|
Trending Topics
|
When Palestinians Are Hopeless, Terror Declines; When Hopeful, Terrorism Increases
(Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University) Hillel Frisch - The common mantra that Palestinian hopelessness increases terrorism and that the prospects for peace decrease it has always been fake news. Palestinian terrorism invariably rises in tandem with their hopes of gaining the upper hand. The Oslo "peace" process was thus accompanied by a precipitous increase in Palestinian terrorism. The more Israel made concessions to the Palestinians, the higher the terrorist toll climbed. The tendency to rebel increases not when all appears lost, but when prospects for the rebellious appear to be improving but the improvement does not meet rising expectations. The moral is that there must be a significant majority on both sides ready to make necessary concessions well before any "peace" process is attempted. The writer is a professor of political and Middle East studies at Bar-Ilan University and a senior research associate at the BESA Center.