by Bassam Tawil
November 29, 2015
November 29, 2015
For the full article go to: http://tinyurl.com/qfs8oww
- Abbas seems intentionally to ignore that he and his Palestinian Authority are responsible for the violence, as a result of their daily incitement against Israel.
- A recent poll found that 48% of Palestinians interviewed believe that the real goal of the "intifada" is to "liberate all of Palestine." In other words, approximately half of Palestinians believe that the "intifada" should lead to the destruction of Israel, which would be replaced with a Palestinian state -- one that now would be ruled by Hamas and jihadi organizations such as Islamic State and Al-Qaeda.
- It is notable
that only 11% of respondents said the goal of the "intifada"
should be to "liberate" only those territories captured by Israel
in 1967.
- The
Palestinians do not, according to the poll, have a problem with
"settlements" or "poor living conditions." They have a
problem with Israel's existence. Palestinians do not see a difference
between a West Bank "settlement" and cities inside Israel -- or
differentiate between Jews living there. They are all depicted as
"settlers" and "colonialists."
- This
contradicts Abbas's claim that the Palestinians want a "peaceful and
popular" uprising. The Palestinians are not, as their leaders claim,
seeking a two-state solution.
As the current Palestinian campaign of terrorism
against Israel is about to enter its third month, it is still not clear to many
what the Palestinians are trying to achieve. The Palestinians cannot even agree
on a name for their campaign. Some are referring to it as an
"intifada," while others are describing it as a "Habba
Jamahiriya" ["popular puff," or "flurry"].
The Palestinians also have not been able to agree on
the motives behind the stabbing, shooting, firebombing and car-ramming attacks.
Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly claimed
during the past few weeks that the terrorists are setting out to kill Jews out
of "despair and frustration" and the lack of a "political
horizon." But Abbas seems intentionally to be ignoring that it is he and
his Palestinian Authority who are responsible -- together with Hamas, Islamic
Jihad and other Palestinian factions -- for the violence, as a result of their
daily incitement against Israel.
This is yet another instance in which anyone could have
predicted what was going to happen. Throughout the past year, Abbas has been
telling his people that Israel was planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and
"change the Arab and Islamic character and identity" of Jerusalem. He
condemned Jews for "defiling the
Aqsa Mosque with their filthy feet." Abbas, his spokesmen and
PA-controlled media outlets also have also repeatedly been telling
Palestinians that Israel is committing "war crimes" and "summary
executions" of innocent Palestinians.
This is, as Abbas knows, exactly the type of incitement
that prompts Palestinian teenagers to grab a knife, run out into the street and
murder the first Jew they see. Those young Palestinians are also tragic victims
of the poisonous campaign of the inflammatory anti-Israeli language emanating
from Palestinian leaders such as Abbas, mosque preachers, news outlets and
social media.
Contrary to Abbas's outrage, no one has yet found even
one terrorist who claimed to have attacked a Jew out of "despair and
frustration" at the "lack of a political horizon." If you look
through the social media accounts of these young terrorists, many have said
that they set out to kill Jews to "defend" Al-Aqsa Mosque. They seem
to have been influenced by the romantic notion of Abbas's repeated fictitious
claims that Jews were plotting to destroy the mosque, followed by high-flown
fantasies of themselves as heroes charging forth to rescue it.
A public opinion poll published
last week refutes Abbas's claim that Palestinians are committing terrorist
attacks out of "despair and frustration." The poll, conducted by the
Watan Center for Studies and Research, found that 48% of the Palestinians
interviewed believe that the real goal of the "intifada" is to
"liberate all of Palestine." In other words, approximately half of
Palestinians believe that the goal of the "intifada" should lead to
the destruction of Israel.
The results of the poll, which covered 1,167
Palestinians above the age of 18, show that a majority of Palestinians continue
to seek the destruction of Israel. The poll shows that only a few Palestinians
see only the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem as the future Palestinian
state. They want the "intifada" to replace Israel with a Palestinian
state -- preferably, one that now would be ruled by Hamas and jihadi
organizations such as Islamic State and Al-Qaeda.
These reports also show that Palestinians do not see a
difference between a Jew living in the West Bank and Israel -- instead, they
are all depicted as "settlers" and "colonialists."
None of the Palestinians interviewed for the poll
complained about "despair and frustration," or the lack of a
"political horizon." Obviously, they are driven by hatred for Jews
and Israel. They do not, however, have a problem with "settlements"
or "poor living conditions." They have a problem with Israel's
existence. A majority believes that Israel can -- and should -- be destroyed.
They are not, as Palestinian leaders claim, seeking a two-state solution.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who visited Israel
and Ramallah last week in a bid to end the Palestinian terror attacks, was
unable to make any progress. Kerry and the U.S. Administration should know by
now that the Palestinians are waging war on Israel not because of "despair
and frustration," but because they aspire to destroy Israel, as the
results of the recent poll show.
The goal of the Palestinians is the destruction of
Israel. This fact is something that other Western parties need to understand --
that the Palestinian "struggle" is mainly aimed at eliminating
Israel, and not "the establishment of a Palestinian state that
would live in peace and security alongside Israel." The recent poll should
be translated into English and distributed among all those
"pro-Palestinian" groups that continue to shout about the conflict
being the result of Israeli "occupation" of the West Bank, Gaza Strip
and east Jerusalem.
Today, it is clear that the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict is not really about the "occupation" that began with the
creation of Israel in 1948. The last three Palestinian "intifadas"
and previous Israeli-Arab wars had (and still have) one goal: to see Israel
removed off the map.
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