A wave of overwhelming negative response has come in the wake of President Trump’s announcement declaring Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The EU condemned the move, saying “recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel ends hope of resolving the conflict peacefully and that it has divided the international community”. Numerous Arab countries have called for ‘three days of rage’, and the terror organization ‘Hamas’ has called for a Third Intifada. Chillingly this past Saturday marked the 30th anniversary of the 1st Intifada, which infamously led to the creation of Hamas.
Surrounded by so many that are hell-bent on her destruction, Israel has always been a hotbed for terrorist activity. It all began when the First Intifada introduced to the world radical terrorism as an alternative to conventional warfare. We have seen the carnage left after attacks on innocent civilians, it is very clear that extremists find everything and everyone a fair target. I was studying in an academic institution in Jerusalem during the Second Intifada. The chilling sound of the Egged #1 bus line exploding with the piercing sound of sirens that followed still give me the chills.
Upon the ashes of the Holocaust and the David and Goliath type persona displayed by the Israeli army in her two wars, the world looked upon the Jewish people and her State with sympathy. As the violent aggression of the Palestinians pressed on during the First Intifada the perception of many had biasedly reversed. Twistedly, the victim is blamed for instigating the violence through her ‘oppressive’ ’behavior towards the Palestinian people.
Accredited to the First Intifada, the Oslo Accords has since influenced the world’s governing bodies that the only doctrine for peace is some manifestation of ‘land for peace’. How well has that worked out so far? After all the concessions Israel’s has made, her security remains in peril and is subject to scorn by the international community. Many Palestinian and Arab leaders don’t even pretend to hide behind the ‘peace’ rhetoric, as they have unabashedly voiced their intent to annihilate Israel.
Raja Shehadeh, a Palestinian woman wrote in a Guardian op-ed “For many in Palestine, like me and my neighbors, who have already lived through two uprisings with no positive change, the prospect of a third is disquieting. For there can be no assurances whatsoever that it would be different this time around. But then with the world abandoning us, what other options are left?”
In responding forcefully to terror attacks the Jewish State is not held to the same standards as other countries. Despite the international community’s verbal condemnation of terrorism, Israel often finds herself defending the restrained countermeasures she has taken to secure the safety of her citizens. Particularly in the UN, she relentlessly continues to be condemned for any move that does not fully satiate the demands of the greater Arab world.
My Twitter feed just beeped with the news that a security guard was just stabbed at the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem. Dare say the truth, that the unspoken sentiment behind all the terrorist condemnations, is that the shedding of innocent blood is unacceptable – – unless they are Jews.