Ira Chernus PROFESSOR OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER |
“The Israeli government yesterday carried out
a targeted assassination on an unspecified number of unnamed, randomly selected
Israeli Jews.” That’s how the headlines should read. In fact, they said that
Israeli rockets killed 10 civilians and injured many more, a day after assassinating
Jamal Abu Samhadana, head of security
operations for the Hamas-led government in
It’s
yet another round in the seemingly endless, deadly tit for tat. Yet this time
an end really was in sight, because Hamas was moving
-- slowly and stumblingly, but visibly -- toward accepting what most
Palestinians want: a two-state solution, with each side affirming the
legitimate existence of the other. Tragically, it seems that’s not what the
government of
The irony is that the Israelis inadvertently
started this last best hope for peace themselves, by putting Hamas and Fatah members together
in an Israeli prison. There the prisoners worked out a document outlining a
plan for peace. The Hamas signers said they would
accept
Then
So
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his government
must prevent Hamas from supporting the prisoners’
document. The Israelis have to make sure that the Palestinians remain
politically divided, with one faction denying
It’s
an old story. Over the years of its political maneuvering,
That’s
the big picture to explain the killings in
Hamas and Fatah have been involved in nearly two weeks of intense
negotiations, trying yet so far failing to reach a common negotiating position
vis-à-vis
But
as politicians they also build the broadest possible coalitions. That’s
probably why they gave a major government post to Abu Samhadana,
leader of a small but potent hard-line alliance known as the Popular Resistance
Committees. It was also a way of thumbing their nose at Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who had opposed
Abu Samhadana.
Hamas leaders were
publicly rejecting Abbas’ call for a referendum on
the prisoners’ document, because they saw it as a political end run around Hamas. Abbas was sounding tough
in public, but in the last few days he was extending his talks with Hamas leaders, giving everyone a chance to save face and
reach some compromise agreement.
If
(
With
feelings so inflamed, few Palestinians were prepared to accept Israel’s claim
that a rocket went off course,
“accidentally” killing seven civilians (including three children) picnicking on
a beach. In any event, that rocket was clearly part of a barrage that
But you wouldn’t know any of this from reading the American press. There, it’s just business as usual: Righteous Israelis defend themselves by killing terrorists and offer sincere apologies when they kill civilians. The only media analysis I could find that got to the heart of the matter came from a Russian news site, quoting Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the upper house of the Russian parliament's committee for international affairs:
“He said that the
formation of a 3,000 strong ‘Hamas Police’ led by Samhadana had upped tensions in the region, and made the
task of international peaceful regulation more complex. Hamas
had won Palestinian parliamentary elections in January ‘under pressure from
Margelov assumes that Israeli attacks will turn the Palestinian public against the prisoners’ document and send it down to defeat in the referendum. It seems likely that Israeli leaders assume it, too. That means more strife, more bloodshed, and more Israelis as well as Palestinians will die just because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
This is the same policy Israeli
leaders have pursued for decades: dooming their own people to die randomly and justifying
it all “bishvil bitahon” --
for the sake of security. It’s all tragic madness. It can’t go on forever. Some
day the Israelis will have to make peace and make the terribly difficult
decision to dismantle their settlements and accept a viable Palestinian state
in all of the West Bank and
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