Cause and Effect?
Batya asked the question first, but it bears repeating
Does the government’s public announcement of a West Bank evacuation lead to increased terrorism?
Here is the Israeli government, trying to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians and towards that end actually outlining a plan to evacuate the settlements and pay compensation to the settlers.
The Arab response: pogroms.
That’s right, imitate your idiot cousins in Gaza, don’t build a state, prove to the world that you really are Terror, Inc., graduate from rock-throwing to Kassam-firing, and we’ll be back to Operation Defensive Shield and Round Three of the Occupation in no time at all.
What’s wrong with you people?!
The evacuation-compensation bill under discussion proposes offering NIS 1.1 million to families willing to move out of West Bank settlements. The numbers differ at points in various media outlets, but it's a large number.
During the meeting about the bill, Vice Premier Haim Ramon presented the cabinet with an outline of bill, which is estimated at a total cost of NIS 2.5 billion. The plan would offer settlers who choose to relocate to the Negev an additional 25 percent compensation and those who agree to move the Galilee region an additional 15 percent.
18 percent of the 60,000 settlers currently living in the West Bank have said they would be willing to relocate, according to one survey of questionable provence. A survey conducted by the Prime Minister's Office (another highly questionable provence given his track record) showed that more than 11,000 settlers living beyond the security barrier would agree to leave their homes.
Ramon told the cabinet members that, "The evacuation of residents of Judea and Samaria is an unavoidable step for those who believe in two states for two peoples - and that includes most of the Israeli public." He left out, "in Tel Aviv." Those of us substantially closer to the borders look at Sderot and ask, "What, are you nuts?!"
And the Arab response:
Sunday morning 7:57 am -- "Rock-throwing Arab terrorists moved from Judea and Samaria to the high-speed Highway 6 (Kvish 6) Sunday morning and wounded a couple and their baby. The attack occurred near the Horeshim junction, near a large Israeli Arab town located south of Kalkilya and Kfar Saba. The victims suffered light wounds from glass in the windshield that was shattered by the rock throwers and were treated in Bellinson Hospital in Petach Tikva. No one has been arrested for the attack. Hurling rocks and stones at Jewish cars occurs virtually every day in Judea and Samaria, where Arab terrorists try to force drivers to lose control of their cars and crash." (Israel National News--I don't control editorial content here).
Sunday morning 10:44 am -- Firebomb Attacks in Beit El
Arabs attacked the city of Beit El with firebombs twice over the weekend, security forces reported Sunday. The first attack took place late on Friday night, when a group of Arab men, apparently residents of a nearby village, approached Beit El and threw a firebomb towards the city. The attack caused a fire and damaged a security fence. Soldiers who witnessed the incident refrained from firing on the attackers. An officer later said that the attackers were standing 300 meters from the soldiers and did not pose a significant threat, so there was no reason to use force.Following the incident, a group of Arab men returned and attacked the city again on Saturday night, this time throwing three firebombs. Soldiers did not open fire. Residents of Beit El expressed anger, saying that if soldiers continued to refrain from using force during firebomb attacks, the attacks would continue.
Near Tekoa, from the same source: Arab stone throwers hurled rocks at Jewish motorists in the eastern Gush Etzion town of Tekoa, hitting at least one tour bus and lightly injuring two passengers. Soldiers responded by shooting in the air, and said they were not aware of any injuries to the Arab attackers.
And
An Arab terrorist stabbed a nine-year-old Jewish boy at the Shalhevet neighborhood in Yitzhar in Samaria on the Sabbath, torched an empty house and tried to set fire to a second building. The terrorist threw the boy four meters down off of an outdoor porch, into an area filled with construction material - yet he landed on the only bush in the area. He was treated in a nearby hospital and was said to be in light condition. Dozens of residents of Yitzhar retaliated and attacked the adjacent Arab village of Asira al-Kabaliya, where it is suspected the terrorist resides. Villagers claimed that the Jews rioted in the village, destroyed houses, overturned vehicles and shot at least two Arabs. Arabs threw rocks and stones at the Jews until IDF soldiers arrived, broke up the riots and slapped a curfew on the village. The troops arrested one suspect in the stabbing.
