Actually, the ‘March of Return’ explains a lot - by Jonathan S. Tobin

If the goal is two states, then why do the Palestinians keep talking about “return?”

Jonathan S. Tobin..
JNS.org..
29 March '18..

For some in the Palestinians’ international cheering squad, the March 30 “Land Day” demonstrations could be a long-hoped for turning point. If the massive protests planned for the Gaza border go off on Friday without violence, then the battle against Israel will, they hope, no longer be depicted as one primarily about terrorism.

Instead, it will be portrayed as a civil-rights struggle comparable to the one waged in the United States against segregation.

But there are a few problems with that formulation.

The first is that the organization planning this “nonviolent” demonstration is Hamas—an Islamist terror group, not the NAACP. Violence is part of Hamas’s raison d’être, so expecting any action associated with the group to be completely divorced from violence is a long shot. The purpose of any march on a heavily armed border where terror incidents are a regular occurrence will likely be to provoke the Israel Defense Forces into acting to prevent the security fence around Gaza from being beached. The goal will be to produce more “martyrs” among those the terror group already uses as human shields so as to further embitter the conflict, not to effect change.

The key question about these demonstrations is not whether efforts to cross into Israel will lead to bloodshed. The most significant thing about the “Land Day” rally is its theme: “the Great March of Return.” The Palestinian emphasis on the concept of “return” isn’t merely a marketing slogan; it’s a reminder that 70 years after Israel’s birth, the Palestinians are still clinging to the idea of eliminating the Jewish state.

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