The bull dozer was an Israeli citizen of Arab origin and came from a modest income family. There was assurance of his easy mobility within his country. But he was from east Jerusalem which is mainly populated by the Palestinians of Arab origin akin to their counterparts, Jews. Hence both are Semite people. His identity card was on him. He was employed in construction work as a driver of the bull dozer. He had two children and was about 30 years old. As a citizen of his country there is obviously no ground why he should do what he did that fateful day. Probably he was not a displaced internally or externally like most of the Palestinians are either in the refugee camps of Lebanon and elsewhere.
Violence and terror has become self sustaining in the Middle East. Which began what is difficult to clearly demarcate. Disproportionate use of force in itself is self generating terror. That is one of the reasons why a Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri made the observation: "We consider it as a natural reaction to the daily aggression and crimes committed against our people in the West Bank and all over the occupied lands." This is the rut of self justification from which it is now difficult to come out. No amount of shuttle diplomacy of Condoleezza Rice or Solana would undo the snare in which the Palestinians and Israelis find themselves.
After the war in 1967 and the Yom Kippur war of 1973 there was a time when hijacking aero planes was the only way the Palestinians could react to the Zionist outrage of occupation of their land and their forced expulsion from the place of their birth. The West reacted rather hostilely by objecting to this mode of terror which the Palestinians considered legitimate way of getting back to those who had made them so miserable. Among the families uprooted was that of their leader Yasser Arafat. Targeting civilian planes made the West repugnant. As the Palestinians are more informed and democratic than many others in the Middle East they realized that they could not swim against the tide and it forced the Palestinians to resort to more individualized and personalized means of expressing their grievances and venting their volcanic frustrating impotence of the suppression and oppression of the occupation. Suicide fidayeen appeared on the stage to make the world know how personalized their suffering has been and how violent their reaction. As the Israeli police chief, Dudi Cohen, said the attacker appeared to have been acting alone. "It looks as if it was a spontaneous act."
Every scene of murder and mayhem is equally revolting. Change the identity of the victim the casualty is purely human. The above injured Israelis citizen is a picture of pity so is the driver below whom a soldier off duty shot twice in the head and then an antiterrorist office shot and dispatched him forever(below).
Terror rose in the region as a result of the lacerating vetoes the American used so very often that they left no hope of any solution. The Non Alignment Movement was still around and had some leverage. But the Americans had armed the Israelis so much that no one could match them. Moreover the proverbial disunity among the Arabs was self defeating. The Soviet Union was also there to counterbalance the American. It could shore up some support but it died a premature death all of a sudden. Egypt enjoyed close relationship with the Soviet Union but it did not translate into any monetary benefit. The Shah of Iran was not only an ally of the US but also of Israel. Turkey was so indifferent to the Arabs and the Palestinians. So the Palestinians had to rely on themselves, individually in self sacrificing and together in waging the Intifada. That did produce a chemistry of change. It is continuing.
The basics of the alibi of terror can be outlined:
The Palestinians choose suicide bombing because of the occupation of their land and their displacement as well as the phenomenal cruelty of the Israelis.
The Israelis use their superior military power in response to suicide bombing and rockets fired into its territories, both occupied and land within its jurisdiction from its contrived birth, thanks mainly to the US.
The basic (1) is not the antecedent to the basic (2). For example the construction of a railway line connecting East and West Jerusalem for which the driver was working can be in itself the cause of the present terror. The railway is a means of the expansionist design of the Zionism. It depends on how you view the events. As the two sides cannot overcome the compulsions of their own people and policy, the world must reenter into the negotiating process to resolve the impasse, now that ‘the American power has not declined but everybody else in the world has risen like India and China.’
The basics of the alibi of terror can be outlined:
The Palestinians choose suicide bombing because of the occupation of their land and their displacement as well as the phenomenal cruelty of the Israelis.
The Israelis use their superior military power in response to suicide bombing and rockets fired into its territories, both occupied and land within its jurisdiction from its contrived birth, thanks mainly to the US.
The basic (1) is not the antecedent to the basic (2). For example the construction of a railway line connecting East and West Jerusalem for which the driver was working can be in itself the cause of the present terror. The railway is a means of the expansionist design of the Zionism. It depends on how you view the events. As the two sides cannot overcome the compulsions of their own people and policy, the world must reenter into the negotiating process to resolve the impasse, now that ‘the American power has not declined but everybody else in the world has risen like India and China.’
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