Op-ed: The Paris attacks cannot justify for a minute our ongoing control of the Palestinians and do not make the vision of a bi-national state any better for Israel.
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If the Islamic State members could, they wouldn't hesitate to hurt Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas too and behead him. As far as the radical Islam created by ISIS is concerned, the Palestinians and their leadership are heretics too.
The
terror offensive in Paris has nothing to do with the Palestinian struggle, it does not represent the entire Arab world, and the attempt to link it to the terror striking us Israelis may sound good, but it is not in line with reality. Radical Islamic terror is also directed at those sitting in Jordan, Egypt and Ramallah who see Israel and the Western world as allies.
From the moment it learned about the terror attacks, the Right's propaganda machine has been working ceaselessly. The message is simple and clear: The terror is the same terror, the Arabs are the same Arabs and the sea is the same see. The attempt to gain a political profit at the expense of the dead and wounded in Paris hasn't stopped. One can rejoice and mock the European desire to find a solution for the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Beyond how ugly this looks and is interpreted, we are essentially talking about nothing less than cheap demagogy. The attack on Paris does not justify for a minute our ongoing control of the Palestinians and does not make the bi-national state vision any better for the State of Israel.
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Before the wave of talkbacks washes through this article too, I would like to clarify that terror is a disgraceful and illegitimate thing and must be rejected completely. There is no justification, not even a struggle for national independence, for taking a person's life and hurting innocent people. Terrorism can be condemned all day and all night, but in order to neutralize it we must study its motives and deal with its root causes.
The brutal attack on Paris is driven by a clash between democratic values which raise the banner of equality, freedom and fraternity, and radical Islamic values which stand for imposing Islam and killing out of religious faith. Compared to the ISIS terror, the Palestinian struggle Israel is exposed to, which also includes illegitimate terror attacks, is basically driven by the national Palestinian aspiration for independence and liberation from the Israeli occupation.
Only several weeks ago, Military Intelligence chief Major-General Herzl Levy said that the current wave of violence broke out due to the tensions around the Temple Mount, the
murder of the Dawabsheh family and the Palestinian public's feeling of frustration in light of the absence of a political horizon.
The reality in which the lives of thousands of Israelis are in danger on a daily basis could change. The Palestinian leadership and the majority of the Palestinian public are in favor of dividing the land and accept the two-state solution. Their struggle is not driven by a desire to destroy the West or Israel, but by a desire to live in dignity with rights and national independence, as any other people is entitled to.
ISIS and the Palestinians are not the same thing - Israel Opinion, Ynetnews
