The Wider Context of the Murder of the Three Israeli Teens

By Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger

Children (clash of civilizations)

The Israeli Spring was defined by the entire country – Left and Right, Doves and Hawks, secular and religious – marshalling its human resources to find the three teens (one of them a US citizen), who were murdered by Palestinian terrorists, and to embrace the bereaved parents. The Israeli concern for the children is perceived, by the Arab street, as a symptom of weakness, adrenalizing further terrorism. However, the intense sense of communal responsibility – felt by most Israelis - has been the secret weapon of the Jewish People and the Jewish state in face of perpetual lethal threats.

In contrast, the Palestinian street has glorified elementary school kids wearing suicide vests, on their way to murder Israeli civilians.  Moreover, the Arab Tsunami has been characterized by the murder, rape, torture and expulsion of hundreds of thousands of children in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Iraq by fellow Arabs.

During the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, Teheran's Ayatollahs formed a special force of 500,000 illiterate and poor children, the Basijii, who were tasked with clearing Iraqi minefields.  Each child received a plastic key to paradise.

Palestinian Terrorism

Soldiers hit, rarely and usually unintentionally, civilian targets.  On the other hand, terrorists murder, maim and intimidate civilians systematically and deliberately, as demonstrated by the abduction and murder of the three Israeli teens (Gilad and Naftali were 16 years old and Eyal was 19 years old). The focus on Jewish civilians characterized Palestinian terrorism during the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, since Israel's establishment in 1948, during the 1987-1991 First Intifadah and the 2000-2003 Second Intifadah. It is demonstrated by the daily bombing of Israeli communities in the Negev by Gaza-based Palestinian terrorists. The focus on civilian targets has characterized the Arab Tsunami with Arabs/Muslim murdering Arab/Muslim and Christian civilians.

Who is the real Mahmoud Abbas?

Notwithstanding Mahmoud Abbas' (sometime) moderate talk, his walk has been consistent:

*Since 1994, when he was Arafat's loyal deputy, Mahmoud Abbas has conducted a hate education system, funded by foreign aid, brainwashing Palestinian children (K through 12) – via hate education in PA-controlled schools, mosques and media – to herald suicide-bombing and martyrdom, targeting Israeli civilians. Abbas has glorified terrorists by naming streets, squares and soccer tournaments after them. 

*Mahmoud Abbas is using foreign aid to provide monthly allowances to families of Palestinian terrorists.  The higher the number of Israelis murdered by a terrorist, the higher the allowance. The release of terrorists from Israeli prisons – and providing them with a hero's welcome - has been Abbas' top priority.

*According to the Oslo Accords, Mahmoud Abbas derives his authority as the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority from his current position as the Chairman of the PLO and Fatah. The covenants of both terrorist organizations specify that the conflict with Israel is over the existence – not the size – of the Jewish state.

*The recent establishment of a PLO-Hamas coalition government, by Mahmoud Abbas, is consistent with his track record: a top activist in the Palestinian cell of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo (1950s); an Arafat associate in subversive operations in Syria (1966), Jordan (1970), Lebanon (1970-1982) and Kuwait (1990); a graduate of Moscow University and KGB courses and the coordinator of PLO ties with the ruthless regimes of the Communist Bloc; the chief PLO-Hamas negotiator until Oslo, 1993; currently, maintaining close contacts with the regimes of Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba.

The Palestinian issue and Arab policy-making

The low priority accorded to the Palestinian issue by Arab policy-makers has been demonstrated by the absence of any Arab involvement during the last three weeks of intense Israeli operations against Palestinian terrorism. Arab policy-makers also stayed on the sideline when Israel launched large-scale campaigns against Palestinian terrorism in Gaza (2009 and 2012) and in Judea & Samaria (2000-2003 and 1987-1991), as well as during the Israel-PLO war in Lebanon (1982).  What do Arab leaders know about the subversive nature of the Palestinian leadership that Western leaders have yet to learn?!

Israel's national security

The murder of the three abducted Israeli teens, along with 40 aborted abductions last year, and the daily preemption of terrorism by the IDF and Israel's Security Services, shed light on the potential of Palestinian terrorism, should Israel withdraw from Judea & Samaria. The 1994-5 immigration to Judea & Samaria of Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas and some 70,000 Palestinian terrorists, and Israel's withdrawal from 40% of Judea & Samaria – as stipulated by the Oslo Accords – catapulted terrorism to unprecedented levels as a result of Palestinian Authority hate education, incitement and sizeable inventories of military hardware accumulated by the PLO and Hamas terrorists. The reintroduction of the IDF and Israel's Security Services into Judea & Samaria in 2003 – following the Second Intifadah – has reduced terrorism by 90%.  Thus, Israel's control of the mountain ridges of Judea & Samaria constitutes an absolute prerequisite to the defeat of Palestinian terrorism.  On the other hand, Israel's withdrawal from Judea & Samaria would embolden Palestinian terrorism, inspiring Islamic terrorism, dooming the Hashemite regime in Jordan and other pro-US Arab regimes in the Middle East.

Lamenting the murder of the three Israeli teens and wishing you an instructive Fourth of July.