Israel's preemptive strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon during the wee hours of Sunday morning temporarily shifted focus away from Hamas in Gaza and from the next round of bogus "ceasefire" negotiations in Cairo for the release of hostages.
It's natural for the Israel Defense Forces to shine a spotlight on this noteworthy event, particularly since it involved the thwarting of a mass attack on a sensitive military-intelligence base in the center of the country by one of Iran's many proxies in the region.
The same applies to the media coverage of what initially seemed to be the start of a full-fledged war in the north, but which ended up being a finite operation in the meantime. Still, it's crucial not to lose sight of the bigger picture: the acute multi-front assault on the Jewish state since Oct. 7 and the chronic one that's been going on from various directions for decades.
One key arena is Judea and Samaria, otherwise known as the "West Bank," a terrorist hub from the moment that the Palestinian Authority (PA) was born in the sin of the Oslo Accords. That was when the military fatigues-clad Yasser Arafat managed to pull his keffiyeh over the eyes of the "peace camp" in Israel and abroad in order to implement his plan to annihilate the Jewish state in stages.
Today's PA leader, Mahmoud Abbas, has the same agenda as his predecessor, but dresses differently for foreign consumption. Having his pocket lined with millions of dollars, euros and shekels doesn't hurt in this effort, since the mega-wealth enables him to purchase the best that Armani has to offer. It has also provided him with the cash to fund his "pay for slay" policy.
Which brings us to his buddies at the United Nations. The illustrious international body on Wednesday marked "International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to Victims of Terror" with an exhibit in the foyer of its New York City building. Glaringly absent from the display were — you guessed it — Israelis.
In a video tour of the expo that he posted on X, outgoing Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan told followers:
"Soon, it will be a year since Oct. 7, the most horrific terror attack since the Holocaust. Yet the disgraceful U.N. did not see fit to include even a single Israeli terror victim in the exhibition it is presenting for this day of remembrance. There are no words left to describe how morally corrupt and twisted the U.N. is. It's simply a disgrace."
U.N. public information officer Laurence Gerard responded with the excuse that the exhibit was launched in 2022, so it only included victims of terrorist attacks prior to Oct. 7. Talk about a ridiculous answer, given the huge number of Israelis killed and wounded by Palestinian terrorists well before 10 and a half months ago.
The following day, in an indirectly related speech before the U.N. Security Council, Erdan's successor (and predecessor), Danny Danon, blasted his Palestinian Authority counterpart.
Addressing Riyad Mansour, the non-member-state's "permanent observer" to the farcical body, Danon said:
"You have spent two decades in this place proposing resolutions which stir chaos, sow division and avoid any hope. You have accomplished absolutely nothing.... Who do you represent here today? Do you represent the Hamas terror organization?"
The questions weren't merely rhetorical. As Danon pointed out, not once since the Oct. 7 massacre has Mansour come close to voicing "anything even resembling a condemnation" of the Hamas perpetrators.
Calling Mansour a "a terrorist in a suit," Danon noted that his failure to denounce Hamas makes him "one of them." Danon was right about that.
He was wrong, however, to tell Mansour that "you d0 not represent the Palestinian people." In fact, every survey shows that if elections were held today in the PA, Hamas would win by a landslide.
Nor is this new. Knowing that he would be pulverized at the polls, Abbas has prevented his people from casting ballots for many years.
Furthermore, Israel doesn't need phony disavowals from mass murderers, whatever they're wearing. Though Fatah, the faction headed by Abbas, is a longtime foe of Hamas, it shares the rival group's aim of eliminating Israel. To this end, the schools, mosques and media it controls glorify "martyrdom for Allah."
Nevertheless, the U.N. continues to treat the PA as a "moderate" entity whose goal is independent statehood, free from the ostensible shackles of Israeli "occupation." And those in the West who've come to acknowledge, grudgingly, that its current constellation can't be considered a partner for peace created a new fantasy: that of a "revitalized" Palestinian authority with a lower-case "a."
The idea behind this fallacy is that a reformed Palestinian group can replace Hamas in Gaza when the war is over. Good luck finding anyone in the PA who fits the bill, especially since the favored candidate for the top job, who's acceptable both to Hamas honcho Yahya Sinwar and much of the Palestinian street, is Marwan Barghouti.
Serving five life sentences in Israeli prison for his role in the murder of many Israelis, Barghouti reportedly heads the list of hundreds of terrorists whose release Sinwar is demanding as part of any ceasefire/hostage deal. So much for the de-radicalization of a post-war Gaza.
This hasn't prevented the administration in Washington from clinging to the notion of a viable "two-state solution" in the la-la-land of U.S. foreign policy. This outlook poses an even greater threat in the long term than the Hezbollah drones and rockets that the IDF destroyed early Sunday.
Most sane analysts understand that Hamas and Hezbollah are Iran-backed terrorist organizations whose military capabilities have to be countered. But illusions about the PA remain dangerously intact. It's imperative for Israel to destroy the myth along with enemy missiles.
Ruthie Blum, former adviser at the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is an award-winning columnist and senior contributing editor at JNS, as well as co-host, with Amb. Mark Regev, of "Israel Undiplomatic" on JNS-TV. She writes and lectures on Israeli politics and culture, and on U.S.-Israel relations. Originally from New York City, she moved to Israel in 1977 and is based in Tel Aviv.
Reprinted by kind permission of JNS and the author.
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