Israel was shrouded in deep mourning over the two double murders perpetrated on the Sukkot holiday, in which four Israeli lives were lost. The political echelon was furious and no conclusive steps to calm the violent winds were to be found, not on the right nor on the left. It is interesting how, in this explosive tension, many people are busy asking a question that promises neither peace nor security: Why doesn’t President Mahmoud Abbas condemn the attacks?
True, it is indeed appropriate to expect the No. 1 man in Ramallah to condemn the two recent terror acts as a humanitarian gesture. However, Israel’s desperate expectations that Abbas will express his sorrow, that he distances himself from such acts or condemns them — all this shows that we have our priorities wrong, while our dead still lie before us. Even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went through the trouble of protesting the thunderous silence in Ramallah. “How can you move forward to peace if you don't fight terror, if you don't renounce terror?” Netanyahu said in an interview Oct. 2 with Fox News, in between the two terror attacks.
