Soccer Dad

Opportunity, not motive

One of the most perverse aspects of the reporting on the Middle East is the ascribing of motives to terrorists. Tonight I turned on CBS News at 5PM to hear commotion and the announcement of breaking news. When the correspondent named was Robert Berger, my heart sank. Here we go again. Israel withdraws its forces from Palestinian areas and the security is degraded. The result is that terrorists take advantage.
But here is how Robert Berger reported it (in similar words), "Militants attempting to derail the two week old truce." There's only motive. But that's not why they attacked; they attacked because they could. Because there was an opportunity to kill Jews. Whenever Palestinians kill Jews it's for a reason; a motive. Means and opporunity are ignored.
The same happened in 1996. After Israel withdrew from 6 cities in late 1995, a few months later there was a wave of terror. It didn't happen as revenge for killing "The Engineer". It wasn't Hamas's attempt to derail the peace process either. It was the opportunity presented by Israel's withdrawal and the replacement of Israeli troops with PA security who were uninterested in preventing terror.
It's the opportunity, stupid.