you follow the Israeli press closely. is this kind of thing becoming commonplace?
Not yet. I mentioned that op-ed piece before, what really shocked me was, the guy is a centrist, a former believer in Oslo, not a right-wing, Jordan-is-Palestine kind of guy. But the Israelis feel besieged and friendless. They look in the world's press and see that nobody but the US thinks that killing Israelis is terrorism.
Last week's series of attacks, culminating in the Passover Massacre (blowing up a seder, which is the mythic retelling of the formation of the Jewish nation, is highly symbolic) really made something go click inside Israelis' heads. They now say, This is a war of no choice. The emergency, no-notice reserve call-ups are getting >92% compliance (very high), and 72% of responders to a recent poll supported Operation Defensive Wall. Note: that poll included a representative sample of Israeli Arabs, who presumably aren't keen on the idea, so Jewish support must be running over 90%. |
