A History of (Palestinian) Violence

Bret Stephens, writing in the Wall Street Journal, has an excellent essay on the decline of Palestinian society before and since the Israeli withdrawal:

Yet the checkpoints and curfews are not gratuitous acts of unkindness by Israel, nor are they artifacts of occupation. On the contrary, in the years when Israel was in full control of the territories there were no checkpoints or curfews, and Palestinians could move freely (and find employment) throughout the country. It was only with the start of the peace process in 1993 and the creation of autonomous Palestinian areas under the control of the late Yasser Arafat that terrorism became a commonplace fact of Israeli life. And it was only then that the checkpoints went up and the clampdowns began in earnest.

In other words, while Palestinian actions go far to explain Israeli behavior, the reverse doesn't hold. How, then, are the Ighnamats, Tirawis and Bises of Palestinian society to be explained?

Consider a statistic: In the first nine months of 2005 more Palestinians were killed by other Palestinians than by Israelis--219 to 218, according to the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Interior, although the former figure is probably in truth much higher. In the Gaza Strip, the departure of Israeli troops and settlers has brought anarchy, not freedom. Members of Hamas routinely fight gun battles with members of Fatah, Mahmoud Abbas's ruling political party. Just as often, the killing takes place between clans, or hamullas. So-called collaborators are put to the gun by street mobs, their "guilt" sometimes nothing more than being the object of a neighbor's spite. Palestinian social outsiders are also at mortal risk: Honor killings of "loose" women are common, as is the torture and murder of homosexuals.


This article dovetails nicely with what I wrote last week.

Interestingly, the Palestinian "cause" hasn't received much attention from the media now that, left to police themselves, they've descended into anarchy and murder. That is why Arafat waged perpetual war and never had any intention of making peace, to make peace would've meant that Arafat would've had to actually lead and he knew he couldn't. Abbas gets to deal with the mess.

Abbas is trying the old "blame the Israeli's" line that served Arafat so well, but since they withdrew from Gaza he has lost that particular lifeline.