The Story You Aren't Hearing About Israel
Did you hear about the two policemen who stopped to help a driver stuck with a flat--and were shot to death in the head at point-blank range?
Did you know about the 120-kilogram bomb planted in a parking lot adjacent to a shopping mall where thousands of people were milling about the stores, restaurants, and movie theaters?
No, of course, you didn't. These are just two everyday incidents of the ordeal confronted by people in Israel while the world and the political leaders look away. Outrages like these do not make it into the Western media, which exhibit the familiar phenomenon of monitoring only the conflicts that are the flavor of the month. And when they do turn to Israel, sporadically, it is with the excitement of thinking they can expose Israeli wrongdoing: the New York Times just drummed up a front-page story alleging the deliberate murder of innocent civilians by Israeli soldiers during the Gaza war, a poorly investigated report that turned out to be yet another urban myth and then was shamefully corrected by the Times only on the inside pages and only by blaming Israel for the false report. (Remember another urban myth alleging thousands of citizens massacred in the battle against terrorism in Jenin in 2002 when it turned out no more than 54 died, most of them combatants?)
Ordinary Israelis despair of the cruel bias. The policemen died because Israel eased restrictions on movement in the Nablus area of the West Bank. Hundreds survived in the attack on the mall near Haifa only because a woman reported hearing an explosion. Security found it was a detonator that expired without setting off a car bomb that would have lacerated the crowds with sharp metal and ball bearings.
The willingness to give a free pass to terrorism was, of course, manifest most luridly in the Gaza war. Hamas fired thousands of rockets with the short-term aim of murdering as many innocent civilians as possible in the service of the longer-term ambition to terrorize Israel.
Then, when Israel finally responded (with military restraint and humanitarian aid), it was faced with world demands for an unconditional cease-fire. Ironically, the fiercest criticism in the Arab world about Israel's conduct in Gaza stems from Israel's failure to achieve a decisive victory, for the Arab world rightly perceives not Israel but Hamas as a threat: It knows full well that Hamas is a fifth column for Iranian influence.
Once the cease-fire was achieved, the world lost interest in Israel. Except that now, in a fit of selectively lethal amnesia, it is on the verge of providing the selfsame murderous Hamas with a huge influx of funding that will rebuild the authority of a terrorist organization dedicated to killing Jews.
The tragedy for the Palestinians as much as the Israelis is that they do not have leadership strong enough to make peace. Hamas wants perpetual war: No one can doubt that it aims not to have a two-state solution but to have a "no state" solution--that is, to have the State of Israel stop existing. For its part, "moderate" Fatah is hopelessly corrupt and weak and seemingly incapable of reform or of enforcing law and order on its people. That is why an Israeli-Palestinian peace remains a dream today and why what Israel can offer the Palestinians is less than what any Palestinian politician is willing or able to attempt.
Even the language of peace is eroding. The Palestinians say they support two states for two peoples but refrain from saying that one of those is the Jewish people. Most recently, a major Palestine Liberation Organization figure, Mohammed Dahlan, asserted that the Fatah movement hasn't even recognized Israel thus far and that the Palestinian Authority's apparent "recognition" of Israel is to make the PA "acceptable" to the international community, in order to bring in international aid. Who can trust that?
There is justification for the widespread Israeli concern that if a Palestinian state were established, power in Gaza, and then in the West Bank, would soon fall into the hands of Hamas. After all, Hamas won 44 percent of the vote and the mayoralty in several major cities in the last West Bank election. Another unreported fact that reflects on what would happen if Hamas won: The most credible of the Palestinian-run news operations, the Ma'an News Agency, has posted three listings involving a total of 181 persons--all Fatah people--shot by Hamas in Gaza since December 2008.
The Fatah party is facing an election within a year, which may well be won by Hamas. If the Iranian-supported Hamas ultimately succeeds in its 20-year effort to be the principal voice of Palestinian nationalism, Israel will have a neighbor that truly speaks for Iran's goal of seeing Israel "wiped off the face of the Earth."
In a "unity" government, Hamas would undoubtedly be integrated in the security services, which would end Palestinian-Israeli security cooperation covering the majority of the West Bank cities. Hamas wants Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to stop negotiations with Israel and to embrace the political program that allows for "resistance" -- in other words, violence.
No wonder the Palestinian Reconciliation Conference in Cairo ended in failure. Even the lure of billions of dollars in aid has not brought Fatah Sunnis in Judea and Samaria, i.e., the West Bank, any closer to Shiite supporters of Hamas in Gaza. These are two parallel lines that cannot meet, and this division will persist.
