The occupation didn't kill Ori Ansbacher
Opinion: For years Israeli public has been tricked into believing that Palestinian terrorism stems from a desire to end the occupation and be liberated, but the truth is that terror originates from hate and incitement being preached by jihadists within the Muslim community.
We have always been told that for as long as Israeli occupation continues, Palestinian terror will not end. Although the terrorists were not born murderers, the harsh reality of life made them this way, say the claimants. In order to uproot it, however, one has to give the Palestinians hope, and remove all cause for them to resort to terrorist activity. This thesis of "terrorism caused by occupation" is supported by many —too many, one might say. Not all of them are even anti-Semites or anti-Zionists; some are good people, who actually believe this nonsense.
Sometimes, there is indeed a connection between terror and a struggle for liberation. This is not the case when it comes to Palestinian terrorism, which in recent decades has practically evolved into jihadist terrorism. They indeed were not born murderers, but the brainwashing, the incitement and the overall environment turned them into them.
During the week in which Ori Ansbacher was murdered, some 186 people were killed by jihadists elsewhere in the world. Since the start of 2019, 712 people have been murdered, while 2018 saw some 11,769 jihadist killings.
The majority of these terror acts did not actually make international headlines, because they occurred in Asia and Africa, so who cares? In Congo, Chad, Somalia, Nigeria, Kenya, and many other places. That’s in addition to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria, where jihadist murders are carried out on a daily basis. The majority of the victims in these attacks are Muslims and their sins unclear.
Terror is also rampant in Sweden, Belgium, London, and New York. Is there an occupation in those places too? The main reason for terrorism is incitement and brainwashing in mosques and on social networks. Some brave, prominent imams, such as the Paris-based Hassen Chalghoumi or Mohammad Tawhidi from Australia, as well as many others, are fighting this cancerous ideology. Although they reveal the mechanisms of brainwashing, they usually are given a cold shoulder, because the progressive elites would rather hear the post-colonial and anti-Zionist attribution for this horrific phenomenon.
Ansbacher was killed because her murderer originates from a community where many sanctify death and hatred. She was killed because the highest religious official in the Palestinian Authority, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, regularly calls for the murder of Jews. She was killed because the environment that encourages murder is sustained by PA’s monthly salary payments to terrorists.
Arafat Irfaiya, Ori Ansbacher’s cold-blooded murderer, knew that not only nothing would happen to him and his family following this horrific attack, but that they would actually benefit from it. And the moment Irfaiya was arrested, the PA opened its wallet. The rewards are already on the way. Even if his house or his room is destroyed, it will be rebuilt within days by volunteers who support him, using the funds received by the family.
We must strive for peace and reconciliation, and against settlement expansion. But this is not the ambition of the jihadists. They are not looking for a two-state solution, which was presented to them again and again: in 1937, 1949, 2000, 2008 and in 2014. They always rejected it. Irfaiya didn’t set out to murder because he supported some kind of peace plan or wanted an end to the occupation, just as those who killed 130 people at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris in 2015 for instance, didn’t need a pretext of the occupation to murder.
It is worth emphasizing that one day we will be able to reach some sort of agreement, with or without the consent of the Palestinians, that will either entirely or partly end the occupation. We shouldn't, however, fool ourselves into believing that it will end jihad or terrorism. Not in Paris, not in Jerusalem, not in Nigeria. It is doubtful whether the level of terrorism will even decline.
And while we should never stop striving for a peace agreement, we must understand that this will never stop the terror — because the terror was never meant to stop the occupation anyway.
