Thank you Jim. For those of us who have followed the story of Israel/Palestine however, this is old, old news. Israel is much happier dealing with fundamentalist terrorists than with secular compromisers (PLO). Why? Because crushing the terrorists does not have to be explained, whereas eliminating those groups that are willing to negotiate would. Does anyone notice how, whenever there's a suicide bombing, the cry is "Get Arafat" even when Hamas claims credit? Does that make sense?
It's an old, old story: the logic of attacking moderate Palestinians goes back to Deir Yassin: according to Hal Draper:
" Deir Yassin was one of the few Arab villages whose inhabitants had refused permission for foreign Arab volunteers to use it as a base of operations against the Jewish life-line into Jerusalem; they had on occasions collaborated with the Jewish Agency.
Deir Yassin had to be the victim _because_ its Arabs were friendly with the Jews. In Labor Action, Ed Findley gave more details culled from the Jewish press:
'It was the only village in the Jerusalem area that had not appealed to any Arab authority as being in danger from the Jews. The villagers lived under an agreement of non-agression with Jewish settlements surrounding it. In the winter of 1947 (before the massacre in 48) Abba Hushi, Jewish labor leader, cited a number of Arab villages in which the villagers had fought off Arab bands attempting to infiltrate and occupy them as positions against the Jews. Deir Yassin was prominently noted. Its villagers had successfully repelled an armed Arab band which attempted to entrench itself in the village mill. These Arab villagers...faithfully carried out their obligation to exclude strangers and to maintain peaceful relations. despite the partition fighting.'
This was the village chosen by the Irgun for their planned massacre....The International Red Cross representative who visited the scene of the outrage, Jaques de Reynier, reported that the bodies of some 150 men, women and children had been thrown down a cistern, while some 90 other bodies were scattered about. The houses were destroyed. The few villagers who were not slaughtered were paraded by the Irgun through the streets of Jerusalem--in triumph.
Deir Yassin resounded through the land, indeed through the world, and with the desired effect. Even a record of friendship for the Jews was no protection, no insurance. It was after this that the Arab flight became general."
(Hal Draper, "Zionsim, Israel, & the Arabs" Center for Socialist History)