What causes a 12-year old to want to risk his life just to have a chance at wounding a Jew?
Incitement is part of the problem, but it is not the main issue.
True, Palestinian news outlets and social media are filled with photos, videos, songs and cartoons that all advocate murder and terror, images that make heroes of the attackers and that dehumanize the victims.
But to truly understand the sickness that is Palestinian society, you need to look beyond the words and images and music. You need to look at what is not being said.
You will not find any examples of people telling children not to attack Jews. You won't find any stories of parents who try to raise their kids to respect all human beings. You will not find any stories about Israeli victims. You will not see anything about teachers telling their students that their lives are too valuable to waste on randomly stabbing people. You won't find anyone saying that murder is bad no matter who does it.
You won't find a single voice opposed to the current wave of children sacrificing themselves for a chance to stab Jews.
If there has been any opposition to children stabbing Jews in Palestinian Arab media, I have yet to see a single example. On the contrary, the stories are neutral at best and often cheerileading - and then using Israeli efforts to protect themselves as reason to encourage more attacks.
I am not saying that Palestinian Arabs are all united in their support for sending their children out on suicide missions. I have no doubt that most parents are aghast at the idea that their kids might join the fad.
But because of the sick nature of Palestinian society, publicly coming out against terror is simply not possible. There is far more fear of saying anything against the politically-correct message of supporting terror than there is of the "oppressive occupation" itself.
By any measure, Palestinian Arabs are better off than their neighbors in Egypt or Jordan. They consider checkpoints to be the height of oppression while hundreds of thousands of their neighbors are being slaughtered. Their society is based on victimhood, not on overcoming obstacles.
There are independent media outlets in the territories - but none of them to my knowledge have been the least bit critical of the violence. Instead, they are filled with articles and op-eds supporting it and attacking Israel for defending themselves.
There are no contrarian voices, meaning that the message of terror is unopposed.
No one will point out this sickness. Arabs cannot say it out loud for fear of being labeled Zionist. The mainstream media cannot say it out loud for fear of being labeled racist or biased. So the real elephant in the room - that Palestinian society itself is the reason peace is impossible - cannot be discussed.
Incitement is bad enough. But the utter lack of any opposing viewpoints is what shows that Palestinian society is rotten to the core.
