NY Times Op-ed: Blame Israel for Third Intifada (INN) ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS) By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu 06/24/12)
Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/157164#.T-fofxdo2uk
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A Third Intifada will erupt and it will be Israel’s fault, according
to an op-ed in Friday´s New York Times by Nathan Thrall, an analyst
of The International Crisis Group which is partly funded by George
Soros, who also is benefactor of the left-wing J Street lobby.
Thrall is the same analyst who last month warned in the same
newspaper that if Israel continues to oppose Palestinian Authority
unity between terrorist Hamas and Fatah, it might face Al Qaeda
instead of Hamas.
This time around, he theorized that the reason for a Third Intifada
might be “price tag” vandalism “by Jewish settlers” or “the
construction of new settlement housing...”
He added that whatever the cause, it will be Israel’s fault for
allowing Israelis to “have come to believe they can eat their cake
and have it, too.”
Thrall focused solely on what he called PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’
ostensible efforts for security cooperation between the Palestinian
Authority and the Israeli government [that] would make Israel feel
safer and remove its primary justification for continuing to occupy
the West Bank.”
He based his thesis that a new Intifada will break out on the claim
that there have been “years of peace and quiet in Tel Aviv,” without
mentioning the daily attacks on Jewish motorists and more than a few
terrorist attacks in the Palestinian Authority, including the savage
murders of six members of the Fogel family in Samaria last year.
Thrall praised Abbas as “one of the key architects of the Oslo peace
process” and “perhaps its last remaining believer.”
Abbas “has been forced to pay lip service to the demands of those who
advocate confrontation by issuing repeated pledges to confront
Israel — by dismantling the Palestinian Authority or refusing to
negotiate unless Israel freezes settlement construction — only to
renege on each one,” according to Thrall.
The journalist then suggested that Abbas may become the next Antoine
Lahad, the leader of Lebanese forces who allied with Israel in the
1980s against Hizbullah terrorists.
By painting the recalcitrant Abbas as a “peace partner” who has
allegedly been patient with Israel, Thrall reasoned the lack of
creation of the Palestinian Authority as new country has created
distrust among Palestinian Authority Arabs and the PA security forces.
Following the Palestinian Authority’s failures to be recognized as a
state despite anti-Israel boycotts and a unilateral push for
recognition from the United Nations, Thrall opined that PA Arabs have
no options other than “popular protest and armed resistance.”
“The first option faces enormous obstacles because of political
divisions between Hamas in Gaza and Mr. Abbas’s Fatah in the West
Bank,” he wrote.
“If mass demonstrations erupted in the West Bank, Israel would ask
Palestinian security forces to stop any protests near soldiers or
settlers, forcing them to choose between potentially firing on
Palestinian demonstrators or ending security cooperation with Israel,
which Mr. Abbas refuses to do….
“The second option is armed confrontation.”
Acknowledging “widespread apathy” among PA Arabs, he wrote, “A
substantial number would welcome the prospect of an escalation….
“They believe that rocks, Molotov cocktails and mass protests pushed
Israel to sign the Oslo Accords in 1993; that deadly strikes against
Israeli troops in Lebanon led Israel to withdraw in 2000; that the
bloodshed of the second intifada pressured George W. Bush to declare
his support for Palestinian statehood and prodded the international
community to produce the Arab Peace Initiative, the Geneva
Initiative, and the Road Map for Middle East Peace.”
In a new twist on history, Thrall also wrote that the expulsion of
Jews from Gaza and the withdrawal of the IDF from the area in
2005 “had the effect of freezing the peace process, supplying ‘the
amount of formaldehyde that is necessary,’ as a Sharon adviser put
it, ‘so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians.’”
Thrall’s conclusion, which dovetails with the Times’ editorial
policy, is that history will credit Abbas but that “he has likely
laid the groundwork” for a new Intifada, which is Israel’ fault
because Israel supposed missed “a golden opportunity to sign an
agreement with Abbas.” (IsraelNationalNews © 2012 06/24/12)
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