Dr. Aaron Lerner is co-founder of IMRA, Independent Media Review and Analysis, an Israel-based news organization which provides an extensive digest of media, polls and significant interviews and events relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict. imra@netvision.net.il
A group of radical extremist Israelis snuck into the Gaza Strip and kidnapped a Palestinian and are holding him hostage in an unknown location. The group has issued a series of demands to the Palestinians. Israel Government officials say that they support the demands of the group and suggest that it would be best for the Palestinians to end the incident quickly by conceding to the demands. The United States Government has offered to help expedite negotiations between the hostage takers and the Palestinians. While the Israeli Government is not officially involved in the kidnapping, the prime minister and other senior members of his party have participated in negotiations as the representatives of the kidnappers.
Certainly sounds absurd.
And it is.
Because it never happened.
And it never will. Not on the Israeli side.
But the Arab side is a different story.
This is exactly what happened when Gilad Shalit was taken hostage.
Palestinian officials didn't insist on Shalit's unconditional release and the punishment of his kidnappers - they called on Israel to meet the kidnapper's demands.
Egypt didn't turn the screws on Hamas and the various groups directly involved in the operation - it has instead made efforts to facilitate an Israeli pay-off to the kidnappers.
And the list goes on.
We Israelis have become so jaundiced that we take this all for granted.
We have reached the point that its commonplace for Palestinians to be labeled "moderate" if that say they will only try to murder us if they can't get their way without resorting to violence.
This deterioration of standards doesn't promote peace and reconciliation.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.