Losing Palestine
It’s not hard to understand why the Palestinians have struggled to come to terms with the Jewish presence in this sense. The barriers to recognition are immense. If the Jews can’t be made to leave, if the foundational strategy of scaring them off wasn’t rooted in an understanding of what that might entail – that is, of how the alternatives to this homeland might appear in the Jews’ collective psyche – then what is the value of Palestinian sacrifices made on the altar of this misbegotten strategy?Extremists no longer welcome
Indeed, if the Jews of “colonialist” Israel cannot be dislodged, does that mean they are not like other colonial projects that could be made to collapse? If they are not colonists who can be pushed back to Germany or Russia or Iraq or Morocco from whence they came, what are they? What is to be done with the fact of the enemy’s implacable claims to nationhood, which clash so directly with Palestinian claims?
Nations have rights, and do not lose these rights when they err. That is why Palestinian leaders are so fearful of acquiescing to Israel’s demand that they recognize Jewish nationhood; among their arguments against the demand, one is paramount: it amounts to recognition of Jewish national rights, a vastly more profound concession than Palestinian moderates’ acknowledgment of Jewish power.
Failure has not yet led to any serious consideration that the premise at the heart of the Palestinian strategy may be wrong. No Palestinian who matters, who shapes opinion or controls militias, is willing to be the first to acknowledge defeat.
And so even as Palestinian public opinion grows weary of the pointlessness of the current struggle, Palestinian politics remain trapped in the lingering uncertainty, an uncertainty that is Hamas’s lifeblood and validation: What if we are giving up too soon? What if a little more pain, a little more sacrifice, will yet redeem and restore all that has been lost?
Few really believe that anymore in Palestine, but none are yet willing to seek another path.
The Arab world's silence during this recent wave of terrorism, led mostly by knife-wielding Palestinian teenagers, is deafening, and it represents a certain lack of support for the Palestinians.13-year-old critically hurt in Jerusalem stabbing released from hospital
The Arab nations seem willing to leave these radical elements to deal with the mess they have cause by themselves. This time, the wave of terrorism not only fails to represent the Arab struggle against Israel, it fails to represent even the Palestinian themselves.
The Arab world's roaring silence is actually commendable. In the past, the slightest of incidents in Judea and Samaria, let alone on the Temple Mount, would have been enough to see masses take to the streets. Now these streets are empty, even in places prone to unrest like Cairo or Amman.
Arab media has also marginalized the story, toning down the rhetoric, with the exception of the Qatar-based Al Jazeera, where incitement is a reflex. Even Ankara is reluctant to chime in. Arab media outlets have all but refrained from condemning Israel over the current unrest, and it seems that this time, it is in their best interest not to fan the flames.
A 13-year-old Israeli boy who was critically wounded in a terror attack on October 12 in Jerusalem’s Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood was released from the hospital on Tuesday.
The boy was one of two Israeli victims stabbed by Ahmed and Hassan Manasra, 13 and 15, respectively.
He was taken to the hospital in life-threatening condition, placed in an induced coma and connected to a respirator. He woke up and began communicating with medical personnel and family members over a week ago.
Last week, as the boy regained consciousness, Prof. Ahmed Eid, head of the hospital’s Department of General Surgery, who operated on the boy, said he “has a long path of rehabilitation still ahead of him.”
Eid on Tuesday told Israel Radio the boy had been clinically dead upon his arrival to the hospital. (h/t Yenta Press)