Palestinians
81 pieces tagged “Palestinians”, newest first.
Palestinian 'Demonstrators' Aren't Innocent Bystanders
Hamas is convenient cannon fodder, which explains the media's assigning blame for violence elsewhere.
Trump, Jerusalem and the Status Quo
Despite campaign promises, the president won't (yet) move the U.S. embassy in Israel. What's the calculation?
In Israel, the More Things Change...
More than a decade after my 19th trip to Israel and the Middle East, this 20th visit shows how some things have changed, but the important ones remain the same. What one notices first is the large amount of new construction, which suggests a certain Israeli permanency against religious opposition, hatred and threats of annihilation perhaps no other country has had to endure. Second are the many prosperous Arab neighborhoods, which defies much of the propaganda broadcast to the world about how Israelis mistreat Arabs and Muslims, locking them in poverty.
This Weekend's 'Cycle of Violence'
Friday, an Israeli family, driving near Beit El, was attacked with firebombs. A four-year-old girl suffered burns to more than 35% of her body. Her parents and two siblings were also wounded. Saturday, a 16-year-old Palestinian pretending to be a candy salesman attempted to stab Defense Ministry security guards near Jenin and was shot.
Would Rabin Have Pulled the Plug on a 'Peace Process' That Failed?
Had Yitzhak Rabin lived, would the Oslo Accords have nurtured genuine peace between Israel and the Palestinians? It has been 20 years since the assassination of Israel's fifth prime minister in Tel Aviv by Yigal Amir, a right-wing Jewish fanatic who considered Rabin a traitor and bitterly opposed the Oslo process. The murder traumatized Israel and its friends, and the recriminations still reverberate.
Focus, Please
In recent weeks across the nation of Israel, fanatical Palestinian Muslim youths have attacked and killed Israeli Jews. Using knives, axes, and ice picks, they have murdered grandmothers, women and children. The United Nations has collectively yawned.
More 'Nonsense' About Israel
[Wednesday] a State Department spokesman attempted to clarify recent remarks by Obama administration officials regarding the recent wave of Palestinian terrorism in Israel. The clarification was more of the same verbal vomit that encourages our enemies and demoralizes our friends. "We recognize that incitement can go both ways here. Whether it's action or rhetoric, it's things that encourage others to continue this cycle of violence," said State Department spokesman John Kirby.
Abbas Should Have Been Jeered, Not Applauded, at the UN
Mahmoud Abbas addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday in his capacity as "President of State of Palestine," or so the official text posted on the UN website identifies him. In reality, Abbas is no more the lawful president of Palestine than George W. Bush is the lawful president of the United States. Both were sworn in for four-year terms in January 2005. Those terms expired more than six years ago. If Bush had appeared before the UN plenum this week and presumed to announce a change in American policy, he would have been thought delusional and jeered off the podium. That is the reaction that Abbas deserved when he traveled to UN headquarters in New York and proclaimed that the Palestinian Authority will no longer be bound by agreements signed with Israel.
A Palestinian 'Samaritan' Teaches a Lesson in Humanity
Last week a middle-aged businessman rescued five students from a lynch mob. Now the lynch mob is after the businessman, threatening to kill him for his act of bravery. "I'm not a hero," insists the man, as heroes usually do. "I did it because I'm a human being." The incident happened in Hebron, the ancient city in Israel's West Bank that today is largely controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Five yeshiva students, haredi ("ultra-Orthodox") tourists from America, took a wrong turn while driving to the Cave of Machpela, the sacred burial site of the Biblical patriarchs, and suddenly found themselves under attack in one of Hebron's Arab neighborhoods.