Kill or be killed: Terror is the sole tool of Hamas
After Israel buried another two young soldiers—Sgt. Netanel Kahalani, 20, and Capt. Ziv Deus, 21, who were killed on March 16 by a Palestinian terrorist after he rammed his car into a group of soldiers (two others were injured in the attack) along a road southwest of Jenin—Israeli troops on the border with Gaza blew up two more tunnels built with the intent of allowing terrorists to again enter the Jewish state.
Fiamma Nirenstein
Two days later, more blood was spilled, this time in an attack in Jerusalem’s Old City. Adiel Coleman, a 32-year-old Israel father of four (initially identified as a security guard), was standing outside the entrance of the Western Wall—one of Israel’s most symbolic places—when he was stabbed in the chest and belly; he succumbed to his wounds on Sunday night. The terrorist was chased down and immediately killed at the scene. The assailant was identified as Abd al-Rahman Bani Fadel, 28, a father of two from the village of Aqraba, near Nablus, was perhaps inspired by the magnificent opportunity to kill a Jew at Temple Mount, which is known to Muslims as “the Noble Sanctuary.”
It’s time to stop talking about “lone wolves”; this boils down to Palestinian incitement.
The Palestinians strategic use of terrorism is widely accepted among the masses. It accounts for thousands of deaths, it attacks Jewish sovereignty, and it aims to terrorise not solely some people, but a whole people by inducing it to fight in order to free the Islamic Ummah. This choice, nourished by religious precepts related to jihad—that of shaheed, “martyrs”—has infected the entire Muslim world. This is the main task that it has set its sights upon—not to build a state, which the Palestinians have refused three times, despite the fact that those deals would have included Jerusalem. Why won’t return to the negotiation table with Israel in order to discuss U.S. President Donald Trump’s new proposal? Instead, they prefer to continue the threat of new bloodshed, which they’re practicing day after day because they see it as the only viable alternative.
The terrorist who accelerated upon the four soldiers as they were walking on the edge of the road and then backed up to further crush those he hit was a youth from Barta’a, near Jenin; Alaa Kabha, 26, a released security prisoner, is now again in jail. It’s hard to keep wolves at bay; alas, “wolves” are a hungry bunch.
Netanel Kahalani and Ziv Deus
In 2017 alone, Israel prevented 1,300 attacks without any organisational support, and the year before that 2,200. Clearly, Israel’s security establishment learned this year how to thwart these attacks before they happened, but this time their efforts weren’t enough. Kabha had the honor of carrying out his attack on the 100-day anniversary of Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. There are plenty of anniversaries, and you can be sure that they will all be celebrated by Fatah and Hamas, along with the “sacrifice” of terrorists, who when imprisoned, will receive a salary. If killed, his family will receive that money.
Fatah posters featuring machine guns and clenched fists to extol the use of violence, and invites Palestinians to use weapons. A song incites, “I come out to you, my enemy, from every home, neighborhood and street … .” On March 30, Hamas has declared demonstrations as part of “Land Day” that will continue up to Israel’s 70th anniversary, on May 14, when the American Embassy will move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The strategy of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) is constantly in competition with Hamas, which recently attempted, it appears, to assassinate his prime minister, Rami Hamdallah, while on a visit this month to the Gaza Strip. It is entirely predicated on “no’s”: “no” to talks, “no” to any proposal made by Trump, and “no” to reducing its onslaught of attacks against Israel (as it did at the United Nations by shamelessly stating that Israel is a Western colonialist project that has nothing to do with Jewish history).
But more than anything else, Fatah and Hamas encourage killing and being killed. Terror is their only weapon, even if it is badly hidden behind diplomatic instruments, like the request for recognition or through propaganda activities such as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which, in fact, continues to conceal terror and feed it.
Journalist Fiamma Nirenstein was a member of the Italian Parliament (2008-13), where she served as vice president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Chamber of Deputies, served in the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, and established and chaired the Committee for the Inquiry Into Anti-Semitism. A founding member of the international Friends of Israel Initiative, she has written 13 books, including “Israel Is Us” (2009). Currently, she is a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
Translation by Amy Rosenthal.
