I'm not convinced that the curses Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas hurled last Monday against U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, calling him a "son of a dog," and against U.S. President Donald Trump in January, hoping his home will be destroyed, are the diplomatic language I would have used.
That being said, I believe that Abbas' national home is indeed being destroyed and therefore he sees the American ambassador as part of the problem, not the solution.
For his part, Friedman's response to the continuation of the conflict is condemning the PA for refraining from condemning terrorism. Soon after Abbas' remarks, he dismissed them, rhetorically asking a conference in Jerusalem on combating global anti-Semitism if the remarks constituted "anti-Semitism or political discourse? I leave that up to you."
Such dismissal is surprising as he is an envoy appointed to the region by a country claiming to be a fair mediator. The ambassador instead became an active part of the internal Israeli debate. The message he wished to send was that the Palestinian Authority was infected by terrorism and encouraged it rather than condemning every instance of a Palestinian terrorist attacking an Israeli, as it should.
What the ambassador said was ignorant at best and hypocritical at worst. According to human rights organization B'Tselem, around 450 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank over the past decade, compared to 130 Israelis killed in the conflict during the same period. The comparison with Palestinians killed in Gaza is even more lopsided.
In rare cases when a Palestinian was killed by Israelis without justification (such as 16-year-old Palestinian Muhammad Abu Khdeir, who was abducted and burned alive in 2014 by Jewish extremists, and Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, who was killed by Elor Azaria after attacking and being neutralized by IDF soldiers in Hebron in 2016), Israel condemned the actions but did not not apologize as a state. The death of Palestinians is seen as an unfortunate necessity. The Palestinians must accept the fact that they will be injured or killed as part of Israel's "need" to control the occupied territories. As if the Palestinians "chose" this form of government, and to implement it they must pay with their lives and their freedom.
Despite this, their forcible opposition to this military, oppressive and injurious reality is seen as violence and as action that must be condemned loud and clear. We are acting in defense while they murder. This is the language that has come to dominate here, and now in American English, as well.
As part of our shared perception of Israeli martyrdom, which the ambassador apparently shares, it is almost natural that we haven't read any Israeli condemnation for the incident last week in Burin near Yitzhar recently, in which a border policeman threw a stun grenade at a young couple attempting to escape an area of clashes with a baby in their arms. I also did not hear any Israeli condemnation against the soldiers who kicked a Palestinian to death two weeks ago in Jericho after he was neutralized and was lying on the ground helplessly, even if it was after he tried to attack them.
In another incident, I did not hear any condemnation after a 15-year-old boy was hit by three bullets in his back and neck at a distance of 10 meters as he fled, posing no threat to the soldiers. In the written defense of the shooting soldiers, who were accused of "recklessness and negligence," their attorneys said that this was "selective enforcement." They brought as evidence 110 incidents in which Palestinians were killed and no one was brought to trial for.
Even Abbas from time to time condemns lethal attacks. That being said, what will end the hostile acts is not condemnation alone but rather the will to find a solution to the endless violence that erupts on both sides. We cannot complain to Abbas. There is no symmetry of violence, so the honorable American ambassador should not expect a symmetry of condemnations.
