The 29-month-old intifada, which lately had seemed to be winding down out of sheer exhaustion, was galvanized into new fury this week, after a dishonorably discharged Israeli soldier gunned down a group of Palestinian laborers near Rishon le-Zion, south of Tel Aviv.
The unprovoked shooting early Sunday morning, in which seven Palestinians died and at least 10 were wounded, has confronted Israel with alarming situations on three fronts.
To begin with, the reignited intifada swiftly escalated to the levels of its earliest and most violent days, requiring the sudden massive deployment of Israel Defense Force troops.
To make matters worse, the rioting swept like wildfire from the administered territories into Israel proper, where stone-throwing youths took to the streets and Israel’s 700,000 Arab citizens went on a general strike.
And finally, Jordan was unexpectedly caught in the vortex when violence linked to the Rishon le-Zion slayings erupted among Palestinians, who comprise 70 percent of the Hashemite kingdom’s population.
Although Jordan remains technically at war with Israel, Israelis rely heavily on the stability of King Hussein’s regime to keep the eastern border quiet.
The IDF was well prepared for renewed large-scale disturbances in the territories.
This time, however, it was not the local intifada leadership trying to fire up wavering spirits. The masses took to the streets spontaneously in anger, frustration and hatred.
For the most part, Israelis seemed to understand the reason for the outburst of hostilities.
PALESTINIANS EXPLOITING SITUATION
Acting Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Foreign Minister Moshe Arens condemned the Sunday killings, but tended to play down the significance of the rioting. Shamir predicted it would end “within hours or days.”
Indeed, most experts agreed that the present wave of violence would subside soon. But the situation is likely to remain explosive, and the Palestinian leadership will do everything it can to exploit it for political gains, they said.
In East Jerusalem, local Palestinian leaders began a weeklong hunger strike to focus world attention on the Palestinians’ plight.
They succeeded to a degree, judging by the angry reception President Chaim Herzog got in Stockholm during his state visit to Sweden and Finland this week.
A similar backlash greeted Labor Party leader Shimon Peres in Cairo for a meeting of the Socialist International.
Faisal Husseini, a leading Palestinian activist, urged the U.N. Security Council to convene immediately to place “occupied Palestine” under international protection and to establish and international commission to investigate the Rishon le-Zion murders.
But for many Israelis, the most immediate concern was the reaction of Arab citizens within Israel.
Ehud Ya’ari, co-author of “Intifada,” a new best seller about the Palestinian uprising, warned that Israel’s Arab population could be swept into its own intifada, “more dangerous and bloody than what is happening in the territories.”
Shmuel Toledano, who was Arab affairs adviser to the prime minister from 1966 to 1977, said, “No one should be surprised over what happened” in Israel’s Arab community.
“One should be more surprised how Israel’s Arabs succeeded in two years (of the intifada) to overcome their emotions,” he said.
“The murder in Rishon le-Zion was the trigger which brought out in the open feelings of rage and bitterness which had accumulated for years,” he said.
DISTURBING EVENTS IN JORDAN
The events in Jordan were also disturbing for Israeli officials.
Last week, Jordanian soldiers halted a “peace march” staged by Palestinians near the Allenby Bridge, which links Jordan with the West Bank.
More than 100 people were hospitalized after the soldiers fired tear gas at the crowd.
On Monday, a Palestinian gunman crying vengeance for the Arabs slain at Rishon le-Zion inexplicably fired on a bus in Amman, wounding eight French tourists.
More than 7,000 Jordanians took to the streets to protest the killings in Israel.
There are hard-liners in Israel, like Ariel Sharon, who believe the Arab-Israeli conflict can be solved by proclaiming Jordan a Palestinian state, since most of its population is of Palestinian origin.
But most Israelis fear the fall of Hussein would, in fact, make matters much worse for Israel. Jordan conceivably could become a new staging ground for terrorist attacks against Israel.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
