Hamas is a terror organization that targets civilians via any available vehicle. Since seizing the Gaza Strip over five years ago, Hamas as launched thousands of rockets and mortar shells at Israeli civilians, not the military. Hamas and other Palestinian terror organizations have sent suicide bombers — including handicapped persons — to attack Israeli civilians and blow up coffee houses, dance clubs and restaurants. Hamas has used other means, such as snipers and tractors, to wreak havoc on the lives of Israeli civilians who attempt to undertake their daily routine.
Yet, Hamas and Palestinian terror groups do not have a monopoly on targeting civilians. An Israeli settler-made explosive reportedly injured Palestinian civilians this morning.
These kinds of terror attacks risk putting Israeli settlers on the same plane as Hamas, and today’s attack on Palestinians is not the first instance of settler-backed terror.
Civilians, either Israeli or Palestinian, should not be targeted by either side. Hamas — and even many Fatah Palestinian leaders — lose all credibility as a negotiating partner because of their refusal to reject attacks on civilians, especially when Israel’s primary concern is a lack of security for its citizens.
Radical Israeli settlers — but not all Jews in the West Bank — already attempt to intimidate Palestinian civilians through mosque fires and other actions meant to threaten the Palestinians. Attacking Palestinian civilians with bombs, though, represents a ratcheting up of intimidation and violence that would put the settlers on par with Hamas.
While the degree to which Hamas uses violence and fear tactics against civilians far outweighs radical Israeli settlers’ actions in frequency, consequence and viciousness, the occurrence of more Israeli settler actions against Palestinian civilians will leave these Jewish radicals as virtually indistinguishable from terrorists.
Both Hamas and ultra religious radical settlers already ascribe to a doctrine of their faith that includes the removal of non-believers from Israel and the West Bank. For the future of Israelis and Palestinians alike, both groups should reject attacks on civilians instead of hiding behind bombs and rockets that eliminates trust between two people that will be neighbors for a generations to come.
