Eldar on Who Started the War
The August 2001 bombing of Sbarro pizzeria
In his column Monday berating the Israeli leadership for not having accepted the Arab League initiative, veteran Ha’aretz journalist Akiva Eldar provides another example of his selective vision (“Arab peace initiative is another missed opportunity for Israel“). He writes:
Instead of making peace with all the Arab states, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon launched a war against the Palestinians the day after the March 2002 Arab League summit: In response to the murder of 30 Israelis in the Hamas suicide attack at a Passover seder in Netanya’s Park Hotel, he ordered the army to reoccupy the territories (Operation Defensive Shield ).
That is an interesting take on reality. If Eldar considers Operation “Defensive Shield” the launching of a war against the Palestinians, how does he describe the year and a half-long terror offensive directed against Israel which preceded the operation? In Eldar’s mind, was the murder and carnage of Israelis on buses, cafes, and pizzerias, and the firing of rockets at Israeli towns — which first began in the beginning of 2001 — simply the normal course of affairs?
Eldar’s sentence reflects his worldview in which methodical and institutionalized Palestinian violence against Israelis is natural and acceptable. Yet, when Israel responds (after 135 Israelis were murdered in one month alone), and attacks in return in order to defend its citizens, and not to murder innocent civilians indiscriminately, Eldar accuses Israel of “launch[ing] a war.”
— By Yishai Goldflam
For the Hebrew version of this blog post, visit CAMERA’s Israeli site, Presspectiva.
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