Israel faces multiple crises that require immediate action.
The first challenge is a well-planned rebellion now underway, orchestrated by the Fatah, also known as the PLO - the Palestine Liberation Organization.
This generation of Fatah has learned to manipulate public opinion through carefully coordinated violent actions and logistical support.
Their campaign promotes the so called "right of return" to Arab villages that existed before 1948, even though this has no basis in reality
This generation of Fatah has learned to manipulate public opinion through coordinated violent actions and logistical support.
Their campaign promotes the right of seven million Arabs who dwell as refugees in perpetuity in 59 "temporary" refugee camps due to the refusal of their host Arab countries to grant them citizenship to return to Arab villages that existed before 1948 where some of their grandparents may have lived.
UNRWA, in charge of thes refugee camps, has created a school system centered around the "right of return", evident in school books, songs, plays, and youth clubs.
The UNRWA schools reflect the fact that the PLO never ratified the "declaration of principles" of the 1993 OSLO Accords, which require it to denounce terrorism and recognize of Israel
Yet there is a widely accepted notion that the PLO, operating under the guise of the PA, has abandoned the path to terror and that Mahmoud Abbas is a "moderate." .
Indeed, the Israeli High Court of Justice under the leadership of Chief Justice Aharon Barak recognized the PLO as a legitimate entity, based on the recognition of the Palestinian Arab national aspirations in the 1979 Camp David Accords, written in part by then Israel State Attorney Aharon Barak, the same jurist who became the Israel Chief Justice.
Now is the time to challenge PLO legitimacy under Israel and international law, because the PLO acts as an entity of terror- not as a partner for peace
A case in point: the unprecedented PA law that came into effect in 2015, when the PA established a fund to provide anyone who murders a Jew with a salary for life, or a salary for life for the family of the killer, if the killer dies in the act of murdering a Jew.
Shockingly, no government, including Israel, has demanded the repeal of this law.
My question to the spokespeople of both the US and Israel about whether either government would demand that the PA repeal this incentive to murder elicited an identical response from both governments- condemning what is termed "pay for slay", not calling for its repeal.
A campaign must now be launched to demand the repeal of this "pay for slay" legislation, along with the prosecution of anyone who facilitates payments for murder, including any banks that process what amounts to be a reward for murder.
Israel must declare zero tolerance for any nation, or entity that does not demand the repeal of this unprecedented law.
To give a human face to this law, international zoom discussions with families can ensue, with those who have lost loved ones to these incentivized murders
Only by seeing the human face can the depth of this crime be fully understood.
A practical suggestion :
Hold vigils at the Jerusalem Capital Studios, 206 Jaffa road, Jerusalem,where media can be approached directly
Such vigils should also involve those who suffer the pain of losing loved ones to murder, only to witnesshow their killers are rewarded with a stipend for life.
By engaging public opinion, it will become possible to challenge the blind acceptance of such a law, in order to facilitate a change in policy.
David Bedein is director of Israel Resource News Agency and heads the Center for Near East Policy Research, author of Genesis of the Palestinian Authority and Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict: UNRWA Policies Reconsidered.