Jerusalem murder can’t kill peace: Terrorism will fail and only negotiation will succeed
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Shooting Jews dead outside a Jerusalem synagogue (on International Holocaust Remembrance Day no less) is not noble, as Hamas and Islamic Jihad praised Friday’s Holy City atrocity, but terrorism fueled by hatred and antisemitism.
The attack, coming a day after a bloody Israeli raid on Islamic Jihad in the West Bank, was meant to kill as many innocent Jews as possible. That is very different from the IDF move in Jenin that was meant to crack down on a terrorist organization that was planning and executing terror attacks on Israelis.
The Israelis are the ones going after the killers like those in Jenin because the ever-more feeble Palestinian Authority is unable or unwilling to do so. And atop the Palestinian Authority is the ever-more feeble “President” Abu Mazen, who this month is starting the 19th year of his four-year term. Canceling elections is easier than rigging them. His weakness, and the weakness of the PA, leaves Israel the hard work.
But still, West Bank Palestinians are faring better than their brethren in Gaza suffering under Hamas rule.
The return (again) to the prime minister’s office of Bibi Netanyahu, having cut deals with fringe and radical right-wing parties to form a narrow government, may not be a blow against peace. Recall that it was Netanyahu (and improbably, Donald Trump) who brought the greatest hope for the region in decades with the Abraham Accords of bilateral peace treaties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
Netanyahu is looking to add the biggest prize to that grouping, Saudi Arabia, and it seems he may just do it, forming an alliance against the mullahs in Iran. All the better if it happens.
But then it must come back to the Palestinians. Abu Mazen, or his successor if he ever leaves, must do as the Arab states have done and sit down with Netanyahu and find a deal. Liberty, freedom and prosperity for all Palestinians will not come from killing Jews at prayer, but from the peace table.
