From Gaza to Jerusalem: Slaughter to Slaughter
Inhuman Stain:In this photo provided by the Israeli Government Press Office, volunteers from the ultra-Orthodox Zaka rescue organization hold up victims' bloody prayer shawls in the library of the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, where a Palestinian gunman murdered eight Jewish students today. (Photo by Avi Ohayon/Israeli Government Press Office via Getty Images)
Blood hasn't stopped flowing in Gaza, where more than 120 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched an assault on the besieged strip last week. But Thursday night the latest slog of brutality shifted east: a Palestinian gunman walked into the library of a religious school in Jerusalem, murdered eight students and wounded nine more before armed students managed to shoot him dead. The Palestinian is thought to have been a resident of East Jerusalem, the Arab part of that divided city.
It's the first time in four years that Jerusalem has been the scene of a terrorist attack, and the first time in almost two years that so many Israeli civilians have been killed.
Rumbles of a Third Uprising
Is it the end of the odd, de-facto truce that's imposed itself on Israelis and Palestinians by default for the last couple of years as each side awaited the next occasion to make peace or war? Hard to say. Occasions for peace-making have been rare to non-existent. The two sides' recent agreement to talk, nebulously brokered by the Bush administration at Annapolis, Md., was shattered by Israel's latest assault on Gaza. Failure to make anything good out of the latest promises, hollow though they were, may well lead to a third Palestinian uprising. (Palestinians were celebrating the Jerusalem yeshiva attack in Gaza streets). The only certainty is that with Gaza at its humanitarian worst since 1967, with West Bank Palestinians once again disillusioned, and with Israel's unimaginative, flaw-ridden leadership facing no exits at every turn, the immediate future looks as bleak as it's looked in years.
"Violence Begets Violence"
I'm reminded of something President Clinton said in 2000, when he was trying to get both sides to break through the murderous cycles (and almost managed it): ''I think they know that violence begets violence,'' Clinton said, ''and that in the end they're still going to be neighbors. So they're either going to keep killing each other at varying rates with one side feeling beleaguered -- the Israelis -- and the others feeling oppressed -- the Palestinians. Or they're going to come to grips with this and complete the process they agreed to complete when they signed the agreement on the White House lawn in September of 1993.''
How distant that or any other agreement now seems. How beleaguered and oppressed the two sides are. Unlike 2000, this time American engagement and mediation is more a matter of photo ops than earnest commitment.
Comments
Pierre, I’m sorry, but your statement:
“I’m reminded of something President Clinton said in 2000, when he was trying to get both sides to break through the murderous cycles (and almost managed it): ‘’I think they know that violence begets violence,'’ Clinton said, ‘’and that in the end they’re still going to be neighbors. ”
doesn’t really make sense in more ways than one. The whole bit about “still being neighbors” that Clinton mentioned - well the “palestinians” have made it quite clear they won’t be finished until they have no Jewish/Israeli neighbors. That wasn’t and isn’t part of THEIR narrow world view…
Gregor, you’re mistaken on two counts. Putting the word “Palestinian” in quotes makes about as much sense as putting the word “Navajo” in quotes. And while some Palestinians still do want the eradication of Israel (in the same fanatical, irrational way, say, that Tim McVeigh wanted the eradication of the federal government), they, like our own zany militias in this country, are a minority. Conflating them with all Palestinians is the cliche method of dehumanizing them in order to discredit them, which is the easiest way to ignore their basic and absolutely just claim to a land of their own.
“And while some Palestinians still do want the eradication of Israel (in the same fanatical, irrational way, say, that Tim McVeigh wanted the eradication of the federal government), they, like our own zany militias in this country, are a minority.”
Oh, that wacky Hamas government . . . just a zany minority (never mind their election victory), no more a threat to Israel than Tim McVeigh to the federal government (never mind the support from Iran, the arms, and the continual rocket fire at civillians).
Well played.
Not a particularly rational comparison when examined in any detail, but on a superficial level, I’m sure that made sense to someone.
Akiva, leaping from Hamas’ election victory to your implied conclusion that most Palestinians want Israel wiped off the map is, as superficial analysis goes, as simplistic as assuming that because George Bush was reelected in 2004, a majority of Americans applaud his handling of the war, his AWOL status on the economy, his disregard for most things constitutional… no need to go on. Detail is good. Ideological cliche–I’m not so sure. Evidence is better. Here’s some. According to Near Eastern Consulting, one of the closest things we have to public opinion seurveys of Palestinians:
# 70% support a peace settlement with Israel, compared to 72% in January 2007 and 77% in December 2006.
# 51% believe that Hamas should change its position towards the elimination of Israel (a drop of 5% since January 2007, and a 10% drop since December 2006).
# 63% of Palestinians believe that Hamas should use all its efforts to reach a peace agreement with Israel.
# 85% of Palestinians believe that there is a Palestinian peace partner. This indicates an increase of 8% since December 2006, and is the most positive answer since NEC began asking this question in its May 2006 survey.
# Meanwhile, 26% believe that Palestinians have a peace partner in Israel. This indicates a downward trend as in December 2006 still 30% believed that there was a peace partner in Israel, while this was this the case for 36% of Palestinians in November 2006. The current results consist of the least pronounced belief that there is a peace partner for Palestinians in Israel since August 2006 (at the height of Israel’s war against Hezbollah).
It’s also true that on the old ideological line, 70 percent of Palestinians don’t believe that in principle Israel has the right to exist as a separate state, as opposed to a one-state solution that encompasses all (as anathema to Israel as being a perpetual refugee ought to be for Palestinians). But the distance between ideology and realism virtually disappears in the answer to the first query in the series: Most Palestinians want a peace settlement, and most want Hamas to get off its high horses and yield to one. That latter proportion is diminishing the more Israel bombards and invades Gaza, of course. I wouldn’t blame Palestinians for that drop.