The real reason Israel has moved to the right
There are many, both in Israel and the United States, seemingly perplexed by the victory of the right in Israel’s recent elections. In fact, Israel has been steadily moving to the right for decades. The reason for this is not complicated: Israelis have had enough of Palestinian terror. They are tired of seeing their friends, families and countrymen stabbed, shot, run over, blown up, hacked to death and lynched. Land-for-peace and other Israeli government attempts to appease the Palestinians have only brought increased terror, so Israelis have voted for those who promise to end it.
Although generally ignored by the international media, Palestinian atrocities are now a daily occurrence in Israel. Here are a few examples of what Israelis have had to suffer in just one recent week:
On November 22 in Jenin, an 18-year-old Israeli high school student, Tiran Fero, was critically injured in a car crash. In a particularly ghoulish act of Palestinian terror, gunmen came to Tiran’s hospital bed, disconnected him from life support and abducted him. His father and uncle, who were in the room with Tiran, testify that he was still alive at the time. The Palestinian murderers demanded that fellow terrorists be released from prison in exchange for his body.
Tiran was an Israeli Druze, and the Druze community was naturally outraged. The IDF made clear that they would not negotiate with the terrorists, and planned an operation into Jenin to recover the body. Unwilling to wait, hundreds of Druze blocked the main North–South Highway 6 near Jenin. Masked, armed Druze released a video saying that if the body was not returned immediately, they would enter Jenin to recover it and kill everyone who got in their way. Soon thereafter, the terrorists returned Tiran’s body. It seems the Druze, too, have had enough of Palestinian terror.
On November 23, Palestinian terrorists remotely detonated bombs packed with nails and ball bearings to maximize casualties at two bus stops in Jerusalem. 16-year-old student, Aryeh Schupak, was killed and 22 other people were wounded, one of whom later died of his injuries.
On November 24, an Israeli Bedouin drove his car down a sidewalk, running over an 18-year-old student at the Israeli Air Force Technological College. Although not yet soldiers, students at the college wear uniforms. The terrorist fled the scene but was later arrested.
As usual, there was no UN condemnation of any of these Palestinian atrocities. In fact, just a few days earlier the UN had passed yet another resolution condemning Israel. This was the 16th time in the current session that the UN passed an anti-Israel resolution. In contrast, only seven other resolutions regarding the rest of the world were passed during the same period. Among those voting against Israel were the UAE, Bahrain and most strikingly Ukraine, all countries seeking Israeli trade, technology and assistance. The unfairness and hypocrisy of such foreign criticism is not lost on Israelis, who long ago stopped paying any attention to it.
The foreign press generally ignores Palestinian atrocities, since they don’t align with their narrative of the Palestinians as innocent victims. They view Palestinian terror as a result of the conflict, when it is actually the root cause. From the beginning, the stated goal of Palestinian terror has been to drive the Jews from Israel, their native land, where they have lived continuously for 3,600 years. (https://devinsper.com/2014/04/09/%E2%80%8Bthe-nazi-roots-of-palestinian-nationalism/)
The Israeli press and security services take an equally delusional and ineffective view, treating each incident of Palestinian terror as a criminal matter, rather than as part of a century-old, one-sided war of annihilation being waged by Palestinians against Israelis.
The object of terror is to cow people into accepting the terrorist’s political demands, but it almost invariably provokes the opposite reaction: victims of terror become ever more determined to survive, defeat and wreak revenge on their persecutors. Nazi terror bombing of Britain did not cause her capitulation as expected, but forged in the British people an iron will to defeat the Nazis at all costs. Russian terror against Ukraine has not resulted in the Ukrainian people abandoning their national leadership and sovereignty as the Russians hoped. On the contrary, it has galvanized the Ukrainian people behind their leaders and spurred them to sacrifice everything to defeat the Russians. Likewise, every Palestinian murder of an Israeli moves other Israelis further to the right. Terror is simply not an effective way to win friends and influence people.
This long-term trend to the right in Israel can be seen in the shifting balance of power in the Knesset. Israel’s labor party, which ruled the country for her first 29 years, has been reduced to the four-seat minimum necessary to enter the Knesset; her long-time parliamentary ally, the leftist Meretz party, failed to pass the threshold.
Far from having been cowed by Palestinian terror, Israelis are increasingly angry and outraged. The recent election results demonstrate that they are seeking leaders who will finally put an end to Palestinian terror. After a century of Palestinian depredations, Israelis have had enough.