Palestinians heading for catastrophe (again)
Palestinians are leading themselves towards a third “Nakba” (Arabic word for catastrophe), a term used widely by Palestinians Arabs in describing the establishment of the State of Israel. Palestinians mark Israel’s founding in 1948 as a catastrophe. Some also see Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six Day War, where Israel defeated the attacking Arab armies and captured East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria (West Bank), and the Golan Heights, as a second ”Nakba”. As usual the Palestinians are deluding themselves through the use of new terror and violence against the Jews, just as they did in 1948 and 1967.
This past week, Palestinian terrorists used Al-Aqsa, known as the Temple Mount, Islam’s third holiest religious site as a safe haven to smuggle in automatic weapons that were used by 3 Palestinian terrorists under the pretense of prayer to shoot and kill 2 Israeli Police Officers protecting Al-Aksa.
This past Friday, a 19-year-old Palestinian terrorist infiltrated into the settlement of Halamish and stabbed to death three family members as they sat at their Shabbat dinner table celebrating the birth of a grandson.
Despite the non-stop incitement by Israeli Arab political leaders and the Palestinian Arab leadership, who are leading the Palestinians towards disaster, the escalation of daily violence, rioting, and terror over the Temple Mount, and the massacre of an Israeli family, will not lead to a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising. However, it will lead towards a third “Nakba”. Learning nothing from their own historical experience, and repeating the same destructive expression of hatred and rejection of anything Jewish, the Palestinian Arabs will lose exclusive control of the Temple Mount, just as they lost control of large territories designated for them in the past. If the Palestinian Arab violence and terror continue, the whole situation will spiral out of control, and the end result will be their third and final “Nakba”. Palestinian Arabs have the most to lose as their leadership leads them towards disaster, and as we say in Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, three strikes and you’re out. This is exactly what happened in 1948 and 1967 — the Palestinian Arab delusion that ‘against the Jews, we have Allah. He’ll protect us. and we’ll go and bash our heads into the wall, even if we become martyrs,’ is typical of the failed mindset and delusional religious beliefs of generations of Palestinian Arabs who have nothing to show for after a century of violence and terror.
Reviewing the reactions of the United Nations and its many member states, it is Israel exclusively that lives under a microscope with the events in Jerusalem scrutinized by the nations of the world. Russia invades Crimea, Sudan enslaves, China oppresses, Pakistan rapes, Iraq slaughters, North Korea fires inter-ballistic missiles, Iran nuclearizes, Syria massacres, Afghanistan tortures, ISIS beheads, and yet Israel remains the sole pariah state, put under the magnifying glass by the morally bankrupt world.
What the nations of the world fail to note is that the Palestinian Authority and the rival Hamas terror organization are actively supporting a terror campaign starting in the Temple Mount, for the same reason thousands of missiles rained down on Israeli cities -- even though it created more destruction for Palestinian Arabs. Their goal is keep the Palestinian Arabs focused on “resistance” -- a synonym for endless war that won’t be solved by Israeli territorial concessions or greater sensitivity for the Muslim desire to deny Jewish rights in the Temple Mount.
The point about the current violence in Jerusalem is that nothing we Israelis are doing -- whether it be the simple installation of metal detectors at the entrance of the Temple Mount for the safety and protection of all worshipers visiting the Temple Mount -- has altered by one iota the current status quo between Jews and Arabs. What we do simply does not matter to them and it will never sink in that they are facing a country that is here to stay behaving as any sovereign nation would act in a similar situation.
For countless centuries, our ancestors have been praying to return home to Zion. For those of us born in this generation that did in fact return home to Israel, we can only cherish and uphold the immense blessing that we feel for being part of this amazing historical and almost biblical period.
In 1947, Israel accepted the "two-state solution" declared by the United Nations, focusing her efforts on moving ahead, never looking back. Since then, Israel has made a desert bloom. We have built roads, schools, hospitals, universities and great cities. Despite the many wars Israel has had to fight, the people of Israel have never stopped looking forward becoming a world leader in innovaton.
Israel has shown time and time again its willingness to make painful sacrifices for the sake of a genuine and enduring peace with its Arab neighbors. Israeli Arabs have infinitely more human rights in Israel than Jews ever had in any Arab nation, or that Arabs have in any Muslim nation in the Middle East. Not surprisingly these fundamental freedoms seem to be always overlooked by the very Arabs that enjoy and benefit from democratic rights in Israel. The hearts and minds of the Palestinian Arabs continue to be overwhelmingly "occupied" with Jew-hatred. This is the true narrative about the so-called “occupation”.
Once again a new generation of Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Arabs, are actively taking part in terror and violence in order to kill Jews to further that same futile aim and in the name of this ancient hatred. Though many of Israel’s enemies promote the notion that the violence is caused by Jewish actions, this latest terror campaign, if it continues, will be very much like every other episode in the Palestinian Arab’s hundred-year war against Zionism. The third “Nakba” however, will be the final curtain.
Those that wish the Palestinian Arabs well should urge them to try to shake off this rejectionist mindset, lest they waste another century in pointless conflict. Should they continue ramming the shore, like the great whales do until they die, they will in the very soon future lose it all, and can only blame themselves. The Sunni Arab world won’t shed a tear.
The writer, a 25-year veteran of the I.D.F., served as a field mental health officer. Prior to retiring in 2005, served as the Commander of the Central Psychiatric Military Clinic for Reserve Soldiers at Tel-Hashomer. Since retiring from active duty, he provides consultancy services to NGO’s implementing Psycho trauma and Psycho education programs to communities in the North and South of Israel. Today, Ron is a strategic advisor to the at the Office of the Chief Foreign Envoy of Judea and Samaria. To contact: medconf@netvision.net.il