(JNi.media) A new study conducted by the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) attempting to assess the motivation of young Arab men and women in the current wave of terror who risk certain death to try to stab a Jew, offers a new and possibly counterintuitive perception of the problem, Army Radio reported Wednesday.
The data that has been collected so far indicates that, unlike the commonly held view, the majority of the attackers are driven less by incitement on the social networks or in religious assemblies, and a great deal more by personal, familial reasons. The individual stabbing cases are frequently associated with alienation and violence in the family, revenge for the death of a friend or a relative, and a lack of faith in the traditional political structures of Hamas and the PLO.
The interviewed youths reported meeting Israeli Jews only at the check posts, suggesting they don’t have direct, personal grudges against any individual victim. Most of them have little or no awareness of the religious component of the conflict, or of the idea that the Al Aksa mosque is being threatened by the Jews.
Most of the youths are far from being marginal: they take part in social associations, attend school and live in normative families. Many could not even articulate what Israel was, had no relationship with Jews and never visited “green line Israel.” Their religious and ideological insights are for the most part shallow, consisting of a news headline-level familiarity with the conflict.
The study suggests this is a brand new generation of young Arabs who are not bound by an obligation to anyone or anything. The study detects in these individuals a worrisome degree of nihilism.
Ziad Abu Ziad, an eastern Jerusalem attorney interviewed by Army Radio, said, “It’s the first time I see Israelis seeing things as they really are. You’ve always opted for the easy way of blaming Hamas and Abbas, and now you’re beginning to understand that this is the outcome of the existing situation. You must pay attention to the fact that this has turned into a personal problem of people against the occupation and against the Israelis.”
At this point, Israelis on the left and on the right are coming to the same realization, but with radically different conclusions. Both sides have long since realized that life under martial law for 49 years is untenable, to both Arabs and Jews. The left would like to see Israel withdrawing from the area, while the right wants it to become an integral part of the Jewish State.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s office has produced a 2-minute video showing the Incitement and Education for Hatred in the PA, which Netanyahu has been showing every one of his visiting foreign dignitaries this week. And while the video is truthful, and the PA is, indeed, driving a dangerous propaganda effort to incite violence among its youth, the COGAT report suggests that even if Abbas were to cut off all incitement videos today, the “knives intifada” would probably keep on knifing.