Palestine Briefing: Why Israel's Jenin raid will not bring about results
In this except from Al-Monitor's weekly Palestine Briefing newsletter, Daoud Kuttab writes that Palestinians need new thinking, new direction and an agreed-upon strategy for ending the decades-long occupation.
In the early hours of Monday, Israel began a raid on Jenin that has killed at least 10 Palestinians thus far.
The last time Israeli troops raided Jenin — on June 19 of this year — one of their military vehicles was immobilized in an ambush, with the resulting firefight leaving Israel with a number of injured soldiers as it took some time to remove the vehicle. That attack left five Palestinians killed, including two children. In retaliation for those killed, two armed Palestinians (who were not from Jenin) carried out an attack a day later at a gas station for Israeli settlers, killing four. In response, Israeli settlers attacked the town of Turms Aya, killing one Palestinian (the husband of an American citizen) and leaving destruction in the form of torched cars, homes and other property. An Illinois state representative was among those trapped in the village when hundreds of armed settlers (with protection from Israeli forces) targeted the town he was born in, after he had come for a summer visit.
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Some Israeli settlers, among them senior members of the Israeli government, called publicly for a major long-term military offensive against Jenin, demanding the death of dozens, hundreds and even thousands of Palestinians. Those making calls against Jenin didn’t seem to acknowledge the fact that the perpetrators of the gas station attack were not from, nor had they come from, Jenin.
