09/07/2016, Gush Shalom גוש שלום http://zope.gush-shalom.org (Israel)
A PALESTINIAN youngster breaks into a settlement, enters
the nearest house, stabs a 13-year old girl in her sleep and is killed.
Three Israeli men kidnap a 12-year old Palestinian boy at
random, take him to an open field and burn him alive.
Two Palestinians from a small town near Hebron enter
Israel illegally, have coffee in a Tel Aviv amusement quarter and then shoot up
everybody around before they are captured. They become national heroes.
An Israeli soldier sees a severely wounded Palestinian
attacker lying on the ground, approaches him and shoots him in the head at
point blank range. He is applauded by most Israelis.
These are not "normal" actions even in a
guerrilla war. They are the manifestations of bottomless hatred, a hatred so
terrible that it overcomes all norms of humanity.
THIS WAS not always so. A few days after the 1967 war, in
which Israel conquered East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, I
traveled alone though the newly occupied territories. I was welcomed almost
everywhere, people were eager to sell me their goods, tell me their stories.
They were curious about the Israelis, much as we