And what of Israeli leadership? Now Israel has Binyamin Netanyhu trying to form a cabinet. The world may be skeptical about the will and political ability of a more conservative Likud government to make historic and dramatic decisions that involve painful concessions to the Palestinians in the interest of a two-state solution, but history suggests otherwise. It was Menachem Begin's Likud government that brought about the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. It was Yitzhak Shamir's Likud government that began the peace process at the Madrid Conference in October of 1991. Netanyahu's Likud party and its reservations should not be dismissed lightly, for it was Netanyahu who predicted way back in 1994 that handing over territories to Palestinians would lead to the creation of a fundamental Islamic terrorist base adjacent to Israel.
Israel has taken many risks for peace. The response has been rocket fire, terrorism, more incitement, more vilification, more shedding of Israeli blood, and less security, not to mention an ongoing historic campaign to defame, denounce, denigrate, and delegitimize Israel in every international forum.
Contrary to many reports, Netanyahu has asserted that he is not opposed to a two-state solution, provided it does not put at risk the national security of the Jewish state. The key component would be a record of Palestinian determination and ability to fight terrorism and to live in peace with Israel. Like so many experts, Netanyahu feels that the chances of an enforceable, comprehensive arrangement are low to negligible. In the meantime, as a matter of law and order, he intends to oppose illegal settlements, be they in the West Bank or among Bedouins in Sinai. His major priority would be to promote prosperity on the West Bank, creating an incentive for the Palestinians to make a commitment to peace. He notes that Palestinians in the West Bank remained calm during the fighting in Gaza and didn't engage in mass protests.
Therefore, Netanyahu will focus on improving Palestinian life by lifting roadblocks (100 so far) and reducing checkpoints (they have gone down from 50 to 15) and making other improvements on the ground for the Palestinian community. In this he is supported by dovish Israeli President Shimon Peres, who now has doubts about Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza without first having established a peaceful and democratic Palestinian party to which it could hand the territory. That Palestinian party does not yet exist.
A Palestinian state cannot be created by terrorism. It can be created through the reformation of political and economic institutions so that they reflect democracy, market economics, and real actions to confront terrorism. When there is an effective, Palestinian-based security force with counterterrorism capability in the West Bank, the Israelis will then be prepared to withdraw their defense forces and the Shin Bet from operating there. Hence the importance of the U.S. effort, led by Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, to develop a decent Palestinian security force. The new units have been enforcing order in the cities of Jenin and Hebron, which had been basically lawless. But it is not enough to target car thieves and robbers. The critical counterterrorism ability of the Palestinian security forces is still limited; above all, they must have the will to target terrorist cells and their networks.
Two modest paramilitary forces have been trained to police crime and enforce public order, but not to uproot terror groups. In fact, the PA has increasingly offered safe haven to terror groups. Brig.-Gen. Radhi Assida, the PA National Security Forces (NSF) commander in Jenin, revealed to the Palestinian website Ma'an on January 24, 2009, that PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's NSF had agreed to provide protection to four senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists wanted by Israel. Assida also confirmed that PIJ operatives continue to receive monthly salaries from the PA Interior Ministry, just like their colleagues in the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades.
In the interim, Israel must not wait on events. Israel would be wise (despite the risks) to allow even freer movement in the West Bank; it should help to create more jobs and a better standard of living. Yes, the West must press Israel on these issues, but it must also press the Arab states. They should underwrite the training of PA security forces and invest sensibly in housing and agriculture.
Peace will come only when the Palestinians are liberated from their age-old hatred of Israel and Jews. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for many times, there must be teaching, preaching, and celebrating, from childhood on, that hatred, disrespect, violence, terrorism, anti-Semitism, and war against Israelis and Zionists are unacceptable. Today, it is exactly the opposite.
A great Middle East authority, Prof. Bernard Lewis, recently pointed out in Foreign Affairs how easily the West is misled. In contrast to reports in English, he writes, "the discourse in Arabic--in broadcasts, sermons, speeches, and school textbooks--is far less conciliatory, portraying Israel as an illegitimate invader that must be destroyed." Israel cannot make peace with those whose first priority is to blow up Israeli women and children and who deny the nation's right to exist. As Lewis puts it, "There is no compromise position between existence and nonexistence."
The sad but realistic fact is that we are much closer to the establishment of two Palestinian states, one in the West Bank and one in Gaza, than to reaching a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians.
