The children of Palestine will not know peace until they stop the suicide bombers.
And the children of Israel will not know peace until they stop occupying another people.
Israel will not tolerate it.
Nobody would.
It's counter-productive. Unfortunately, the Palestinians have deluded themselves into thinking that it will work, so getting them to stop it will be very hard.
I doubt the Palestinians dwell much on which delusion works and which doesn't. Is it the delusion that if they stay patient and peaceful, one morning suddenly Israel will give back the land and go back to pre-67? Sadly, that's not how things work. No occupying force is likely to do so, unless fought tooth and nail. When the pain becomes more than the desire for the spoils, the occupier is driven out. And how about that "stay peaceful" delusion? Israel had many, many years of peace in the territories, and what happened? Did they suddenly say "Gosh dear Palestinians, wow, didn't see you, you've been waiting so patiently, we hardly noticed you kneeling over there, come, quick let me give your house back"? Nope. Rather, they kept building settlments. They kept building settlments, even as they NEGOTIATED! How would you like to negotiate with a burgler for the return of your items, while he continues to pick new items from your house even as you discuss with him? Well, THAT'S been the Palestinian experience of being "peaceful". Is it any wonder, that after years of no progress except more and more settlements, humiliation, occupation and abuse, the Palestinians finally exploded?
So no, the young men and women who blow themselves up in desperate attacks, are not being bribed by Tehran or deluded by the Hezbollah. They are grabbing weapons from wherever they can get them - they'd take them from Hezbollah or the devil himself.
They don't feel like they have anything to lose. After all, their land is under occupation, and while they live in utter unrelenting misery, they strike out, at least insuring that their oppressors do not live comfortably.
This is a hopeless dynamic. To say to Palestinians that they won't get a state unless all bombings stop, is like saying to the Israelis that they'll get to live in peace only when all Israeli extremists give up - and who shot Rabin? Israelis cannot control their own terrorists, why expect the PA, undermined by Israel, to have 100% control over every single bombing? Has any single police force in history a 100% success rate against crime? Throw into that the dynamic of daily occupation, and it is a prescription for hopelessness.
The only way to break this dynamic, is for Israel to withdraw to internationally, U.N. recognized pre-67 borders, and give up the occupation, give up the settlements recognized by no state on planet Earth. It is not "giving in to terrorism", it is "giving up an occupation" just as Portugal gave up its colonies with no "caving in to terrorism" or "appeasment".
That will result in fewer casualties in Israel - just as it resulted in FEWER CASUALTIES in Lebanon. They might even find Palestinians to be good neighbors, once not occupied. Try it - it can't be worse than what is there now. And a final note - the future can only get worse - one day, micro WMD and bio-weapons that cannot be countered with bullets and tanks will fall into desperate hands. Isn't it better that there are fewer desperate hands, and more hands engaged in productive work and state-building, and more hands extended in friendship? Future trends, demographic and otherwise, do not favor Israel or the occupation. The sooner this is dealt with, the better - for Israel, for the Palestinians, for the U.S. - for the whole world. |
