The dead who walk among us

[not systems]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/576301.html

By Gideon Levy

The days of commemoration are over. After honoring the memory of our dead who perished in the Holocaust and those killed in Israel's wars, the time has come to think about the next victims. They are walking among us. The fate of the next round's victims is almost sealed. This will be the last summer for the woman with the shopping bags who boards the bus that explodes, for the soldier at the bus stop, for the teenage girl at the mall, for the grandfather traveling to visit his grandchildren and for the foreign worker at the central bus station.

The cause of death: blindness, arrogance and stupidity - despite the fact that the intelligence services, which in recent weeks have repeatedly predicted the return of terror to our streets, see it as an unavoidable natural disaster.

...

The government of Israel is Hamas's best ally. The government's actions express an old and bad pattern, based on the haughty attitude that there is just one player on the stage, to whom everything is permitted. Only we are permitted to arm ourselves and prepare for the next round; only we are allowed to defend ourselves, to violate the cease-fire and to use violence. The thought that perhaps the Palestinians also have the right to defend themselves and their honor is incomprehensible.

...

In light of all this, it is clear that the prevailing quiet is an illusion. One can assume that at the end of the summer, when the disengagement is completed and the occupation continues in all its cruelty, our streets will again come under attack. A new generation is growing up in the territories that is more extreme than its predecessor. Unlike their parents, who worked in Israel and got to know all sides of Israeli society, the new generation of Palestinians knows only the armed and violent Israeli.

The writing cries out from every wall, as a warning to all the dead who walk among us. But, amazingly, no one is doing a thing to stop the next cycle of killing.




I recommend the whole article including the talkback it is very interesting.

[bemildred]

1. Very interesting, a microcosm.

You can't tell anybody anything they don't want to hear, can you?
Thanks for the link.

[Colorado Blue]

2. Interesting piece, thank you! But - it doesn't tell the whole

story about what is going on.

In addition to the steps mentioned in the article below - which also tells about a multi-pronged attack in Gaza, that didn't succeed - as well as the planned release of prisoners and other matters that will be undertaken against the advice of Shin Bet. Recent steps have been taken to arm Palestinian police and security forces in West Bank cities - in preparation to Israeli withdrawal. And the IDF and Hamas are actually working together on civic matters, in towns where Hamas has won seats. Hamas has publicly stated it will accept aid - even from Israel - to help the people it represents.

For its part, PA has taken a notorious bit of antisemitic literature off an internal website and severely chastised a preacher who went on the tube the other day with an obnoxioius rant.

Definitely, it's slow. But it has taken more than 80 years to get here. And, I'm posting another article separately, an interview of Yehud Barak, which gives another point of view.

Sharon approves gestures to PA

snip

Despite the continued barrage of mortar shells and rockets, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz on Thursday approved a series of gestures to the Palestinians, over the objections of the Shin Bet security service.

Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin opposed the proposal to approve the gestures, on the grounds that there are too many warnings of terror attacks. But the IDF supported the decision. At a meeting with Mofaz on Thursday, senior officers warned that if Israel did not act to strengthen Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, "he'll fall, and then we'll have to give more abatements to Hamas, which will gain power in his stead."

The measures, which will be brought to the cabinet for approval after Sharon returns from the United States later this month, involve steps that Israel originally promised at February's Sharm el-Sheikh summit: freeing an additional 400 Palestinian prisoners, allowing the return of wanted Palestinians deported to Europe following the standoff at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity in 2002, and allowing the return of Palestinians deported from the West Bank to Gaza.

snip

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/578321.html