Even today, as the victims of the Hadera bombing are buried, Israel's government is sure to be criticized for the way it protects its citizens. It will doubtlessly be told that it brought this tragedy upon itself, and that it must assume a passive posture if it is to avoid further bloodshed.
* Readers' talkbacks appear at the end of the article
We have heard this all before, on countless occasions.
At times like this, there is always a chorus that pops up to lecture our leaders with the kind of advice that has proven, time and again, to be fatal. First they mourn the "regrettable loss of life" and bemoan the fact that "calm has been shattered." Then comes the familiar call for Israeli restraint, as if such restraint will prevent, rather than invite, the next attack.
In this case, as in many others, the claim of the terrorists themselves that Israel has provoked the attack will be politely repeated and discussed. It will be stated or implied that Israel has roused the anger of the terrorists by rounding up them up and targeting their commanders. Didn't Israel know, they will ask, that Islamic Jihad would be "forced" to respond to the killing, days before Wednesday's attack, of Luay Sa'adi? And wouldn't a fierce Israeli strike in the wake of the Hadera bombing only invite further terror?
Such people ignore the reality that there has been no calm, except the calm before the storm. Just 11 days ago, three Israelis near Gush Etzion were gunned down on the roads. On Monday, numerous Kassams were launched into Israel from Gaza. Has this already been forgotten? The chorus overlooks the fact that Sa'adi had directed the murders of several Israelis and was planning new attacks when the IDF killed him. And they fail to grasp that it was precisely PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's failure to lift a finger to control groups like Islamic Jihad that made Israel's arrest raids in the West Bank and the neutralization of men such as Sa'adi an absolute imperative.
People of conscience should recognize that the only provocation here was the slaughter of innocents - a slaughter carried out in the open-air market of Hadera, perpetrated against people who were simply waiting in line to buy felafel.
According to early reports on Wednesday, the terrorist who detonated himself in Hadera's market had recently been released from an Israeli prison - in a gesture of support for Abbas.
This too is a standard refrain of the chorus within days of each attack: Why don't you make more "humanitarian gestures" to the Palestinians? Only a few days ago, Israel was treated to criticism from American special Middle East envoy James Wolfensohn that it was being too strict with its closures of border crossings. The shortsightedness of such calls is as painful as it is predictable.
As Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev told The Washington Post: "If Israel tomorrow allowed unimpeded passage at the crossings, I think everyone believes that would have negative consequences all around. There would likely be a series of suicide bombings and we would have to respond." Now that there has been a bombing Israel indeed may respond. More broadly, the basic truth must be constantly restated and implemented because it is constantly forgotten: If the Palestinians do not combat terrorism from their midst, Israel must.
All those who once again revert to the language and logic of the "cycle of violence" should remember that if the Palestinians truly abandon and combat terrorism, Israel will gladly end its efforts to do so. The reverse is demonstrably not true: Israeli restraint does not automatically lead to an end to attacks but, absent Palestinian will to crush terrorism, to a gift of time for the terrorists to recover and regroup.
Prisoner releases in this climate of Palestinian Authority inaction against terror carry immense risks - fatal risks in some cases, as underlined so terribly yesterday. And how many times has Israel lifted roadblocks only to have such gestures literally blow up in our faces?
So this time, for a change, spare us the lectures about how defending ourselves is futile and the wisdom of "humanitarian" measures that lay the groundwork for the next atrocity, or even release its perpetrator.
Send us your comments >>
Richard Brown, Oakland, CA, USA: You are only too correct! I find it amazing that any rational person (I'm not including most Muslims in that) can believe that Israel is really responsible for attacks against it. Isn't that something like saying the six million Jews who were exterminated by Hitler were responsible for that?
The world needs to get a clue before it's too late!
Vittorio, Orange, CA: Jack Daniel, unfortunately you're an ignorant fool who does not know history. The criminals are the Arabs. Read your history!
Paul Filler, Ada, Michigan, USA: I am Jewish, have not gone to temple in more years than I can count, but I am still very Jewish, and I find it hard to...no, I find it incredible how we as Jews still have to answer to the world.
We know right from wrong by our ancestry and should stop answering the peoples of this earth on what comes as common sense to any Jew on this planet. I don't know if I get more annoyed at having to read answers for the survival of Israel or the people that keep telling us to lay down like sheep and get slaughtered.
Shein...Stop. The world is not worth our response. I simply get livid every time we have to give ANY reason to do what you do.
Any country living within as shouting distance of Israel that does not know what response they will receive when my people are attacked are either 1.Too dumb or 2. Not too bright.
Mort Scharfman, NYC, USA: History is rife with tyrants, villains and would-be world-conquerors who "...want only peace." And their logic is a sterling example of reductio ad absurdum.
