I read Emily Hauser’s article about the same time that I heard on the news of another bombing in Israel and just a few days after the bombing at Hebrew University. Both atrocities committed by Palestinian terrorists were celebrated in typical fashion by thousands of Palestinians rejoicing openly in the streets of Gaza, pledging to murder more Israeli civilians.
And, of course, these were only the latest in a series of murderous bombing and shooting attacks since the Palestinians walked away from the generous proposals offered to Yasser Arafat at Camp David by Ehud Barak, and launched their terrorist war on Israel almost two years ago (all of which warranted barely a mention in Hauser’s lengthy article).
Other distortions and omissions in Hauser’s article include:
– The piece suggested Israeli troops deliberately fired on 12-year-old Mohammed Aldura. While Aldura’s death was a tragedy, all reports at the time indicated that the boy was caught in the crossfire when Palestinian gunmen opened fire on Israeli soldiers.
– The piece ignored the differences between the Palestinian strategy of deliberately targeting civilians in terrorist attacks and the Israeli strategy of responding to these attacks by military actions against terrorist individuals and groups that plan, organize and launch the attacks, actions which regrettably at times cause unintended civilian casualties.
– The piece contained comments that 35 years of occupation are the cause of Palestinian violence and terror. The reality is that Arab terror and violence against the Jews of Palestine date back to the 1920s, long before the occupation and long before Israel became a state; that if it were not for the Arab rejection of the 1947 United Nations partition plan, the Arabs of Palestine could have had a state more than 50 years ago; that Arab terror attacks against Israel continued for 20 years from 1948 to 1967, even when the occupied territories were ruled by Egypt and Jordan; and that Israel would not be in control of these territories if the Arabs had not launched another attempt to destroy Israel in 1967, leading to the Six Day War.
Hauser has it completely wrong. Peace will only come when a new Palestinian leadership accepts that Israel is here to stay in the Middle East, that terrorism will never lead to statehood and that the only way to get back to negotiations is to completely renounce terrorism.
