Israel’s release of 86 Palestinian prisoners, completed today, has been almost universally reported as a “gesture of goodwill” to PA President Mahmoud Abbas. In reality, the move has nothing to do with “goodwill” and everything to do with straightforward Machiavellian political calculations. It is designed, explicitly, to strengthen Abbas at the expense of Hamas. “Goodwill” simply has nothing to do with it.In case anyone needed reminding of this, Al Jazeera today reports that Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinian crowds waiting to greet the released prisoners:
‘Israeli security forces have opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians waiting for 29 prisoners freed by Israel to cross into the Gaza Strip. Shots were fired into the air when the crowd surged forward to greet the men at the Erez crossing “and when they didn’t stop, they fired at their legs,” an Israeli military spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
Two people, including a Reuters news agency photographer, were reportedly wounded.’
Meanwhile, I highly recommend this excellent article by Amira Hass from today’s Ha’aretz. Its message applies just as strongly to those of us living in the U.S. and Europe.
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