On Thursday, 12/16/99, Israel's surrogate militia, the South Lebanese Army, fired mortars into the schoolyard of an Arab school in the Lebanese village of Arab Salim, wounding 24 children, some very seriously. The story was carried in the media around the world, but nowhere that I could find was the suggestion made that perhaps hard-line Israeli opponents of the peace talks between Israel and Syria (and the Palestinians) were also responsible. Opponents of Middle East peace are still a powerful force in Israel, and they are not above instigating such a provocation, depending on the Hezbullah to retalliate. After all, not so long ago a Jewish fanatic opposed to the peace process assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Rabin.
If, instead, a comparable attack had been made by an Arab militia against a Jewish school, the media and politicians in the US and Israel would be up in arms, condemning the Arabs and speculating that Iran and Libya and even Saddam Hussain were responsible for a deliberate attempt to damage the peace talks. As it happened, Israeli politicians issued a statement calling the 12/17 attack a mistake and that was that. Hezbullah announced that such provocative attacks were to be expected, and that they would not retalliate. The media ran with this thread and the Haaretz headline became Syria is restraining the Hezbollah.