Eviatar Borovsky's funeral. Murdered by Palestinian seeking to 'clear' his family
Photo: Avishag Shaar-Yashuv
Terror raising its head
Analysis: Israeli officials believe Kerry's enthusiastic activity in region prompting rise in terror attacks
Eviatar Borovsky
was murdered
Tuesday morning not by a terrorist from one of the known terror organizations in the territories. His life was taken by a young man jailed by the Palestinian Authority on suspicion that his family had collaborated with Israel.
Borovsky was murdered simply because the murderer sought to "clear" his family.
According to Israeli estimates, the enthusiastic activity of US Secretary of State John Kerry,
who believes an agreement between Israel and the PA can be advanced, is actually helping that troubling trend: It is encouraging those Palestinians seeking to leave their mark on reality by urging terror attacks.
Defense establishment officials are refusing, for the time being, to define the multiple attempts by Palestinians to target settlers recently as the start of a third intifada. Yet sources in the political-security system are willing to admit that below the surface there is a sizzle – which may turn into a certain uprising.
West Bank
Hani al-Masri
Op-ed: Arab columnist says Palestinians will revolt against 'occupation' when they reach state of utter despair
Kerry is having difficulty finding buyers for his ideas on the Israeli side as well. Here he is being called "naïve" and is said to be acting irrationally, even in "messianic" manner.
The people Kerry spoke to in Israel rejected his proposed gestures to Abbas scornfully. "We won't release prisoners and we won't be anyone's suckers," a senior official involved in the talks told me on Tuesday. Moreover, the Israeli side sees some tension between the White House and the State Department. In other words, they understand that Obama has expressed no interest in resuming the negotiations. The American president, my sources tell me, does not believe – as opposed to Kerry – that solving the conflict will solve all of the region's troubles.
The Qatari prime minister's statement, that the Arab League will recognize an exchange of lands between Israel and the Palestinians, did not find favor with the Israeli side either. To be precise, the only person willing to adopt this offer is Minister Tzipi Livni. But the justice minister has no partners in the current government. On the contrary, in the Netanyahu government there is a solid majority against the two-state solution. And so the freeze deepens – and terror raises its head, as we saw on Tuesday.
