FACT: Palestinian terrorism, such as the heinous attack on March 11 in which terrorists infiltrated the Israeli town of Itamar in the West Bank and brutally murdered five family members, including a four-year-old son and a three-month-old daughter, is often excused as a kind of tit-for-tat with Israel. Both the Israelis and Palestinians are said to engage in violence that will not end until one side gives in to the others demands. The Los Angeles Times, for example, wrote that the killings were part of a "continuing cycle of violence."499When Israel announced their entirely non-violence response that new settlement construction would be approved, the Palestinian Authority, through spokesman Nabil Abu Reudeina, condemned Israel and warned their decision could lead to even further escalation of the conflict.500 Suggesting that Palestinian terrorism is just part of a cycle of violence for which Israel also bears responsibility is akin to equating the arsonist with the firefighter. The terrorists are like arsonists and the Israelis firefighters. You would not accuse the firefighter who puts out an arsonist's fire, or tries to prevent him from setting one, of perpetuating arson. The terrorists are engaged in a persistent war that leavesIsrael with no choice but to defend its citizens. If the terror stops, Israel will have no need to engage in countermeasures. In his seminal work, To End a War, that followed years of diplomacy in the Balkans, U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke dismissed the idea that "ancient hatreds" had fueled that regional war and instead focused on the endemic spread of incitement through the media that had "aroused an entire generation of Serbs, Croats and Muslims to hate their neighbors." 501 Similarly, despite repeatedly agreeing to cease such provocations (see the 1993 Oslo Accords, 1998 Wye River Memorandum and the 2003 Road Map), the Palestinian Authority continues to tolerate and instigate incitement in the media, mosques and schools. As in the Balkans, this policy has aroused a generation of Palestinians to hate both Israel and Jews. In the last quarter of 2010 alone, the PA was responsible for more than 20 cartoons, videos and speeches calling for violence and the destruction of Israel. 502 In early 2011, PA President Mahmoud Abbas personally delivered $2,000 to the family of a terrorist who had attacked IDF soldiers and the PA's official newspaper, Al Hayat Al Jadida, promoted a soccer tournament named after Wafa Idris, the first female Palestinian suicide bomber. 503 Just three weeks prior to the attack in Itamar, PA-TV aired a video tribute to a number of "martyrs," which included a terrorist who had killed three Israelis in a similar attack in Itamar in 2002. 504 These provocations of the Palestinian Authority have all led to what the Chairman of the Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs, Yossi Kuperwasser, calls "an attitude of hate and demonization towards Israel" that has created "a situation where it occurs to someone to carry out a [terrorist] attack." 505 The Western media has mostly ignored Palestinian incitement. Worse, many outlets have rationalized Palestinian terrorism, often refusing to even use the word "terrorism" to refer to atrocities. The media portrayal of the innocents murdered in Itamar is reminiscent of suggestions that rape victims "asked for it." The fact that the family lived in a settlement did not excuse, justify or cause their murder. Parents and children sleeping in their beds did not deserve to be killed because they lived in a disputed territory. The reaction of the international community should be unambiguous outrage to this atrocity and those media outlets that essentially have blamed the victims should be chastised for their moral, ethical and journalistic lapse.
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| 499 Editorial Staff, "A Fatal Israeli-Palestinian Flaw", Los Angeles Times, (March 14, 2011). 500 CNN Wire Staff, "Israel Approves Settlement Increase After Family Killed", CNN, (March 14, 2011). 501 Richard C. Holbrooke, To End a War, Random House Publishers, New York, (1999). 502 Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs, "Incitement and Culture of Peace Index", (October - December 2010). 503 Itamar Marcus, "Let's Stop Pretending", Jerusalem Post, (March 13, 2011). 504 Itamar Marcus, "PA-TV Glorified Terrorist who Killed 3 in Itamar in 2002", Palestinian Media Watch, (March 13, 2011). 505 Attila Somfalvi, "Palestinian Incitement: Jews Receive 'Der Sturmer" Depiction", Ynet News, (March 13, 2011). 506 Benjamin Netanyahu, "Remarks in Response to the Terrorist Attack in Itamar", Prime Minister's Office, (March 12, 2011). |
