It is important to keep last week’s IDF raid in Jenin and the terrorist attacks in Jerusalem that followed in context.
Fulminating Palestinian leaders have been striving mightily to paint a picture of a newly-installed extremist Netanyahu government introducing something radically new. They punctuate their efforts with references to the raid as a “massacre” that has triggered a “cycle of violence,” and the announcement that the Palestinian Authority was ending its security coordination with Israel. There were urgent calls by Palestinian Authority President Abbas for pressure on Israel’s government to halt its “escalations,” restore the pre-1967 borders, and recognize an independent Palestinian state.
In fact, the IDF said troops entered Jenin as part of ongoing operations against terrorists who planned imminent attacks against Israelis. A series of attacks by Palestinians and Arab Israelis, including several from the Jenin area, left 19 dead inside Israel between March and May 2022. The IDF responded with Operation Wave Breaker which featured stepped up, intelligence-driven, proactive raids in Palestinian areas to break up terrorist cells.
We learned from the media that nine Palestinians were killed in last week’s Jenin raid, including at least one civilian – but the fact that the remaining fatalities were members of various terrorist groups we actually learned from Palestinian media. Even the Biden administration was not buying the narrative the Palestinian Authority was selling: According to The Times of Israel, while U.S. Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbra Leaf expressed concern over civilian casualties, she also acknowledged the Israeli assertion that the Jenin raid was necessary due to a “ticking time bomb of a terrorist threat.”
It is not hard to understand why the Palestinian Authority has lost credibility in many quarters on the terrorism issue. It continues to grant stipends to those who have committed terrorist acts against Israel or their families, claiming that there could be no Palestinian cooperation with Israel if this program were not in place. The bottom line is that the Palestinian Authority can hardly criticize how Israel deals with terrorism if they actively subsidize it.
