This past Sunday, the New York Times kept faith with its ongoing narrative of a despotic Israeli “occupation” of the West Bank and the daily subjection of Palestinians to unconscionable deprivations of a tyrannical Jewish government in Jerusalem. Thus, The Times earnestly tried to spin the current spate of Palestinian terrorist attacks as rising out of their individual grievances over everyday humiliations, abuse, and general despair that they will soon end with the establishment of a Palestinian state – and not over a shared political animus towards the Jewish state.
To this end, the Times talks about the diverse backgrounds of the five attackers, some came from “the Occupied West Bank, some were members of Israel’s Arab minority.” They go on to note that “beyond their lethal outcomes, the four episodes do not fit into a simple narrative.” Not only did they come from different places, but they also had diverse allegiances – some to the Palestinian national movement, other to the Islamic States. To drive the point home, Ms. Basha’er Fahoum-Jayoussi, the chairwoman of the board of the Abraham Initiative (a NGO promoting equality between Israel’s Jewish and Palestinian citizens”) is quoted as follows: “I honestly don’t think they’re the same thing at all…There are huge differences between the profiles of these people.”
Ms. Fahoum-Jayoussi went on to say that three of the attackers set themselves apart not only from the Palestinian cause but also from the grievances of Israel’s Arab minority, those descending from Palestinians who remained in Israel after its founding in 1948 and who still seek more rights and recognition within the Jewish state.
By contrast, she explained, the motives of the two West Bank Palestinians “have more to do with the occupation and the injustices that they’re going through, not that that justifies anything.”
But we rather think that the current terrorist attacks are all but variations on the central theme shared by Palestinians from wherever they hail: that driving the Jews of the Jewish state into the Mediterranean would be a good thing. (Parenthetically, does anyone really think that if any Palestinian could press that button and get away with it, he or she wouldn’t press it?)
Yes, some Israeli Arabs may say they only seek greater rights than they currently enjoy as non-Jewish citizens of a Jewish state, while other Palestinians may claim to only want to end the daily routine imposed upon them by what they call an “occupying power.” But common to all of them is the desire for an independent Palestinian state on both sides of the Green Line that would solve both problems.
So it is no coincidence that the violence erupted so soon after the recent summit between Israel and several Arab Gulf States. All Palestinians had to have seen it as a sure sign that the prospects for the independent Palestinian state were dwindling, and that is a fear they all share.
Unfortunately, we believe that we are at the beginning of a new period of Intifada, no matter what the New York Times may want to suggest.
