The Israeli press dubbed this cycle “the spiral of bloodbaths”. Since the beginning of the year, Israeli soldiers have carried out daily raids in the West Bank to hunt down armed groups and potential terrorists. Every day, these offensives kill Palestinians, both civilians and combatants. Almost every day, attacks are carried out in retaliation. And this whirlwind of revenge seems unstoppable. Worse: nobody seems to want it.
On the one hand, the new Israeli government sees its conduct dictated by its most extreme elements, Jewish supremacists and ultra-Orthodox. As the only response to the attacks, it intends to arm all Israeli civilians and demolish the homes of relatives of terrorists. This strategy, so unjust and inefficient, only encourages an already effervescent cult of martyrs.
Opposite, the Palestinian Authority has lost all legitimacy, while its president Mahmoud Abbas has remained in power without elections for nearly twenty years. The only audible voices are those of Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip, and the new groups of armed youths, determined to sow terror in Israel.
In the middle, Western countries condemn themselves to helplessness, repeating their pious wishes for “appeasement” and a two-state solution. Only the ephemeral Prime Minister Yair Lapid called last year for the creation of a “peaceful” Palestinian state alongside Israel. Before being ignored by the Palestinians, then swept away in the elections.
