On Synagogue Burning - Is Palestinian Authority an Oxymoron?
Recently I wrote about some homes being torched in the Palestinian-controlled areas, and noted that the Israeli government bore some responsibility for not preventing the arson.
However, the Israeli forces (by definition) couldn't have prevented the arson incident noted below.
From the Los Angeles Times/Yahoo:
Palestinians surged triumphantly into demolished Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip early today, torching empty synagogues and firing shots into the air, as the last Israeli soldiers withdrew after 38 years of occupation.
The troops' departure marked the final step in the government's decision to leave Gaza, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War, and opened an era laden with uncertainty for the coastal enclave's 1.3 million Palestinian residents.
Having evacuated about 8,500 Jewish settlers last month and overseen the razing of their homes, the 3,000 Israeli soldiers moved out before sunrise in convoys of tanks and armored personnel carriers. As they left, calls went out from mosques declaring Gaza's "liberation."
"This is a day of happiness and joy that the Palestinian people have not witnessed for a century," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said.
At the former Netzarim settlement in northern Gaza, one of several places where crowds pushed past cordons of Palestinian police after the Israeli troops had left, thick clouds of smoke darkened the sky at dawn.
Men made their way around the demolished community on bicycle, donkey and foot, scavenging door frames and toilets. Some in the crowd tied the flags of the largest militant groups — green for Hamas, black for Islamic Jihad — around their necks as capes....
Celebrating Palestinians set fire to the synagogue in Netzarim, and there were reports of similar torchings in Morag and other locations.
Palestinian security forces appeared to have decided not to use force and instead let the celebrations play out, although it was unclear whether they could have held back the crowds if they had wanted to....
In a last-minute reversal, the [Israeli] Cabinet voted to leave intact more than two dozen synagogues in the former settlements, despite warnings from Palestinian Authority officials that they could not ensure their protection. Palestinian officials announced late Sunday that they would demolish the buildings.
Palestinian leaders' displeasure with the Israeli Cabinet's decision on the synagogues prompted them to boycott a hand-over ceremony with Israeli commanders at the Erez crossing between Israel and the northern Gaza Strip....
A carnival air hung over much of Gaza. Teens keeping lookout shouted excitedly to one another whenever a tank began moving. Women ululated in celebration, and car horns honked. Trucks mounted with speakers moved through the streets, playing Palestinian nationalist songs and waving Hamas or Islamic Jihad flags.
Controversy over the synagogues within Israel's government crackled until the last minute, when the majority of Cabinet ministers reversed course by voting against demolition after intensive lobbying by rabbis who opposed the razing of the houses of worship. Private homes in the evacuated settlements had already been demolished.
The 14-2 Cabinet vote overturned a 15-month-old government decision to destroy synagogues as part of the evacuation.
The Cabinet decision to leave the synagogues in place crossed party lines, but commentators said the shift appeared to have been influenced heavily by maneuvering in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's conservative Likud Party.
The party's hard-line central committee will meet in two weeks to decide whether to hold an early primary and, Israeli analysts said, ministers were mindful of how the synagogue issue would play out among its members, many of whom are religiously observant.
The tide began to turn late last week, when Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who previously had spoken in favor of demolition, announced that he now opposed destroying the synagogues. On Sunday, Sharon said he too had changed his mind.
The decision left the fate of the synagogues in Abbas' hands. Palestinian officials had turned down an earlier Israeli request that they act as caretakers because of concerns that they could not prevent militants from defacing the synagogues as symbols of the Israeli presence.
"It is a very unfair decision to put us in a situation where if we demolish them we will be doomed, and if we don't, we'll be doomed," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said. "This is the last thing we want."
Other critics said desecration of the buildings by Palestinians might spur Jewish extremists to attack Muslim houses of worship in retaliation, setting off a new cycle of conflict....
Abbas has orchestrated seven months of relative quiet by coaxing militant groups, particularly Hamas, into halting their attacks. But Israel wants him to confront the militias more forcefully, saying Palestinian leaders' success in subduing armed groups will help determine whether future peace moves are possible.
"For the first time, not only in 38 years, but ever, Gaza is given the opportunity to act like a state, with its own regime," Giora Eiland, Israel's national security chief, told Israel Radio on Sunday....
To be fair, it should be noted that the Israelis could have removed the synagogues before turning them over. However, if the Palestinian constitution makes any claims about freedom of religion in their controlled areas, those claims are obviously a sham.
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