Four Arab-Israeli conflict myths shattered by one terror incident - opinion

Sometimes you can learn everything you need to know about the Arab-Israeli conflict from even one relatively minor incident.

The confrontation between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian Arab terrorists in Jenin on May 29th might seem to have been a routine incident. Israeli troops briefly entered a Palestinian Authority-governed city in pursuit of terrorists. The Israelis came under “heavy fire,” according to an army spokesman and shot back. A terrorist named Ashraf Mohammad Ibrahim was killed.

It sounds like the kind of episode we’ve seen a hundred times before. But a closer look at the details – and their implications – shatters four of the most important myths about the Middle East.

Myth #1: If you let the Palestinian Authority have a police force, it will use it to fight terrorism

This was one of the major premises of the Oslo Accords (1993). Israel agreed to permit the creation of a 10,000-man Palestinian security force. The Clinton administration offered to train and arm them. The PA gradually expanded it to 30,000 men, making it one of the largest per capita security forces in the world.

Yet instead of arresting terrorists and shutting down their safe houses and arms depots, the PA has sheltered the terrorists, protected them from Israeli capture, and enabled them to operate freely.

Even worse, many of these PA “policemen” double as terrorists. Ashraf Mohammad Ibrahim, this week’s Jenin terrorist, was an officer in the PA General Intelligence Service, according to the official PA news service, Wafa.

Myth #2: Fatah has given up terrorism

Another of the foundational precepts of the Oslo agreement was that Fatah – the largest faction of the PLO and PA – had sincerely forsaken terrorism.

In reality, Fatah simply formed a new terrorist unit, the “al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade,” and continued its murderous activities under that name. Fatah’s own Facebook page openly describes the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade as Fatah’s “military arm.” A study by the official US Congressional Research Service in 2005 reported: “On December 18, 2003, Fatah asked the leaders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades to join the Fatah Council, recognizing it officially as part of the Fatah organization.”

Ashraf Mohammed Ibrahim was “a fighter in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade,” according to Ynet, the news service of the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot.

Myth #3: Poverty causes terrorism

The experts claim that Palestinian Arab terrorists typically are young, unemployed men, who resort to terrorism because of their personal financial distress.

Ashraf Mohammed Ibrahim was neither young nor unemployed. He was 38, and had a steady, well-paying job as a PA General Intelligence officer. In photos of him on the internet, Ibrahim appears to be well-dressed. Palestinian Television reported that he “was preparing to get married.”

According to the “experts,” Ibrahim was the least likely candidate for terrorism. He had everything to lose. Yet he picked up his gun and tried to murder Jews. Why? Because the main cause of terrorism is not poverty – it’s ideology. Extreme Arab nationalism, Muslim fundamentalism and old-fashioned antisemitism.

Myth #4: The Israeli occupation is the source of the conflict

The Israeli occupation of the Palestinians ended in 1995, when Israel withdrew its troops and military administration from the PA-controlled areas, where 98% of Palestinian Arabs reside. Over the next 28 years, an entire generation of Palestinian Arabs grew up under PA rule. They attended PA schools, listened to PA Radio, and watched PA Television. Did the PA educate them to embrace peace and nonviolence?

No; exactly the opposite. As a resident of PA-governed Jenin, Ashraf Mohammed Ibrahim was a product of the PA school system. The PA could have taught him to be a peaceful citizen. Instead, he spent his school years learning that Jews are evil and deserve to be murdered. And so, he acted on what his PA teachers taught him.

The other residents of Jenin likewise have been fed a diet of hate. If the PA had educated them for peace, they would have been ashamed that one of their own became a terrorist. Instead, they treated Ibrahim as a hero and martyr. Huge crowds attended his funeral procession. Jenin city officials proclaimed a daylong general strike to honor him. Instead of rejecting the terrorist, they embraced and glorified him. That’s what 30 years of PA education has done to the residents of Jenin.

Four powerful lessons from one routine incident. You don’t need to be a Harvard graduate or a think tank fellow to understand the Arab-Israeli conflict. You just need to carefully follow the news.

The writer is an attorney, and the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995. He is author of A Father’s Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror.