The pathological obsession some people have with Israel knows no rational bounds. Somehow, these people will find a way to make the heinous attacks on the Parisian public about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Incredible. ISIS, a terrorist organization active in Syria and Iraq targeting the general public in a Western European country, is about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians?
That’s what the Swedish foreign minister implied when she said, “Here again [in Paris], you come back to situations like that in the Middle East where not least the Palestinians see that there isn’t any future. (The Palestinians) either have to accept a desperate situation or resort to violence.” So not only is Palestinian violence okay, Israel is somehow to blame for Paris.
Then there was the Dutch Socialist leader, who also linked Israel to Paris: “The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is for [the ISIS terrorists] a metaphor for the subordination of the Arab world and the Muslim community,” and called the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “a breeding ground for such an attack.”
In fact, our observation is just the opposite: The surge of violence in the Middle East that ISIS has wrought has diminished interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The myth that this conflict was central to the problems of the Arab world began unraveling with the outbreak of the Arab Spring. And with the Syria conflict becoming ever more acute, the myth has been further proven as just that: A myth. The Arab world is overwhelmed with conflict — primarily based on Shi’a-Sunni splits — and it’s got nothing to do with Jews. Palestinians of course are wracked with their own conflicts (Hamas vs. Fatah, religion vs. secularism), but as the Arab world has fractured, these internal Palestinian issues are very much in line with the same conflicts plaguing the larger Arab world, and have very little to do with Israel.
The latest Palestinian attempt at intifada, while frightening and horrifying in the casualties it has thus far cost, including five deaths this very day, has basically been a political failure. No one cares. They’re too busy dealing with their own problems.
The Palestinians claim that the current violence is being done because the status quo of the Temple Mount is under threat. About a quarter of Syrian refugees have landed in Jordan, the country that administers the Temple Mount. The number of registered refugees (630,245) amount to over 9% of Jordan’s overall population. If you accept the figure of estimated refugees in the country (1.4 million), that’s 21% of the population! Imagine a scenario where nearly a quarter of the US population would be refugees from a single country. It’s astounding. Since the attacks in Paris, Jordan’s King Abdullah has said that the world is in danger of a third world war. Does this sound like a leader whose top concern is going to be whether Jews are praying on the Temple Mount?
When will the Palestinians wake up and realize that their future is in their own hands — not through stabbings, but through the hard work of state building and committing to a future free of violence? As much as the Arab world loves invoking the “poor Palestinians,” it has moved on to bigger and more pressing problems. The Palestinians — and they’re leftist extremist allies in the Europe — would do well to realize it.
If that’s the case, how do you explain then the recent stabbings?
The Paris attacks. They seem to have emboldened Palestinian terrorists to try again — as things had been going quiet in Israel prior to Paris.