Thursday, August 01, 2002

According to this article, a recruiter of suicide bombers contacted the wife of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi to suggest that her son become a shaheed. Mrs. Rantisi opposed the idea.

This seems to have escaped notice: the IDF found 300 KG of explosives in a Palestinian Legislative Council building in Jenin (report).

Masters of the Obvious This article by Bret Stephens mocks NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof for changing his mind about Arafat and Camp David because of Yossi Beilin.

The article also succinctly describes the consensus that exists today among moderate leftists, centrists, and rightists in Israel.
... the conclusions men like Ben-Ami and most other Israelis reached after Camp David ("We mustn't forgo Jewish and Israeli patriotism any longer, and we must understand that the blame does not always lie with us") are so radically at variance with the political hopes, ideological premises, and emotional impulses of today's liberals that it's just as easy to believe that Kristof simply couldn't assimilate the information.
...
The fact is, while few Israelis have a clear idea of what's to come, a broad consensus has developed in this country on at least a few points: That the premises, both tactical and strategic, of Oslo were mistaken; that Yasser Arafat is not a partner for peace; that Palestinians do not recognize Israel's moral right to exist; that a policy of unilateral concessions does not abate, but rather whets Palestinian ambitions; that the issue of the territories is merely a proxy in the same old battle for Israel's survival; that the Arab-Israeli conflict is, at bottom, a civilizational one, and that the civilization that opposes Israel cannot be so easily mollified by a "rational" process of negotiation and compromise.

Instead of coming to terms with this, the media seizes on the utterances of people like Beilin so they may feel safe in maintaining their old prejudices.

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