20-Oct-13: IDF shoots infiltrator threatening a suburban community as UK's ambassador tries to make sense of it

A quiet corner of Meitar, near Beer Sheva, where today's
terror attack occurred [Image Source]

Sunday morning: A Palestinian Arab male, age not specified at this point, was intercepted a short time ago by an IDF patrol and prevented from sabotaging the security fence near Meitar, a suburb of Beer Sheva in Israel's south. Warning shots were fired, according to the army, quoted by Times of Israel and the Jerusalem Post, as a result of which the would-be infiltrator is in nearby Soroka Hospital recovering from light wounds to his leg. 

He's a lucky man: given yesterday's well-publicized call for more and better terrorist warfare against Israelis made by arch-terrorist Ismail Haniya, the prime minister of the beleagured Hamas regime in Gaza and communicated globally by Associated Press, it would have been understandable if the Israeli patrol had shown less restraint. Most Israelis are only too aware of the fairly clear signs that an effort is underway by terrorism advocates within the Palestinian Arab world to escalate the scale and severity of their ongoing attacks. For instance: 

• 17-Oct-13: Apparent hostile attempt this evening to penetrate IDF base near Jerusalem
• 11-Oct-13: A third murder, probably by terrorists again, as our side prepares to free more of them
• 22-Sep-13: Sniper attack in Hebron this evening   

Haniya's call yesterday for “armed resistance” against the restarted peace talks between Israel and Palestinians is understood here as a euphemism for lethal terror.     

British ambassador to the Palestinian Arabs, Sir Vincent Fean, is
rushed to his car as a mob at Bir Zeit University, Ramallah,
heckles him and fist-beats his official car
[Still captured from BBC video, March 2013]

Meitar, a pleasant and prosperous community founded in 1984, is home to about 7,200 people. It is located on Israel's side of the Green Line. Thus, for those inclined to think of Israeli communities on the other side of the 1949 ceasefire demarcation as being somehow under a legitimacy cloud - it's not. 

We mention this because Britain's Consul General here in Jerusalem, Sir Vincent Fean (formerly Her Majesty's ambassador to Libya) has just gone public with an assessment of how peace might be brought about. And oddly it has nothing to do with preventing, or even discouraging, acts of terrorism directed at Israeli children. (Did we mention that Fean's official role makes him the de facto ambassador of the UK to the Ramallah-based Mahmoud Abbas PA government?)

British consul: Settlement construction 'killing' chances for peace  | Maan Palestinian New Agency | October 20, 2013 | British Consul General to Jerusalem Sir Vincent Fean said Friday that Israel's continued construction of settlements on Palestinian lands throughout the peace negotiations is "killing opportunities" for peace. In an exclusive interview with Ma'an, Fean expressed optimism about the possibility of a comprehensive political agreement being reached with Israel in spring 2014 that could lead to the establishment of "Palestinian statehood." However, he added that the continued construction of Israeli settlements within the West Bank despite ongoing negotiations between Israel and the PLO was dampening possibilities for peace... Fean also called on the Palestinian Authority to launch negotiations with Hamas and to conduct new elections.

Britain's ambassador in a publicity photo that his
office evidently wished to be circulated.
[Image Source]

Odder yet is Fean's silence in the face of physical and quite eloquent Palestinian Arab rejection not only of the notion of making peace with the Israelis but of Britain's role in attempting to resolve the generations-long conflict and of his personal presence in their midst.

One might have thought a diplomat chased off the campus of Ramallah's Bir Zeit University, and threatened with actual physical harm might have drawn some actionable insights into the hatred and religious zealotry characterizing the Palestinian Arab educated class.

If so, one would evidently be wrong.

When this happened some six months ago [video "Get out of Bir Zeit! Yay!" here], his office limited its reaction to this comment:

"Sir Vincent had hoped to underline Britain's deep commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state, and the urgency of progress on the peace process in 2013. Sadly, such a dialogue was not possible on this occasion." [BBC, March 5, 2013]

Sad indeed.

While His Excellency focuses on those opportunities for peace that are being "killed", the IDF and most of our fellow citizens will remain committed to measures that reduce the danger of children and their families in Meitar and throughout Israel suffering the same fate.

With no undue disrespect to Her Majesty or Sir Vincent, we have no doubt as to which of the two approaches - the British or the Israeli - has its priorities thoroughly upside down.