the settlers against the Palestinians will understandably be generated. In a strong reaction to the killings the settler's Yesha movement announced that they will ignore the Israeli freeze and start to rebuild in the territories starting tonite, instead of waiting until Sept. 26, the official end of the freeze. It will be difficult for the civil administration of the WB to stop them.

Meanwhile another 2 Israelis were shot up in a drive by shooting in Israel on Wednesday at the Rimonim junction in the Galillee. The occupants, a couple, were able to escape and hide in trees even though injured. The IDF and security forces are on high alert. The problem is that in order to achieve peace there must be more Israeli casualites.

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