A relatively unknown terrorist group calling itself Ahrar Al-Jalil (Freedom for the Galilee) Brigades claimed responsibility for the arson and attack on the boy. The same group claimed it was behind two bulldozer and backhoe attacks in Jerusalem earlier this year in which three people were killed and several were wounded.
I cannot think of any actions that would more strongly unite the Israeli public against evacuating the West Bank than these attacks. We already know that "land-for-peace" didn't work in Sderot and the other communities being barraged from Gaza; why would the Palestininas think that these attacks in the West Bank assist their cause?
posted by aliyah06 at 8:54 PM
8 Comments:
In your last sentence you used the word "think". Well, that's the whole problem. The Palestinians' deep-seated Jew-hatred always trumps any sort of rational thought.
And I am really p.o.'ed at the ISRAELI press for focusing on the "settlers'" actions and all but ignoring the Palestinian attack on that little boy that started the whole thing. Disgusting.
That's no doubt because they read the Arab media....which is claiming this was nothing more than a tussle between two "boys" and its not clear who brought the knife to the fight and the Jewish boy was "lightly" injured. No doubt that will be al Beeb's and al Reuters interpretation also.
Of course, in England, children are dying by the bushel from knife attacks and all anyone does is wring their hands and say "oh my! this is terrible." So the "enlightened European" probably thinks the Jewish town's reaction to their town being invaded, torched and their kid stabbed 9 times is "disproportionate." I have this theory that when a society stops protecting its weaker members, such as in GB and France today, it's on the way to extinction.
Batya's post was important in that regard because these attacks are always presented, if at all, as isolated, atypical incidents and they're nothing of the sort.
True story: I asked my cubicle mate in 1995 how many buses have to blog up before you admit that Oslo was a mistake?
His answer, "there aren't enough buses on the planet."
Jameel--I believe it. I haven't the time or space or patience to recount all of the inane conversations I've had with SFBA Liberals and friends who pursue the illusion of peace-at-any-price like desperate junkies in search of a fix....and who will excuse any Arab (or Rhodesian, or Somali, or Nigerian or anyone-who-isn't-European-or-Jewish) atrocity because clearly such Bad Behavior is directly attributable to years of "colonial exploitation" and/or "Zionist colonization and Occupation."
This is where reality and ideology part ways. I was a SFBA liberal--it's something in the water there. I was willing to "give peace a chance" and hoped Oslo would work. I didn't think it would work, but I could hope all this effort was for Something Better.
As soon as the first suicide bomber struck, I knew better.
The rest of my neighborhood didn't figure it out until 9/11, and even THEN you had apologists for Arab terror OR folks so in denial that they ascribed 9/11 to a "Zionist plot."
whoops - that was Freudian -- I wrote "how many buses have to blog up" instead of "blow up"
:-)
Thanks for linking to my article.
We've been here a long time, aliyah in 1970, and all I can say is that it was much safer before all these "peace" agreements.
You'd think Israeli Jews would be smarter, but they're mesmerized by the media and "peace."
Post '73 I was talking with a friend who wanted to give Sinai to Egypt. I opposed and asked "why."
"Well, it's so far and inconvenient for my husband to do miluim there."
"What? Do you want the war next to your house?"
That's what Israel got, convenient war and attacks. It's called terrorism.
I think it's time to treat "peace" like any other deal in Israel -- we don't buy what we don't see. The Palestinians want a state--fine. Start by emptying your refugee camps in Gaza and the WB and build new housing and provide jobs for those people. No jobs? Maybe you should invest in infrastructure--more than one hospital, bigger staff, build hotels on the beaches, etc.
When the Palestinians themselves confine their people to refugee camps, refuse to abandon their 'refugee' status, continue to educate their people in the ways to eradicate Israel, and pour their money into more weapons and militias, then I can only conclude that they don't want peace. At least, not enough of them do.
jameel--thats okay, we knew what you meant :)
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