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Of course Israel believes it is accountable to no one and is a victim of everyone..
since when has Israel "given a free pass to terrorism"? Israel has justified every jackbooted response to conflagurations that it has either caused or taken no steps to disarm and when it couldn't outright give the world the finger it lied and covered up.
Israel has ignored every single UN resolution against it and now it wants US soldiers and military to do the fighting and dying against Iran..... No patience for Israel and its claims of being "Gods Chosen"...
Sick of articles like this one that overlook Israeli culpability in most of the tragedies it provokes..
You have no idea what you are talking about.
We are sick of fake news justifying the slaughter of civilians by corrupt Israeli politicians in the name of security..
By your theory regarding security of Israel, world should accept Israel occupation and legalized it...and leave all the Palestinians doomed forever...
Morty advise was for you: try being fair, non-biased, truthful and people will appreciate your views...
Its so fake until you have a rocket in your house or are ducking for cover in a mall.
They dont have metal detectors and guards with automatic weapons throughout the country for the fun of it
As long as we are talking 'fun', which rocket is better: Qassam (home grown, crude) or a 2 ton bomb which IDF uses fairly often...
i have a simple equation
Palestinian violence - Israeli violence + Israeli occupation = Israeli occupation
eventhoug the number of the Palestinian deaths is greater... i made them an equal quantity (trying be balanced )
the problem is occupation
the road to peace is clear .....give the palestinians their land and all violence stops
BTW killing innocent people with an apache or a tank is a crime ....its = to suicide bombing ....both are lethal and lead to the loss of innocent life ....
its not a crime when its response to war.
Either they are a real country and gvt and have declared war, or are rogue terrorists. Both = the right to respond
And if Irael is a real country, then the Gazans have a right to respond to protect themselves. Or are Palestinians not entitled to self defense in your eyes?
If occupation is the problem, how come Hamas is still bombing from Gaza. Which hasn't been occupied for nearly 3 years?
you forget that..... gaza AND the west bank are both palestinian territories
....end all occupation NOW
PS:- i condemn all violence..
No need to occupy a jail.
"Did you hear about the THREE PA policemen who stopped ... and were shot to death ... at point-blank range? ...These are just two everyday incidents of the ordeal confronted by people in THE USA while the world and the political leaders look away. Outrages like these do not make it into the Western media, which exhibit the ..."
Change a couple words and it sounds just like good ol USA politics as practiced by the lunatic right-wing gun nuts - and yes it did make it into the western newspapers (I guess you only read Israeli newspapers).
I've an idea. Fox News can easily set you up with quite a few armed and ready to kill wackos to help out in Israel. Just have Glen Beck post a few shots of the Gaza Strip and then tell 'em "that's where the liberals are and they want to take away your guns!".
Great point.....
The next question (the only question, really): what were Israeli policemen (if, indeed, they were police and not military) doing in the West Bank portion of occupied Palestine? And why would anyone think that such tool of the oppressive iron boot of Israel should be free from attack? They are occupiers; they are legitimate targets.
Once again the Ministry of Truth is out in full force.
What's next Mr. Zuckerman ? Perhaps co-authoring pieces with Uri Dromi.
Glenn Greenwald noted that over 70% of Americans wanted to see the US government treat both sides in the Israeli / Palestinian issue with an even-handed approach.
I wonder why the US government does not reflect the will of the people in this matter?
A Jewish State can't be maintained by terrorism either Mort and when a couple of your guys get kidnapped and you respond by indiscriminately slaughtering civilians for weeks at a time, you are undeniably engaging in terrorism.
Guess that's okay if you have a Hebrewic name and not an Arabic one, eh? Next you'll be telling me that it's okay to dump toxic waste in and strip resources from someone's land as long as you're white. Oh wait....
(Mr. Zukerman is part of the propaganda machine.) Mr. Zukerman, imagine the US being cut up by Canada in the same manner that Israel is trying to take all of Palestine. (It is easier to imagine the US carving up Canada, actually; since the US foreign policy stinks.) Then say that the US has no reason to attack Canada.
Did you hear that, everyone? You can't create a democracy using terrorism.
Ask George Bush. He did the same thing while claiming to be the hand of God. Conservatives in America and Israel are the ones causing so much trouble in the world. The good thing is that the younger generations are not so blood thirsty and bent on dominating their neighbors. The dinosaurs will eventually be gone, and the world will finally know peace.
