Why were they waiting?:
Palestinians Join Arab Revolt
With Israel Terror Attacks
by Dan Ehrlich


Statehood isn't Built on Murder
The question posed by the upsurge in Palestinian violence against Israel is: Why did it take so long to start up again given the chaos in the Middle East?

Possibly both halves of the divided Palestinian leadership were just as shocked as western nations at the domino effect style revolutions taking place among their brother Arabs. What does this all mean for them? While the moderate PLO West Bank leadership has remained rather silent, Hamas in Gaza finally figured it had better get in on the action.

However, unlike the popular revolts against dictators in Arab nations, the new attacks on Israel are being carried out by a relatively few militants who, in fact, represent the type of leadership other Arabs are trying to overthrow or possibly eventually establish as new governments.

Yet, the surge in terror attacks illustrate two facts: There will never be a Palestinian state as long as a state of terror continues to be its main export. And, second, there will never be a unified state as long as Gaza is run by Hamas, which calls for Israel’s destruction, as well as the PLO’s.

As Arab revolts spread from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf, the Palestinians seemed to have been sidelined. Other than all out war, there’s little worse in the Middle East than no publicity at all for your cause.

Possibly realizing this in recent weeks Hamas has been ratcheting up its rocket attacks on Israel, a West Bank crazy killed a Jewish family of five and now the first bus stop bomb attack in years has killed one woman injured 24 people as it rocked Jerusalem.

All this has caused Israel’s Prime Minister to warn of a return to the tit-for-tat retaliation that had become routine in recent years. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it could take "an exchange of blows" to end the spiraling violence along the Gaza border.

Speaking to MPs, Netanyahu vowed that Israel would "aggressively and determinedly" defend its citizens in the face of a sharp rise in rocket attacks from Gaza, two of which slammed into the southern city of Beersheva earlier on Wednesday….

"No country would be prepared to take continued missile fire on its cities and citizens, and of course, the state of Israel is not prepared to take it," he warned.

This latest Arab violence offers a prime example of the scapegoat mentality that has been promoted for generations by Arab leaders who sought to blame all short comings in their region on Israel and the western Infidels.

But while the people in most of these same countries have now seen the light and are rebelling against their dictatorial leaders, the Palestinians still protest against Israel, some possibly fearful to voice discontent about their own leadership.

In most other areas of the world wars have been waged, land and borders have changed hands along with populations. But, the people, for the most part, have moved on and tried to make the best of their lives. Not in the Middle East, a timeless area of the world where absolute power is the way leaders have maintained control. It’s also a region that is grossly under populated, except for Gaza, Israel and Lebanon. which has become overpopulated.

But while there should be enough land for everyone, this endless conflict isn’t about land. It’s about religion, tribalism and lousy education. In this day an age, no Arab nation’s schools have Israel on its textbook maps. It’s still called by its Roman territorial name. And religious based racist teaching is the norm.

Throughout the Arab world, revolutions are taking place to hopefully give the people a better deal through better governments. Yet most Palestinian refugees have their stateless status mainly through lost wars of annihilation waged by their leaders against Israel.

Where are the demonstrations against the unfulfilled promises of Israeli defeat at the hands of the true believers? These are promises that have kept the faithful ever faithful.  But more than this why aren't Palestinians asking where their billions in aid contributions have gone over the decades? What happened to all of the late Yasser Arafat's money? And why aren't they asking why the Arab League has reneged on the aid pledge it made in conjunction with America? As I said, lousy education.

But as with their Arab brothers in Egypt and Libya, until they have had enough and start asking how many generations it will take to get the Jews off what they see as Arab land and/or secure a better future for themselves, this conflict sadly will continue.

On the other hand, they could just learn to live with the Israelis. But, that wouldn’t be the  Islamic Arab way. Just look at once prosperous Christian Lebanon.