Khaled Abu Toameh: Abbas's Responsibility for Murder
To understand what drives a young Palestinian to carry out such a deadly attack, one needs to look at the statements of Palestinian Authority leaders during the past few weeks.Israel Can't Have Partial Sovereignty
The anti-Israel campaign of incitement reached its peak with Abbas's speech at the UN a few weeks ago, when he accused Israel of waging a "war of genocide" in the Gaza Strip. Abbas made no reference to Hamas's crimes against both Israelis and Palestinians.
Whatever his motives, it is clear that the man who carried out the most recent attack, was influenced by the messages that Abbas and the Palestinian Authority leadership have been sending their people.
This may not be taught in conflict resolution departments, but this is how it works in the real world: whoever shows a daily, regular presence determines affairs. If it's not us, it will be someone else.The Poison Tree
The only way to restore security is a robust sovereign and consistent presence in Arab neighborhoods and towns. Not by hiding behind pillboxes and armored vehicles, but with constant and stubborn policing, day after day. Law enforcement is a dirty job, and professional have to do it. Crimes, murders (including "honor killings"), illegal arms and all the sundry "internal" Arab affairs need to start being our business, not something to be dealt with "in house". If we don't, we simply won't last here.
This requires a lot of effort, it's not politically correct and there may be casualties. But if we don't want to wake up with ISIS as a next door neighbor, we're going to have to act preemptively to keep it out.
Last month, addressing the U.N. General Assembly, Benjamin Netanyahu made a connection between the Islamic State and Hamas. These terrorist entities, Netanyahu said, have a lot in common. Separated by geography, they nonetheless share ideology and tactics and goals: Islamism, terrorism, the destruction of Israel, and the establishment of a global caliphate.Sarah Honig: The 14th century in Washington
And yet, Netanyahu observed, the very nations now campaigning against the Islamic State treated Hamas like a legitimate combatant during last summer’s Israel-Gaza war. “They evidently don’t understand,” he said, “that ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree.”
The State Department dismissed Netanyahu’s metaphor. “Obviously, we’ve designated both as terrorist organizations,” said spokesman Jen Psaki. “But ISIL poses a different threat to Western interests and to the United States.”
Psaki was wrong, of course. She’s always wrong. And, after the events of the last 48 hours, there ought not to be any doubt as to just how wrong she was. As news broke that a convert to Islam had murdered a soldier and stormed the Canadian parliament, one read of another attack in Jerusalem, where a Palestinian terrorist ran his car over passengers disembarking from light rail, injuring seven, and killing 3-month-old Chaya Zissel Braun, who held a U.S. passport.
Kerry didn’t only fail to rebuff this dangerous allegation when it was sounded by the “regional leaders” with whom he so cozily hobnobbed. Kerry actually quoted Arab aspersions, giving them resonance and official endorsement.
And he didn’t just echo Israel’s enemies but added his own editorializing commentary to reinforce their Israel-connection contentions: “People need to understand the connection of that. And it has something to do with humiliation and denial and absence of dignity.”
Here Kerry treacherously crossed a redline, in a calculated move that should send chills down the spine of every thinking person.
Kerry intimated that by refusing to commit collective suicide, Israelis abet the nastiest menace to the civilized world. The subtext ought to be clear even to this non-erudite secretary of state.
In essence, blaming the blameless for what they have no involvement in is as morally reprehensible as the mid-14th century scapegoating of Europe’s Jews during the Black Death. Right across the Continent, the recommended remedy was to accuse Jews of poisoning the wells.
With adaptations, this remains the undisputed conventional wisdom. As Hamas avers and as Kerry chummily chimes in, when anything goes wrong the instant surefire remedy is to blame the Jew. The 14th century lives on in 21st century Washington.