The Jerusalem bomb - a terrible setback for the Palestinian cause

The recent bomb in Jerusalem - after 7 years of relative peace in that city - is a terrible event. First of all, for the innocent civilians involved. No decent human being can support the use of violence against civilians.

Of course the Israelis, too, attack civilians. Over 400 Palestinian children were killed in the attack on Gaza. And they should be (and were) widely condemned for it.


According to news reports, the bus bombing killed one person and left up to 50 injured



But that is not a justification for anybody else to do the same thing. It is easy to understand the frustration that could have led to this. But it is not morally justified - and equally important - it is a tactical disaster.

Murdering Israeli civilians is a huge setback for the Palestinian cause. Not just because it will drive Israelis even further into the militant camp, (though not many are in a peace camp today), but more importantly, because it will  undercut the sympathy for Palestinians in the West.

The Israel lobby work hard to convince Canadians that Israel is under threat and justifies everything it does to protect its security. If it didn't blocade Gaza, build the wall, imprison Palestinians, etc. etc., Israel says in effect, the Arabs would kill us all. This bomb seems to confirm that message.

No decent Canadian, however sympathetic to the cause of human rights for Palestinians, can approve of this terrorist attack. Many will today be shaken in their belief that Palestinians just want human rights. ("Perhaps they do want revenge", they will wonder. "And if they want "revenge" I don't want any part of it.")

We still don't know who did it. (Hamas is blamed - of course - but who knows??) It doesn't even matter. In fact, the bomb might as well have been placed by Israeli secret agents - judging by the effect it will have. This act will make it much harder to develop support for Palestinians in Canada.

Palestinian Canadians, those who want to develop support for their cause in Canada, must be very disappointed.

Background

Of course, the Jerusalem bombing has a context. It comes after days of mounting tension between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel has attacked Gaza several times from the air, killing many Palestinians including children. Hamas has been lobbing more of its ineffective rockets in to Israel.

And then there was that terrible murder near Nablus of 5 Jewish settlers. Of course, the settlers shouldn't have been there in the first place. Of course, it is not clear who murdered them. (Suspicion has fallen on an immigrant worker who was not Palestinian.)

But that has not stopped the Israeli government from telling the whole world that the act was done by Palestinian terrorists. Nor has it stopped Israeli settlers from what they call a "day of Rage" attacking Palestinians all over the West Bank "in retaliation".

On Monday a Palestinian was stabbed by settlers, a shop was set on fire and later a group of settlers were seen stoning Palestinians' cars in Hebron in the southern West Bank. One of the Hebron settlers also ran over a five-year-old Palestinian boy causing moderate injuries while on Sunday an 11-year-old Palestinian girl walking to school was run over. 

Jewish settlers armed with machine guns and accompanied by Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers uprooted hundreds of olive trees planted by Palestinian farmers near Bethlehem.

Israel will take full advantage of this opportunity to paint Palestinians in an unfavourable light, and Palestine's western supporters will be nervously holding back, trying to make sense of it.

For more information on the "Day of Rage" and its impact on Palestinians, read here.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54954

Palestinians deserve their human rights. We can develop a broad Canadian base of support for this. But those efforts are seriously undermined when it appears that Palestinians have attacked innocent Israeli citizens.