Analysis

When Arabs/Muslims slaughter each other, nobody cares. When an Israeli soldier or an IDF action causes the death of innocent people, people are outraged. 60 Palestinians have been killed in the last 4 days at the hands of Palestinians - more than were killed during the so called masacre in Jenin a few years ago.

Gaza has been handed entirely to the Palestinians - there is no Israeli presence there at all. It seems therefore that the legacy of Arafat is now entirely clear. All he ever did was keep the focus on Israel and avoid civil war at all costs. The Palestinians have cultivated and actively nurtured a culture of death, violence and the ideal of martyrdom. When the Israelis left Gaza, they descended into utter hell. When they have no Jews to direct this towards, they inevitably turn this inwards. It is simply not possible to cultivate this sort of society and then turn off the switch when the Jews leave. They are reaping what they have sown. Hamas - who they elected - have caused the worst disaster the Palestinians have ever experienced.

Imagine the alternative scenario. Israel leaves the Gaza strip. The Palestinians do not rocket Israel daily and do not massacre and execute each other. They begin to take care of their own people. The world sees that they are deserving of a state and pressure increases on Israel to leave the West Bank. Wouldnt that have been the best chance of the Palestinians for a state of their own? That is, after all what they say they want. I would absolutely support the wihdrawal of the vast majority of the west bank if this scenario had happened and I know that the majority of Israelis would. The majority of Israelis are desperate to leave the territories and just need to be shown a glimmer of hope that the territories would not become an Islamic territory dedicated to the killing of Jews regardless of the cost to innocent Palestinian lives.

It is time that the Palestinians take responsibility for their own fates. Yes, I know that people will say "how can they take responsibility under occupation!?" - well, either they want a state of their own or they dont. The "occupation" and the situation they find themeselves in is a fact whether they like it or not. If they really want a state of their own as their number one priority (and not the destruction of Israel) then all they have to do is show Israelis that they can be trusted to not commit to the murder of Jews whenever the opportunity arises - unfortunately, the events of the last few weeks have shown that they are incapable of this and have condemned everyone in the region to decades of violence, despair and hatred.