Trouble in the West Bank?

Sorry for the posting delays. My family is visiting from the states, and I was traveling up north for the past few days, mostly in Haifa. If it's any consolation, as this war marches on, the inconvenience is far greater to my editors than to my blog-readers.

This is also going to be a short post, but I didn't want to let more than a day go by before mentioning this interesting bit of analysis from the Post. When this war first broke out, my number one concern for my personal security was that violence might spread to the West Bank, which essentially surrounds me. But that hasn't happened. On the first day of the war, there were a few violent protests, not only in the territory but also East Jerusalem and the Old City. But I'm told that they fizzled quickly, and after eating lunch at my favorite place in the Muslim Quarter a few days back, I'm confident in that assessment.

That news is striking in and of itself, but it becomes downright portentous when you recall that, not a week ago, top Hamas officials were calling on West Bank Palestinians to initiate a third intifada. The proclamation alone was enough to send a collective chill through Jerusalem. (I began standing a few extra feet away from fellow bus and taxi travelers, to protect against stabbing. A friend confessed to me that she had gotten herself so worked up that she actually got off a city bus four or five stops early.)

So, whither the West Bank violence? I had plans to blast this smug, Commentary-worshipping "analysis" of the Gaza War. I have spent some time in the West Bank recently, and I thought to myself that Kramer tipped his hand as being one more right-wing hack -- economic development in the West Bank has been minimal, and could be praised only in comparison to a nightmare like Gaza.

But as far as developing popular support for Israel in the West Bank goes, it might not matter. Obviously, Palestinians in the West Bank are still more than happy to express their hopes for the ugly demise of the Jewish state. But the failure of West Bank Palestinians to take to armed resistance, as they did only a few years ago, suggests that something is changing there. And it's certainly one more black eye to Hamas, to have exposed themselves to the kind of embarrassment that must accompany one's call to popular resistance being all but totally ignored by the populace.