The last time that I visited the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, was almost 20 years ago. In a camp outside Bethlehem a delightful 31-year-old woman named Hanavi Ramban, mother of five children, said to me: “A Palestinian state is the only hope for us the refugees, who have been waiting 50 years for it. Someone like you can come here and write about it, but you cannot understand what it is like to live with fear. I was only 15 at the time of the first intifada and I couldn’t believe that my own children would see worse things. Now, I can see it continuing for my grandchildren.”
And so it has. The plight of the Palestinians is worsening, as is that of Arab citizens of Israel. This month’s escalating violence, in which both Israelis and Palestinians have died, reflect both radical new Israeli policies and responses to them by Hamas militants.
And, as someone who has seen five decades of conflict around the globe, including Israelis fighting for their nation’s very survival, I know this bodes ill for the Jewish state just as it does for the nationless Palestinians.
