Hamas terror attack meant to prompt Israel’s revenge on the PA
Column by Hafez Barghouti, editor in chief of official PA daily:
Headline: “An old game”
“The operation yesterday in Hebron [Hamas terrorists killing four Israeli civilians] reminds us of a series of operations or acts of massacre which the occupation carried out with precise timing prior to the visits of former [Israeli] Prime Minister Ariel to Washington – six visits, each of which was preceded by an act of pre-planned massacre by the occupation, in order to draw a Palestinian reaction which would come at the same time as his arrival in Washington and upset the basis for the trip and its agenda, such that it would deal only with Palestinian terror.
Prior to that, some [Palestinian] factions chose the timing of their operations for the beginning of a round of negotiations or some implementation of an agreement, since they knew that Israel would end the implementation…
Ultimately, whoever wishes to destroy negotiations (which are destroyed from the outset) knows the equation, which is not a magical equation, and if the Israelis want to destroy something, they accelerate settlement or carry out some massacre, and wait for a Palestinian operation in response.
It is possible that the operation in Hebron yesterday falls into this framework; it has already happened in the past that Hamas adopted this approach of operations [i.e., terror attacks], since the establishment of the PA until now – not with the aim of causing damage to the occupation, but rather in order to motivate the occupation to take revenge on the PA.”
Headline: “An old game”
“The operation yesterday in Hebron [Hamas terrorists killing four Israeli civilians] reminds us of a series of operations or acts of massacre which the occupation carried out with precise timing prior to the visits of former [Israeli] Prime Minister Ariel to Washington – six visits, each of which was preceded by an act of pre-planned massacre by the occupation, in order to draw a Palestinian reaction which would come at the same time as his arrival in Washington and upset the basis for the trip and its agenda, such that it would deal only with Palestinian terror.
Prior to that, some [Palestinian] factions chose the timing of their operations for the beginning of a round of negotiations or some implementation of an agreement, since they knew that Israel would end the implementation…
Ultimately, whoever wishes to destroy negotiations (which are destroyed from the outset) knows the equation, which is not a magical equation, and if the Israelis want to destroy something, they accelerate settlement or carry out some massacre, and wait for a Palestinian operation in response.
It is possible that the operation in Hebron yesterday falls into this framework; it has already happened in the past that Hamas adopted this approach of operations [i.e., terror attacks], since the establishment of the PA until now – not with the aim of causing damage to the occupation, but rather in order to motivate the occupation to take revenge on the PA.”