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By Mladen Andrijasevic
January 10, 2008
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When? At which point will Israel stop behaving as the only exception in human history? A superior military power permitting the constant bombardment of its territory by an inferior military force and not adequately responding. Will it be when Katyushas hit Be'er Sheva, or do we have to wait for them to hit Ramat Aviv?
How many are needed to act as the trigger to "legitimize" a response? How many dead Israelis will it take for the government to act decisively? Or shall I say which Israelis? How many Be'er Shevians? How many from Ramat Aviv?
The news of a Katyusha rocket hitting northern Ashkelon this Thursday was in the news for half a day and then it vanished. Why such apathy? Why are people from Sderot not protesting on the streets of Tel Aviv daily? Why are we all not with them? Has the government no clue how it is eroding the unity of this country? Unity -- the very reason I believe Sharon, now been in a coma for two years, decided to implement disengagement.
Our political elites had been reluctant to admit that the Palestinian war against Israel has since 2000 metamorphosed into a classic case of Islamic jihad. which is just a part of the global jihad against the West. If in attack after attack around the world from the Philippines, Thailand, Kashmir, Bali, Chechnya, London, Madrid or New York the perpetrators have been claiming jihad as their motive why is it that we in Israel continue to refuse to accept the Palestinians' own explanation for their motive, all the more so when the very name of one of the organizations is Islamic Jihad?
Sensing that in a democracy the Israeli electorate which was not fully aware of the true Palestinian motives and magnitude of the threat , and realizing that the electorate to whom these motives had never been fully explained by any Israeli government, would not fully support continuing Israeli presence in Gaza, Sharon decided to leave Gaza. His aim I believe was to consolidate and prepare for the next round, despite all the risks. He never got the chance to react and implement his unsigned agreement with the international community to hold the Palestinian government diplomatically and militarily responsible if it refuses to eliminate terrorism from its realm.
Prime Minster Sharon , the man who had in effect won the war against the suicide bombers by implementing the policy of targeted killings, going ahead with the construction of the anti-suicide bomber fence and showing that there is a military solution to jihadi terror, would I believe not have stood for this absurd situation we are in today.
Despite the recent data which shows that the ratio of killed terrorists to civilians in targeted killings is 30:1, a ratio better than achieved by the US or the UK and NATO in Afghanistan or Iraq, the world's perception of Israel according to a study just released has worsened.
It is our misfortune that Sharon has been succeeded by leaders who care more about what others think than about what has to be done to safeguard the lives of Israeli citizens.
This week Bush's visit will not bring the solution with the Palestinians any nearer -- hopefully at least the discussions on Iran will have more meaning. The country that carpet bombed jihadists in the Tora Bora mountains cannot convince Israel that populating Har Homa or the existence of settlements is the cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After all, there are more than a million Arab citizens living in Israel, why is it that seeing Jews living among the Palestinians is so inconceivable?
In reality, it is our tacit acceptance of jihadi intolerance that the impossibility of Jews living among the Palestinians is never brought up. Until the jihadi mindset is considered as the main contributing factor of the conflict, no solution will be in sight, and the Kassams and Katyushas will keep falling.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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