The two Palestinian communities, both confronting a harsher future under Israeli rule, have every incentive to develop a unified platform and struggle jointly -- and more powerfully -- against an overarching regime of Jewish privilege. Their response could be tit-for-tat violence -- that is certainly what the settlers would prefer.
But a more effective and likely long-term strategy is a civil rights movement much like the ones that fought against Jim Crow laws in the US and against apartheid in South Africa. A simple rallying cry, voiced to a world exasperated by Israel's self-destructive behavior, would be "one person, one vote."
Netanyahu and the settlers hope to subdue Palestinians with the establishment of a Greater Israel. But as the conflagration of mosques suggests, they may ultimately achieve the opposite. By reminding Palestinians on either side of the Green Line of their common fate, Israel may yet unleash a force too powerful to control.
The price tag -- this time demanded by Palestinians -- will be high indeed for the Jewish supremacists.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
