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Score Sheet on Hamas' "March of Return" Campaign

(Jerusalem Post) Hillel Frisch - How well did Hamas create and spread violence and Israelis avoid or quell it in the "March of Return" campaign? The score sheet is heavily set against Hamas. The campaign failed to ignite the Arab residents of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which was relatively quiet. While in the past, during the first intifada (1987-93), the Israeli public was sharply divided, the "March of Return" aimed at returning Palestinians to Ashkelon, Beersheba and Jaffa had the opposite effect, as Israelis united behind the IDF's tough policy of zero-tolerance for breaching the border fence. If the number of dead and wounded is anywhere near true (the figures are probably exaggerated), not only will the vast majority of Gazans who did not get anywhere near the fence question such bloodshed in the face of the fact that it changed nothing, but also those who participated probably have second thoughts as well. The writer, a professor of political and Middle East studies at Bar-Ilan University, is a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies.
2018-05-25 00:00:00
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