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Palestinians Revel in Violence

[Weekly Standard] Jonathan Schanzer - The streets of Gaza were packed with thousands of joyous revelers on Thursday following the terrorist attack at a Jerusalem rabbinical seminary that killed eight people. Gazans also flooded the streets in early February to celebrate the suicide bombing in the Israeli town of Dimona. During the 1991 Gulf War, when Saddam Hussein lobbed 39 Scud missiles at Israel, Palestinians cheered from their rooftops. There has never been a recorded celebration in the Israeli streets over a counterterrorism incursion into Gaza. Indeed, Israelis are typically saddened by the necessity of such operations. The international community takes great pains to cast the Palestinians and Israelis as having equal responsibility in the ongoing bloodshed, but the culture of violence among the Palestinians goes largely unnoticed. More broadly, the culture of violence among Palestinians calls into question whether the Palestinians are truly ready to create their own state. The writer, a former U.S. Treasury intelligence analyst, is director of policy for the Jewish Policy Center.
2008-03-11 01:00:00
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