By: Jonathan Feldstein
In the waning days of his presidency, and thanks to his vendetta against Israel exemplified in the betrayal at the UN on December 23 (Resolution 2334), 2017 will become the year of the Obama Intifada.
If you’re not familiar with it, intifada is Arabic for, the act of “shaking off.” It’s become commonly used in context of an armed uprising of Palestinians against Israel. The first intifada began in December 1987. It consisted of widespread throwing of stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers and civilians. The Second Intifada began in September 2000, and consisted largely of numerous suicide bombings by Palestinian Arabs on buses and in other public places, leaving over 1000 Israelis murdered. Arabs dubbed this the Al Aksa Intifada, implying that its orchestration was to protect the Al Aksa Mosque. The most recent wave of terror beginning in September 2015 has been dubbed the Stabbing Intifada because of the proclivity for Palestinians, including women and children, to use their own kitchen knives to kill and maim dozens of Israelis.
Today, we are facing a new wave of threats and incitement that will be known as the Obama Intifada. This latest incarnation will be marked by three elements, and is no less dangerous to Israel in the present, and possibly even more so in the long term.
People across the political spectrum throughout the US and Israel, have called out Obama for his unprecedented lame duck abstention allowing for a harshly biased anti-Israel resolution to pass. His hands pulling the strings to make this happen are clear, as is his vindictiveness.
The outcome will not be a greater likelihood for peace, but preventing the chance of peace breaking out any time soon. Obama has emboldened and played into the hands of, even provided the roadmap for, terrorists and others who vilify and delegitimize Israel at every turn. They have internalized that they don’t have to negotiate with Israel to score diplomatic victories. All they have to do is whine incessantly and threaten endlessly, and Obama, Kerry and others will give them what they want.
Previous intifadas have been marked by what appears to be a popular uprising of sorts. However it’s clear they were either unleashed and or orchestrated by terrorist leaders of the Palestinian Authority. The first element of the Obama Intifada is its’ premeditation. It’s clear that Obama was involved in concocting the spiteful UN resolution, and the follow up punch of John Kerry’s petulant and imbalanced tirade days later. That alone harms Israel and causes long term damage, and is reason enough for calling out his vindictive 11th hour betrayal.
The second element of the Obama Intifada is that it provides a foundation upon which the scurrilous scourge known as BDS to gain momentum. That’s bad enough. But with the BDS goal to undermine and delegitimize Israel’s very existence, and the ignorance of the majority of people to whom they peddle their venom, the thin line between boycotting “settlement” products and all Israeli products will become invisible.
Adding fuel to this fire, the UN resolution takes a step further and opens doors for a boycott of anyone having anything to do with people or businesses over the 1967 Green Line. That means banks, energy companies, hotels, light and heavy industry, grocery stores, and those who supply those doing anything in this area will be black listed. The harm to Israel is obvious, but the Palestinian Arabs who earn a living in these businesses, or patronize them themselves, will be harmed as well. The long term and profound negative ripple effect of this element of the Obama Intifada will be profound. The fact that it will also harm Palestinians economically and therefore make them more prone to have less to lose in participating in terror cannot be understated.
Third, the Obama Intifada will, sadly, be the cause for loss of human life; in the dozens if not the hundreds, or thousands. Emboldened by the support they perceive at the injustice of the so called “occupation,” and inspired by the Palestinian Authority’s direct and indirect incitement of violence toward Israelis, a new wave of terror is almost unstoppable. Compounded by the internal competition between the PLO (Fatah) and Hamas, the violence will likely be energized by each striving to make political gain of the death of Israelis, and Palestinian Arabs. The latter is not new. But the outcome will be dangerous, bloody, and sad nonetheless.
It’s early to tell whether the coming wave of violence that will project the Obama Intifada to a TV near you will consist of stonings, car rammings, stabbings, suicide bombings, or some new incarnation devised by people who are taught and inspired to hate and kill Israelis throughout their society. However, it’s coming.
It’s coming because Palestinian Arabs have been led to believe by Obama throughout his tenure, with the icing on the cake being the UN Resolution and Kerry’s attack on “settlements,” as what’s preventing their achieving independence. It’s coming because Obama has barely recognized that it’s in fact Palestinian terror that’s the obstacle to peace, much less holding them accountable or calling them out. It’s coming because once again, Obama has offered Palestinian Arabs false hope if only by seeing the US not supporting Israel, that their cause is righteous. It’s coming because Palestinian “culture” inspires, supports, and funds terrorism and violence.
The day after Christmas I was driving with my family past the Palestinian town Husan. Drivers are taught to look out for kids playing by the side of the road, lest they run into the street chasing a ball or something else. Almost as if they were out having a catch, I spotted three teenage Arab boys on the side of the road, picking up, winding up and throwing rocks at passing cars. In broad daylight, they threw rocks at us, as if it were as common and normal as tossing a baseball among themselves.
The lesson they and others have learned from Obama’s lame duck duplicity is that violence pays, and its ok to do it in the open, just as he stabbed Israel in the back in a global forum in broad daylight.