The Truth About the Middle East in One Viral Video

The Truth About the Middle East in One Viral Video

By Jonathan S. Tobin
September 3, 2015
Commentary Magazine


Perhaps even those who are not regular consumers of news about the Middle East have seen the viral Palestinian video of a confrontation between an Israeli soldier and Palestinians outside a village named Nabi Saleh in the West Bank. The New York Times dubbed it a “Rashomon” — after the classic Japanese film about an incident viewed from three perspectives. The left-wing Vox site called “Israel’s Eric Garner Moment.” Meanwhile Israelis have been ardently debating whether it shows the soldier’s commendable restraint, as evidence of the army showing too much restraint, or as with some of their country’s critics, proof of the inherent problems that the “occupation” causes. But what most of those who have written about the incident and a video that serves as something of a Rorschach test of the conflict are missing is that it would never have happened if the Palestinians had chosen to make peace when Israeli governments offered them independence and statehood in 2000, 2001 and 2008. Nor would any Israeli have been there if Palestinians leaders had chosen to negotiate with the current Israeli government rather than to blow up the peace talks as they had every previous opportunity for a solution.


The argument about what the kid and the Palestinians did or what the soldier was trying to do is an opportunity for all sides in the century-old war between the two peoples to trot out familiar talking points. But it occurs to me that maybe what those who are unhappy about the presence of Jews in the vicinity of Nabi Saleh should do is to ask why it is that the Palestinians chose not to take yes for an answer all those times when saying no ensured that Israelis would remain there.

Let’s start by stating the obvious about the videos of the incident. All of those who have commented about it, no matter whether they are friends of Israel or its foes, see them as validating the opinions they already had about the conflict. I’m no different in that respect since all I see there is a soldier trying to apprehend a youthful offender engaged in an activity that would, if it happened on any American street, be viewed as criminal. The videos show a boy throwing rocks at Israelis and a soldier trying to arrest him. He tackles the boy and as the kid tries to wriggle loose, puts him in a headlock and basically sits on him so as to prevent his escape. Then other Palestinians tackle the soldier in a violent scrum, and he is beaten and even bitten by them. Though he is armed, he doesn’t fire but more or less let’s himself be roughed up and, rather than let the incident escalate into a genuine tragedy involving bloodshed, ultimately lets the rock thrower go.

But let’s also be honest about the reason why Palestinians of any age are demonstrating or, the boys did, throwing rocks.

Whatever you may think about the conflict or what goes on in the video, neither the boy nor his family, nor the army here nor any of their fellow residents of Nabi Saleh are being sought out by the soldiers for abuse. Instead, these Palestinians, with young children deliberately placed in the vanguard, are seeking out the army at checkpoints or areas where Jewish building is going on to provoke a counter-reaction. As even the New York Times article on the affair states, the Palestinians of Nabi Saleh have earned themselves an international reputation for abusing Israeli soldiers. The incidents are not only staged. As with the first and second intifadas in which stone-throwing by young Palestinians played a major role, the goal of these encounters is to goad the Israelis into doing something violent. Sometimes they just insult them or get in their faces hoping to be punched, shoved or shot. But mostly, they throw rocks.

Rock throwing is something of a national sport for the Palestinians and has, oddly enough, earned them a degree of international sympathy. Part of it is the way the image of young people chucking rocks or, even better, using slings to hurl them, reverses the David and Goliath story so as to make the Israelis the Philistine giant and the poor Arabs, modern day Davids. Yet omitted from most accounts of the suffering of rock throwers who are caught and jailed by the Israelis is that most of the targets of their missiles are not heavily armed soldiers, but Jewish civilians in cars driving to and from their homes or workplaces. Many Israelis have been seriously injured or killed by these lethal projectiles, but few foreign observers view them with sympathy. Any American or European who had a rock thrown at their car, hitting their windshields, causing injuries from the impact or, more often, serious accidents, would be screaming bloody murder and calling for police action and not worrying over much about whether the cops are gentle with those placing their lives in jeopardy.

But because the rocks are thrown at Jews, and the Palestinians don’t want Jews to live in their vicinity, these attacks are viewed as understandable if not commendable.

Granted, the presence of Jews in the West Bank is supposed to be the nub of the long war between the two peoples. If they left, the assumption is that the conflict would then end. But, of course, that is not the case since the fighting long predated the Six Day War in 1967. Moreover, the Israeli granting of autonomy to the Palestinians under Oslo or even the withdrawal of every single, soldier, settler and settlement from Gaza only seemed to escalate the conflict, not bring it closer to a solution.

And that bring me back to my point about why the incident was unnecessary. Has Yasir Arafat or his successor Mahmoud Abbas been willing to end the war and accept a Palestinian state in almost all of the West Bank, a share of Jerusalem and Gaza, there would be no Jews in the vicinity of Nabi Saleh at which they could throw rocks. Instead, they said no and launched new waves of bloody violence that impoverished their people.

Nabi Saleh is, after all, just a miniature version of Gaza where Hamas hurls rockets at Israeli cities in the expectation that Israelis will fire back at the terrorist launching sites and kill or wound Palestinian civilians. Those who look to prolong rather than solve the conflict hide behind 11-year-old rock throwers in the West Bank the way Hamas hides behind the civilians in whose vicinity they plant weapons or the entrances to terror tunnels used to facilitate kidnapping and murder of Israelis.

There is plenty of criticism to go around here. Some Israelis are correctly pointing out that putting young conscripts in the position that this soldier was placed in is unfair to him all of his comrades. They’re being asked to be both good combat soldiers and expert riot police without adequate training for the latter task. The Palestinian adults deserve even more blame. Every time they let their kids confront soldiers in this manner or throw rocks at any Israeli, they are staking them out as potential human sacrifices. Such conduct would, in any civilized society not driven mad by war, be considered monstrous and grounds for a charge of child abuse. But instead their peers laud these parents and the children are treated as heroes rather than scofflaws in the same way that suicide bombers are honored by Palestinian society. Indeed, this abuse of children is proof of the political culture of hate that has prevented Palestinians from making peace.

All of which explains why the arguments, the ones I agree with and the ones I oppose, about the viral video are irrelevant. The day the Palestinians are ready to make true peace, they will find that a majority of Israelis are willing to give up more settlements to make it possible. Until then, they will go on sacrificing their children and blaming Israel.


Article Link:

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/2015/09/03/viral-palestinian-video/

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