The Palestinians have deliberately avoided transforming the sporadic clashes into a genuine military confrontation. Readily understanding its built-in television value, children and adolescents are always in the fighting front lines. Many of these journalists also have children of their own. And surely they would do all in their power to guarantee that their children, armed with stones, not incite a heavily armed military force. Nonetheless, the aggressors are drawn as victims, and the defenders are seen as merciless oppressors.
Palestinian provocation is non-existent.
As opposed, of course, to Israeli reprisals. One of the most hotly debated accounts in the Bible is that of the attempted sacrifice of Isaac, in Chapter 22 of Genesis. But in the Biblical story there is nonetheless a happy ending. For in that precise moment when Abraham, knife in hand, is about to execute God s will, the Voice of the Almighty commands him to cease and desist. In the Palestinian version, there is, in contrast, no going back.