Its the settlements, Stupid.
and the occupation (checkpoints, wall, sniper towers, beatings, incursions, bulldozing homes, stealing land and water resources and blocking aid)
But what about the settlements forcibly evacuated by the Israeli army? If its the settlements, why does Hamas continue to bomb southern israel from Gaza? Why is there no positive response at all to the Gaza withdrawl. I supported that, and now you see those settlers are living in trailers in the middle of nowhere , 50% of them are on welfare, and there has been no positive response.
The evacuation of the illegal settlements were carried out because Sharon knew they were unsustainable re the peace process. He knew they would be called as part of the negotiations.
And don't be dramatic - those illegal settlers from Gaza now live on illegal sttlements in the West Bank. They merely changed address.
You aren't suggesting that they deserve our sympathy are you?
You're kidding, right? Better living in a trailer in the middle of nowhere, 50% on welfare, then having your entire life bombed out of existance, your house destroyed and your children murdered so that Israeli politicians can look tough for elections.
And to say that Gaza is any less occupied then before is a joke. If Israel is not occupying Gaza, then under what authority does it exercise control over Gazan airspace and territorial waters?
After reading this post, I feel I have entered some sort of alternate universe. Up is down.
Israel is a state; it possesses one of the most powerful military establishments on the planet. When it carries out operations in which a handful of its soldiers are killed and hundreds or thousands of opposition soldiers and civilians are killed, it is not a measured response. It is Wounded Knee.
Mort,
A Palestinian state is possible.
Stop there.
Focus on that.
Forget all the word weeds.
In the front page intro it said:
"A Palestinian state cannot be created by terrorism. It can be created through the reformation of political and economic institutions so that they reflect democracy, market economics, and real actions to confront terrorism.
Just replace "A Palestinian state" with "The United States" and you have a premise for a serious thesis. How can we continue to dictate to the world that we have answers to problems when we live in an oligarchical state whose media/state leaders deny the republic's majority its desired solutions? We can't even run a democratic republic here at home!
I'm really getting tired of the foreign policy of the United States being dictated by Israel and I'm really getting sick of Mort Zuckerman shamelessly shilling for the government of Israel. I'm also thoroughly disgusted with people accusing other people of being "anti-semetic" for opposing policies of Israel. Just like I can detest Joe Scarborough without despising MSNBC, I can loath Israel's policies without hating Jewish people.
Except Mort Zuckerman.
Perhaps if The Israelis hadn't forced the Palestinians from their homes in 1948 and subjugated them and continued to steal their land right up until today, they Palestinians wouldn't have to resort to terrorism against an overwhelming military force. Nobody likes to see innocent people die, but far more Palestinians have been casualties than have Israelis.
The Israelis didn't start this. Only after the United Nations created a state of Israel as well as a Palestinian state (remember, there was at that time a Palestinian state on the planning books) in 1948, and only after the Arabs declared war on Israel, only then did Israel force Palestinians from their homes. And yes, in some instances Israel did abuse Palestinians; such is war.
Don't forget also that in 1948 most of the Arab countries forced their Jewish population from their homes. In fact, I believe the number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands was approximately equal to the number of Palestinian refugees.
The Palestinians did not declare war on Israel in 1948. 700,000 Palestinians of a total population of 1,200,000 (58.33%) were forced from their homes and farms by the Israelis. No matter how you cut it, these were innocent people being uprooted by an invader.
The one thing Mr. Zuckerman conveniently leaves out of the article is that while Netanyahu makes noises about stopping illegal settlement growth, he plans to expand "legal" settlement growth (legal according to Israeli law, as all West Bank settlements are illegal under international law).
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I agree with his diagnosis about the Palestinians - they do need strong leaders willing to renounce violence if they ever want their own state, there are extremists that need to be marginalized. But where I (and I get the feeling most of the "reasonable" posters here) have always differed with the Israeli government is how to get there. Zuckerman seems to think the obligations are entirely on the Palestinian side, while many of us think that true military restraint (and I'm sorry but in no world was the Gaza operation an exercise in restraint) by Israel and good faith (which means no settlement expansions) are integral to empowering Palestinian moderates and marginalizing Hamas.
When is the call going to come for Israeli leaders who renounce violence (including the violence implicit in maintaining and expanding the settlement
Its a little more nuanced than that. Leftist Israeli politicians like Ehud Barak tried desperately to get an agreement signed. Israeli policy officially supports a two state solution and has for many years. Hamas refuses to accept Israel's right to exist, and has publicly admitted to using ceasefires to shore up arms and strategize for bombs(sheik Yassin)
How does one negotiate with that?
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