Palestinian Tractor-Terrorism: Mainstream Not Renegade

Yoram Ettinger

Hate-Education-Driven-Terrorism. The July 2, 2008 Palestinian Tractor-Terrorism constituted a precise Palestinian human-missile, guided by Palestinian hate-education, instituted in 1994 by Abu-Mazen, then Arafat’s first deputy, and proliferated via Abu Mazen’s current educational-religious-media infrastructures. K-12, and older, Palestinians are exposed systematically to school textbooks, sermons, editorials and news editions – controlled by Abu Mazen – which idolize homicide bombers, calling for the destruction of the “illegitimate, infidel” Jewish State. Hate-education (and not statements made to Western leaders and media) is the most authentic reflection of one’s ideology, vision and strategy. Hate-education constitutes the manufacturing line of terrorists. Hate-education distinguishes between peaceful and violent societies. Hate-education is facilitated by foreign aid provided to Abu Mazen by the US, W. Europe and the UN.2. Mainstream–Not Renegade-Terrorism. The July 2, 2008 Palestinian Tractor-Terrorism is an expected derivative of a cultural-political-intellectual-educational-military environment – in the Arab world generally and in the PA particularly – which breeds lethal hatred toward Salman Rushdie the “apostate”, a European “infidel” cartoonist, the “infidel” Christian regime in Lebanon and the “infidel” Jewish State. Mainstream Palestinian terrorists accord their families with Abu-Mazen’s “Martyr Allowances.” They are commemorated by PA monuments and soccer tournaments, and idolized by poems featured on Abu-Mazen-controlled TV and radio.



3. Hope-Not Despair-Driven-Palestinian Terrorism. The Palestinian Tractor-Terrorism, along with hundreds of foiled terrorist attempts and the barrage of Palestinian missiles, have taken place during the administration of the most Dovish Israeli Prime Minister. Since (Oslo) 1993, Israel provided Palestinians with an unprecedented hope, denied them by the Ottomans, British, Jordanians, Egyptians and Arab League. Israel imported PLO terrorists from oblivion in Yemen, Iraq, Sudan, Lebanon and Tunisia to the door steps of their intended Israeli victims, arming terrorists with missiles, ushering them to the White House and according them the Nobel Prize. The Palestinian response was strikingly lucid – instituting hate education! Palestinian terrorism has been adrenalized by the hope of Israeli vacillation, retreat and fatalism. Palestinian terrorism has been energized, since the 1920s, by the existence – and not by the size – of the Jewish State.



4. Terrorism Rewarded. The 1993 Oslo Accord has been perceived, by Palestinian and other terrorists, as a reward to the role model of hijacking, global terrorism and inter-Arab back-stabbing (Egypt – 1950s, Syria – 1966, Jordan – 1970, Lebanon – 1975 until 1982 and Kuwait – 1990). Since 1993, Palestinian hate-education, non-compliance, terrorism and homicide bombing has been answered by further Israeli territorial concessions, bolstered US support for a Palestinian state and more generous US, W. European and international foreign aid. Palestinians have realized that not only can they get away with murder; but, they can be rewarded for murder!



5. Eroded Deterrence Fuels Terrorism. The Palestinian Tractor-Terrorism has been triggered, also, by the slackening of Israel’s posture of deterrence since 1993. Subordinating counter-terrorism to the “Peace Process,” has hand-cuffed the IDF, played into the hands of terrorists, undermining the cause of durable peace. Israel’s policy of retreat, co-existence with terrorism, ceasefires, subcontracting counter-terrorism to the PA (and international forces), striving for agreements with those who systematically and violently violate all agreements, and reliance on retaliation and defense has produced a protracted war of attrition, which constitutes a wet dream for terrorists and a lethal threat to Israel and to peace. The resurrection of Israel’s posture of deterrence – which constitutes a prerequisite for a successful war on terrorism – mandates pre-emptive, preventive, comprehensive offensive at the breeding ground of terrorism, focusing on the destruction of the ideological, financial and political infrastructures, which direct, feed and brainwash homicide-bombers. It requires a realization that every square inch conceded to the Palestinians has become a platform for hate-education and terrorism, serving as fuel – and not water – to the fire of terrorism.



6. Anti-US Terrorism Exacerbated. The unprecedented Palestinian terrorism since Oslo 1993 - culminating with the July 2, 2008 Tractor Terrorism - has corresponded to the unprecedented anti-US Islamic terrorism since the 1993 first attempt on the Twin Towers. The more substantial Palestinian independence, the more intensified is Palestinian and global terrorism. Palestinian terrorism was at low ebb on the eve of Oslo, catapulting to its peak since Oslo. US support of an independent state to the role-model of terrorism and hate-education has been construed, by anti-US Islamic terrorists, as weakness and reward to terrorism. As evidenced by Abu-Mazen’s education, religious and media systems, such a state would doom Jordan – a US ally – to oblivion, it would energize anti-US terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan (which was intensified following Israel’s “Disengagement”), it would provide Iran, Russia, China and North Korea with a strategic foothold in the eastern flank of the Mediterranean, it would add another anti-US vote at the UN, it would bolster terrorism against weak Gulf regimes, further destabilizing the Mideast, and it would reward those who oppress Christians in the Bethlehem area.


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