The Times (UK)
We can only swing back at Israel’s iron fist
Palestinians are workers and parents, trying to live normal lives. Why can’t they see that?
Sam Bahour
Published at 12:01AM, November 21 2012
The status quo in Palestine and Israel cannot hold. The images of human carnage and indiscriminate destruction emerging from Gaza are unbearable. Palestinians in the West Bank - the other part of the Israeli militarily occupied territory - look on, knowing that Gaza's fate could very wel l be a prelude to what Israel has planned for the West Bank if the Palestinian leadership does not back off from seeking non-member status of the UN General Assembly.
This last-ditch effort by Palestinians to take their issue back to the UN - and, by doing so, breaking the US monopoly on managing the conflict - may well be the fuel that powers the latest Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
The younger generation of Palestinians take strength from seeing Israel receive some of its own medicine - violence. These youngsters no longer fear Israeli military might. Born under an Israeli military occupation that does not look like it intends to end any time soon, they feel they have little to lose in swinging back at Israel's iron first.
Older Palestinians look on with a much more nuanced understanding of Israel. They believe, from bitter experience, that this game of violence is the only one that Israel understands and that fighting back merely gives Israel the pretext to continue its persecution of Palestinians with total impunity.
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