March 10, 2003 - An Israeli is killed and three other Israelis are wounded when at least one Palestinian gunman opens fire in Hebron, as a musty New York Times clipping reports. Two Israelis are killed four nights earlier in an attack in Kiryat Arba.
Also on March 10, Yasser Arafat announces his choice for the new post of Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas was with Arafat from the beginning, since their Fatah movement was founded in 1965, and held ranking positions under Arafat ever since. That means he was in Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organization through the Munich massacre of Israeli athletes, the Ma'alot massacre of Israeli teenagers, and the pointblank shooting death of Leon Klinghoffer on the passenger ship Achille Lauro.
Perhaps Abbas never approved of any of this violence. Or he genuinely changed his attitude. Maybe he is now lying about his public stance against attacks on Israelis. I can't read his mind, and it seems futile to try.
This much is clear: at this time, Abbas will not - possibly because he cannot - control terrorism among his fellow Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank.
The Karni assault on Thursday was an act of war. So were the rocket attacks on Sderot and Netzarim. To date, seven Israelis (including two Arabs and some Soviet immigrants) were killed at the Karni border crossing separating Gaza and Israel proper, a 7-year-old boy nearly lost a hand when a mortar shell struck a house in Netzarim in Gaza, and a teenaged girl was critically injured from a rocket fired from Gaza into Sderot, a border town in Israel proper.
Several thousand Arabs, with some carrying green Islamic flags, held a victory march Friday at Gaza's Jabalya refugee camp to celebrate the Karni massacre, Uri Dan reported in the New York Post.
Abbas is upset that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will not talk to him and that he sealed the borders even before his inauguration as Palestinian president on Saturday. He is likely displeased with Israeli military reprisals. He is lucky that Sharon did not model his military response after the invasion of Normandy, or even Hitler's blitzkrieg into Poland.
Hostile actions such as these are not done in a civilized society. The Arabs cannot dismiss this as one of those incidents that will happen in "the process". Americans who are dispirited by Bush administration policies have resorted to peaceful protest, political campaigning, lobbying for their issues and making inquiries about Canadian citizenship - not violence.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, speaking to a Times reporter, said it best: "We are not going back to the days when we had attacks in the morning, funerals in the afternoon and negotiations at night, as if nothing had happened."
Abbas' situation is not to be envied. He is caught between a still-powerful terrorist faction that could launch an all-out civil war if he attempts to crack down, and an Israeli government that rightfully expects him to be a reliable negotiating partner. However, Israel's top priority is the safety of its citizens, and seven of Israel's citizens were murdered in one fell swoop and two of Israel's children will never be the same again. One Israeli death is too many, and one Israeli injury is too many.
These killings happened on Abbas' watch. That is said not so much to blame Abbas as to assign him responsibility for preventing such attacks. He said his approach will be to negotiate with Hamas and other terrorist groups and avoid any confrontation by force. This is Abbas' historic approach to terrorism among his own. Even if he disapproves of violence, he either turns his head away or works against it around the edges. But let's assume that Abbas' way eventually works. The operative word here is "eventually." It is not working now. Israelis have already died or been hurt while Abbas talks.
This is nothing personal against Abbas. It is just that the safety of Israelis trumps accommodation of Abbas' bureaucratic entanglements. Is that so hard to understand?
Also on March 10, Yasser Arafat announces his choice for the new post of Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas was with Arafat from the beginning, since their Fatah movement was founded in 1965, and held ranking positions under Arafat ever since. That means he was in Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organization through the Munich massacre of Israeli athletes, the Ma'alot massacre of Israeli teenagers, and the pointblank shooting death of Leon Klinghoffer on the passenger ship Achille Lauro.
Perhaps Abbas never approved of any of this violence. Or he genuinely changed his attitude. Maybe he is now lying about his public stance against attacks on Israelis. I can't read his mind, and it seems futile to try.
This much is clear: at this time, Abbas will not - possibly because he cannot - control terrorism among his fellow Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank.
The Karni assault on Thursday was an act of war. So were the rocket attacks on Sderot and Netzarim. To date, seven Israelis (including two Arabs and some Soviet immigrants) were killed at the Karni border crossing separating Gaza and Israel proper, a 7-year-old boy nearly lost a hand when a mortar shell struck a house in Netzarim in Gaza, and a teenaged girl was critically injured from a rocket fired from Gaza into Sderot, a border town in Israel proper.
Several thousand Arabs, with some carrying green Islamic flags, held a victory march Friday at Gaza's Jabalya refugee camp to celebrate the Karni massacre, Uri Dan reported in the New York Post.
Abbas is upset that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will not talk to him and that he sealed the borders even before his inauguration as Palestinian president on Saturday. He is likely displeased with Israeli military reprisals. He is lucky that Sharon did not model his military response after the invasion of Normandy, or even Hitler's blitzkrieg into Poland.
Hostile actions such as these are not done in a civilized society. The Arabs cannot dismiss this as one of those incidents that will happen in "the process". Americans who are dispirited by Bush administration policies have resorted to peaceful protest, political campaigning, lobbying for their issues and making inquiries about Canadian citizenship - not violence.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, speaking to a Times reporter, said it best: "We are not going back to the days when we had attacks in the morning, funerals in the afternoon and negotiations at night, as if nothing had happened."
Abbas' situation is not to be envied. He is caught between a still-powerful terrorist faction that could launch an all-out civil war if he attempts to crack down, and an Israeli government that rightfully expects him to be a reliable negotiating partner. However, Israel's top priority is the safety of its citizens, and seven of Israel's citizens were murdered in one fell swoop and two of Israel's children will never be the same again. One Israeli death is too many, and one Israeli injury is too many.
These killings happened on Abbas' watch. That is said not so much to blame Abbas as to assign him responsibility for preventing such attacks. He said his approach will be to negotiate with Hamas and other terrorist groups and avoid any confrontation by force. This is Abbas' historic approach to terrorism among his own. Even if he disapproves of violence, he either turns his head away or works against it around the edges. But let's assume that Abbas' way eventually works. The operative word here is "eventually." It is not working now. Israelis have already died or been hurt while Abbas talks.
This is nothing personal against Abbas. It is just that the safety of Israelis trumps accommodation of Abbas' bureaucratic entanglements. Is that so hard to understand?