Well, another year, another Nakba Day celebrated, this one with a truck rampage in Tel Aviv (killing one and injuring tens), burning cars and dumpsters in Arab neighborhoods, clashes with IDF all over the country, and attempted border infiltrations from Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza. One Arab teen reportedly died from his injuries in a riot (and, as frequently happens, no one has produced a stiff to prove it), and there are several dead from border infiltration attempts, though whether those were killed by IDF or Southern Lebanese Army is also uncertain. (The Syrian army at the border did nothing to stop infiltrators into Israel.) By all measures, this year’s Great Pity Party of Bogus Narrative and Self-Inflicted Misery was a rousing success.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas says it’s a turning point in the Israeli-Arab conflict and proves that Arabs are committed to ending the occupation, and let’s be clear what “occupation” means: When Israel offers to swap land for peace, that won’t end the occupation. The occupation is not Israel’s control over lands won from Jordan, Syria and Egypt in 1967. It’s the existence of Israel on the land from the Green Line to the Mediterranean since 1948. It’s why there’s a Nakba Day every year, it’s why the Arabs have refused every offer of a state made to them, and it’s why Abbas has said that no Jew will ever be allowed to live in a Palestinian state. (He doesn’t comment on Arabs living in a Jewish state because to him, no Jewish state has a right to exist, and the Palestinian state he aspires to found will comprise all the land from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, judenfrei.) No, the occupation will end when Israel as a sovereign state comes to an end. This is why pedestrians and motorists in Tel Aviv are targeted, Israel’s borders are disregarded by infiltrators from neighboring countries, and the dead dubbed “martyrs” instead of the rioters that they are.
Whether or not the day’s destruction actually reaps benefits for the Arabs long term, it has made their leadership happy to see their friends and constituents wreak havoc, make asses of themselves, and get killed, because no matter how they behave or how many laws they break, Israel will always get the blame. (Remember when Israeli soldiers were fired upon from across the Lebanese border last August for simply pruning the bushes? Israel is already accused of violating international law by firing at rioters trying to cross its borders.)
In the words of the inimitable 5-year-old Banana, “Ach! When is the Moshiach going to come already? The Arabs are so annoying!” (She doesn’t know the half of it.)
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