Summary

by Rami G. Khouri

The escalating cycle of tensions in recent weeks, Israeli settlements expansion, murderous attacks by both Israelis and Palestinians, and reprisal demolitions of Palestinian homes may well escalate into something much more vicious and terrible.

In the past three months or so, 11 Israelis have been killed in the course of seven different attacks, most of them in Jerusalem.

One of the ironies is that the actions the Israeli government takes to punish Palestinian perpetrators of killings of Israelis seem only to generate new fears and hatreds among Palestinians, who in turn respond by new attacks against Israelis that they view as “resistance” to the Israeli occupation.

The magnitude of this effort by Israel to continue trying to transform the land of Palestine from one that was predominantly Arab a century ago to one that is predominantly Jewish has two main consequences: The Palestinians will keep finding new ways to express their resistance to the threat of their total elimination from the land, and the confrontation between Zionism and Palestinian Arabism will remain locked in a cycle of militarism that will cause death, destruction and fear on both sides, without bringing the sides any closer to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

Read more: http://dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2014/Nov-22/278520-this-cycle-of-death-will-only-continue.ashx#ixzz3Jmh6taEA
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