No one to talk to

The images of Palestinian children celebrating the abduction of our boys primarily reveal that yet another brainwashed generation on the other side has been lost.

Boaz Bismuth

The Palestinians have launched a campaign under the slogan "Three Schalits"

Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's first demand from Palestine Liberation Organization head Yasser Arafat, prior to signing the Oslo Accords, was to cease Palestinian incitement against Israel in the schools. Arafat didn't have a problem, even then, lying and making that promise to Rabin.

The incitement in Palestinian schools has never really stopped, and in fact, it would be better if it were limited only to those schools and only directed against the State of Israel. In reality, the phenomenon is much more general and widespread, prevalent throughout the entire Arab world, and targets not just Israel but also Jews. The political correctness that has seized control of our lives obligates us to refrain from saying this out loud, or even to say the opposite. Heaven forbid we make anyone mad, because we are all brothers, or at least cousins. I have visited the majority of Arab countries and served for four years as an ambassador to one of them, and I have witnessed firsthand the meaning of hate. It is not all of them, this is true. But it is the majority.

In such a reality, why are we surprised that while Israelis launched a campaign calling for the return of our three boys -- Naftali, Eyal and Gil-ad -- the Palestinians launched a campaign with the slogan "Three Schalits." Many Palestinian children have been caught on camera brandishing the three-finger sign as a symbol of victory, the three representing our abducted boys. Even without the smiles and celebrations from these Palestinian children, it is already clear just how much their parents, responsible for the images, support and even celebrate the kidnapping of our children.

Even worse, the images primarily reveal that yet another brainwashed generation on the other side has been lost. We did not expect them to show solidarity with us, but we also did not expect them to show solidarity with Palestinian terrorism.

This social Palestinian campaign, beyond arousing nausea, points to our neighbor's existing climate. This campaign is far more regretful, depressing and pessimistic, even more than the Palestinian unity government between Fatah and Hamas. The campaign is worse because this time it does not revolve around politicians with interests, rather, from what I can see, around most Palestinians and their true feelings. The hatred toward us still exists and it is considerable.

Indeed, there will of course be those who blame the "occupation," while others will blame the fact that our boys hitchhiked at night. But the reality of the situation, and it is not easy to say, is that today, still, 66 years later, the very idea that we have a state is unacceptable to many of our neighbors. It is justifiable to take any action against it and terrorism against civilians is completely legitimate. The pastry shops in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority work overtime when there is a terrorist attack.

And if some people say: "Well, what can be expected of a people that feel they live with oppression and suffering," I will only reply simply that simultaneously with these trying days of awaiting news from our boys, a tragedy is taking place in Iraq. Just this week, photos of 1,700 slaughtered Iraqi officers and soldiers were plastered on the Internet. We were also shaken by the photos, even though around two decades ago that army fired 39 Scuds at us. Why? In Hebrew it is called compassion. The world would call it humanism.

Now we can only hope that human rights groups, which consistently condemn Israel and the settlement enterprise, will also condemn this grotesque Palestinian Internet campaign. But, for whatever reason, in 1993 we ultimately lost our innocence in Oslo. As long as Palestinian society sees terrorists as heroes -- there is no one to talk to.