From a group of young Palestinian leaders, I was fortunate enough to be one of a group selected by the Palestinian Chinese Friendship Association as one of the Palestinian Ambassadors for the Arab Chinese Friendship Program, which was inaugurated at the Peace Palace in Beijing on the 20th of July 2016
Despite the relatively calm 2016, there are indications that there is increasing unrest among Palestinians fueled by what appears to be heavy handed over-reaction to attacks by some Palestinian on Israeli targets.
Since the abduction of three settlers in the West Bank on June 12, there has been no evidence of whether the abduction was made by an Arab or Palestinian party yet. Still Israel excluded any criminal element and launched a military campaign that included the arrest of 300 Palestinians. More over the Israeli government legal advisor, Yehuda Weinstein, has authorized the security forces to interrogate the arrested Palestinians under the “Ticking Bomb” protocol, in order to find the kidnapped in the right time, according to a report on Israel Army Radio.
In the case of the Jewish people there have been several historical events and circumstances that have shaped the collective strategic culture of the modern Israeli state. The most significant of these have been the subjection to exile and persecution, particularly in the late 19th century and the Nazi Holocaust. The latter, cataclysmic event claimed the lives of an estimated six million Jews. Such an event inevitably, and dramatically, affects collective attitudes. In other words, it is the collective memory of the Diaspora that has shaped the current Israeli Siege Mentality, and which is now one of the cornerstones of Israeli strategic culture.
