Youth training at the Al-Futuwa program, where Hamas trains children to hate Israel. Photo: Paldf.net.

Children (clash of civilizations)

The Israeli Spring was defined by the entire country — Left and Right, doves and hawks, secular and religious — marshaling its human resources to find the three teens (one of them a U.S. citizen), and, after the revelation of their murders by Palestinian terrorists, to embrace the bereaved parents. The intense sense of communal responsibility felt by most Israelis has been the secret weapon of the Jewish people and the Jewish state in face of perpetual lethal threats.

However, the Israeli concern for the children is perceived, by the Arab street, as a symptom of weakness, providing an impetus for further terrorism. The Palestinian street has glorified elementary school children wearing suicide vests on their way to murder Israeli civilians. Moreover, the Arab Tsunami has been characterized by the murder, rape, torture and expulsion of hundreds of thousands of children in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Iraq by fellow Arabs.

During the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, Tehran’s ayatollahs formed a special force of 500,000 illiterate and poor children, the Basijii, who were tasked with clearing Iraqi minefields. Each child received a plastic key to paradise.

Palestinian terrorism

Soldiers hit, rarely and usually unintentionally, civilian targets. On the other hand, terrorists murder, maim and intimidate civilians systematically and deliberately, as demonstrated by the abduction and murder of the three Israeli teens. The focus on targeting Jewish civilians characterized Palestinian terrorism during the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, the period after Israel’s establishment in 1948, the 1987-1991 First Intifada and the 2000-2003 Second Intifada. It is demonstrated by the daily bombing of Israeli communities in the Negev by Gaza-based Palestinian terrorists. The focus on civilian targets has characterized the Arab Tsunami, with Arabs/Muslims murdering Arab/Muslim and Christian civilians.

Who is the real Mahmoud Abbas?

Notwithstanding Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ (sometimes) moderate talk, his walk has been consistent:

• Since 1994, when he was Yasser Arafat’s loyal deputy, Abbas has conducted a hate education system, funded by foreign aid, that brainwashes Palestinian children in PA-controlled schools, mosques and media to herald suicide bombing and martyrdom, targeting Israeli civilians. Abbas has glorified terrorists by naming streets, squares and soccer tournaments after them.
• Abbas is using foreign aid to provide monthly allowances to families of Palestinian terrorists. The more Israelis murdered by a terrorist, the higher the allowance. Releasing terrorists from Israeli prisons and providing them with heroes’ welcomes have been Abbas’ top priorities.
• According to the Oslo Accords, Abbas derives his authority as chairman of the Palestinian Authority from his current position as chairman of the PLO and Fatah. The covenants of both terrorist organizations specify that the conflict with Israel is over the existence, not the size, of the Jewish state.
• The recent establishment of a PLO-Hamas coalition government is consistent with Abbas’ track record: a top activist in the Palestinian cell of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo (1950s); an Arafat associate in subversive operations in Syria (1966), Jordan (1970), Lebanon (1970-1982) and Kuwait (1990); a graduate of Moscow University and KGB courses and the coordinator of PLO ties with the ruthless regimes of the communist bloc; the chief PLO-Hamas negotiator until Oslo, 1993; and, currently, maintaining close contacts with the regimes of Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba.

The Palestinian issue and Arab policy-making

The low priority accorded to the Palestinian issue by Arab policy-makers has been demonstrated by the absence of any Arab involvement during the last three weeks of intense Israeli operations against Palestinian terrorism. Arab policy-makers also stayed on the sidelines when Israel launched large-scale campaigns against Palestinian terrorism in Gaza (2009 and 2012) and in Judea and Samaria (2000-2003 and 1987-1991), as well as during the Israel-PLO war in Lebanon (1982). What do Arab leaders know about the subversive nature of the Palestinian leadership that Western leaders have yet to learn?

Israel’s national security

The murder of the three abducted Israeli teens, along with 40 aborted abductions last year, and the daily pre-emption of terrorism by the IDF and Israel’s security services, shed light on the potential of Palestinian terrorism should Israel withdraw from Judea and Samaria. The 1994-1995 immigration to Judea and Samaria of Arafat, Abbas and some 70,000 Palestinian terrorists, and Israel’s withdrawal from 40 percent of Judea and Samaria, as stipulated by the Oslo Accords, catapulted terrorism to unprecedented levels as a result of Palestinian Authority hate education, incitement and sizable inventories of military hardware accumulated by the PLO and Hamas terrorists.

The reintroduction of the IDF and Israel’s security services into Judea and Samaria in 2003 after the Second Intifada has reduced terrorism by 90 percent. Thus, Israel’s control of the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria constitutes an absolute prerequisite to the defeat of Palestinian terrorism. On the other hand, an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria would embolden Palestinian terrorism, inspire Islamic terrorism and doom the Hashemite regime in Jordan and other pro-U.S. Arab regimes in the Middle East.

This article was originally published by Israel Hayom.