Incitment causes routine terror for Israel

The world was appalled earlier this month when Islamist terrorists committed a massacre at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris. But there will be no similar fuss about the brutal attack on an Israeli bus earlier today in which a Palestinian attacker stabbed 12 Israelis leaving some in serious condition. The incident, which took place in Tel Aviv, was, after all, merely just one more in a series of numerous attacks on Israelis by Palestinians using knives, guns, and even cars to commit indiscriminate acts of terror on civilians that have left many dead and more wounded in the last several months. What lies behind the recent upsurge in terror? The cause isn’t a mystery nor is the failure of the international community to condemn those responsible.

The key to understanding the increase in terror attacks is the willingness of both the Palestinian Authority and their Hamas rivals to incite hatred for both Israel and Jews in their official media and schools. Such incitement isn’t new but the recent efforts by Palestinian leaders to encourage terrorism in order to “defend” Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem against mythical Jewish attacks has created an atmosphere in which such acts are lauded in official media and often praised by their officials, including those like PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, as champions of peace.

It should be remembered that Abbas praised the Palestinian who attempted to assassinate a rabbi and activist who advocated for the right of Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem as a “martyr” who went “straight to heaven” when he was killed after a gunfight with Israeli soldiers. Using a tactic that has been tried by Palestinian leaders for a century, Abbas sought to inflate an argument over Jewish prayer rights—that were, ironically, opposed by the Israeli government—into a holy war.

Thus, it was no surprise that today’s attacker used the dispute over the Temple Mount as well as anger about the war launched by Hamas last summer as the excuse for his atrocity. As the New York Times reported, after the assailant was captured, he told Israeli police that he was inspired in part to try to kill random Jews by promises heard in an Islamic broadcast which spoke of “reaching paradise.” While the man, who was captured alive, did not get to Heaven and the promise of virgin rewards, he did have the consolation of being praised by Hamas spokespersons today as having committed a “heroic” act of “resistance.”

It is little wonder Israeli leaders are losing patience with Western governments that profess peace and advocate concessions to the Palestinians but find it hard to speak when it comes to condemning the acts that lead to Arab violence against Jews. Unlike most of the world, many Israelis rightly feel that attacks on Jews in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv should be seen in the same light as those on Jews in Paris. Indeed, the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Europe, fueled as it is by Islamist propaganda against Israel, is in no small measure the product of attitudes and prejudices imported to the Continent from the Middle East.

Those European governments and United Nations agencies that have been vocal in advocating for recognition of Palestinian independence fail to take into account that what they are calling for is, in effect, the creation of terror states, whether it is Hamasistan in Gaza or the hate-fueled Fatah-run kleptocracy in the West Bank.

The volume of recent Palestinian attacks illustrates the dilemma for those seeking to prop up a dead-in-the-water peace process. So long as Abbas isn’t held accountable for the incitement committed by both the PA and its officials, it’s hardly surprising that he sees no reason to halt the incitement. But until he does, all talk of a revived peace process is just that much more evidence that the world doesn’t value spilled Jewish blood. When terror against Jews is considered too routine to get too worked up about, it’s a surefire sign that peace is nowhere in sight.