As everyone knows, ever since Israel withdrew from the Gaza stirp two years ago, it has been subjected to daily rocket attacks by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. There have been more than 7,000 rockets launched from the Gaza strip. Recently a Palesinian shot eight young Israeli students to death at a religious seminary in Jerusalem.
Following the slaughter of the Israeli students, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Research conducted a survey which revealed that (1) 64 percent of all Palestinians support the rocket attacks on Israeli towns and (2) 84 percent approved of the deadly shooting of the young Israeli students.
The Israelis and the Palestinians share a commonality - they hate each other. Jews and Palestinians share another commonality - nobody wants them.
The Palestinians hate the Israelis because in their minds Jews occupy land that was taken from them. They ignore the fact that much of Palestine (that part of Israel before 1967) was already occupied by Jews prior to their 1948 war of independence. Fueling that hatred is an incessant hateful depiction of Jews in the Arab press and schools. Harsh security measures taken by Israel in response to years of Palestinian attacks against its civilians have made life difficult for many Palestinians, thus adding to their hatred of Jews.
Israeli hatred of Palestinians stems from (1) five wars with Arab states - 1948-49, 1956, 1967, 1973-74 and 1982 - in which the Jews had to fight for the survival of their tiny homeland, (2) a long history of deadly Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians, (3) the Palestinian rocket attacks on civilians by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and (4) the fighting with Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Islamic militia.
In 1948, when Israel had to fight off invading Arab armies, it did force some Palestinians off of land inside the new State of Israel. However, the overwhelming majority of Palestinians who fled did so at the behest of the Arab states. The Arabs were determined to prevent the establishment of a Jewish State and did not want the Palestinian civilian population to get in the way of the fighting. Most fled to Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, none of which wanted them in their midst. Instead of assimilating the Palestinians, which they easily could have done, their fellow Arabs forced them to live in squalid refugee camps.
Jews are not wanted in many parts of the world. There is a long history of Jews having been persecuted in Muslim countries and in pre-WWII countries of Eastern Europe - Poland, the former Soviet Republics, Latvia, Hungary, Romania, etc.. Today, they are still suffering from discrimination in Eastern Europe. The people in those countries eagerly helped the Nazis round up Jews for extermination, as did many people in France and Austria. The Arabs loudly applauded Hitler's attmpt to wipe out the Jews of Europe. Jews continue to be persecuted in the Muslim world. Thus, Israel is the only place of refuge for Jews who are not wanted in other parts of the world.
With all that mutual hatred between them, it is hard to see how the Israelis and Palestininas can achieve a real and lasting peace, especially since the Palestinians and other Arabs have vowed to destroy the Zionist entity, no matter how long it takes. When the Arabs talk about occupied land, they are not talking about the West Bank - they are talking about all of Israel itself.
When Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas talks of peace to the Western World he does so in English. However, when addressing the Arab World, his speeches in Arabic always reflect the Palestinian vow to destroy the Jewish State. And that vow is also reflected in the poll showing that 64 percent of Palestininas support the rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and 84 percent approved of killing the eight young Israeli students.
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