I remember at the end of a movie (was it the Pelican Brief?) , the hero talks about how he will never know if his car will explode when he turns the key to his ignition. The threat to him had been set back, but not totally defeated. I was reminded of that when I read Joshua Hammer’s account of the life of Jihad Jaara in Ireland.
Jonathan Tobin writes:
Without too much trouble, Hammer again tracked down Jaara in Ireland. What he found was a sad remnant of a man living in fear of retribution from Israel and perhaps the United States.
I don’t really have much to add to Tobin’s assessment of Hammer’s report. However when Jaara describes Avi Boaz, whom he kidnapped and killed (or helped kill), this is what Hammer writes:
Avi confessed that he had purchased lands from Palestinians, that he owned a house in Har Homa, that he’d invested in Har Homa.” Har Homa was a West Bank settlement then under construction. Jaara said he told Boaz that the settlement’s growth was “hurting” the Palestinian people.
Avi Boaz was killed because he was a “settler.” It really didn’t matter if he helped Palestinians (which he did.) Because he was a “settler” he was marked for death.
When diplomats, politicians, journalists and academics talk of how the “settlements” are an impediment to peace they are fueling this grievance and giving terrorists a pretext for their violence.
And with the Obama administration giving an expansive definition of “illegal settlements” to include even neighborhoods of Jerusalem, it isn’t going to bring peace any closer.
Crossposted on Yourish.
