On Anniversary of Israel's Founding, Protesters Breach Israel's Borders on All Sides

Protesters from Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt joined in with thousands of protesters in the West Bank to breach Israel's borders. Israel had no choice but to fire on the masses attempting to breach the borders, and at least a dozen were killed.

At the Lebanese border Israeli troops shot at hundreds of Palestinians trying to cross, killing 10 protesters and wounding more than 100, the Lebanese military said.

The biggest confrontation took place on the Golan Heights when hundreds of Palestinians living in Syria breached a border fence and crowded into the village of Majdal Shams, waving Palestinian flags. Troops fired on the crowd, killing four of them.

Every year in mid-May many Palestinians mark what they call Nakba, or the catastrophe, the anniversary of Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948 and the start of a war in which thousands of Palestinians lost their homes through expulsion and flight.

But this is the first year that Palestinian refugees in Syria and Lebanon tried to breach the Israeli military border in marches inspired by recent popular protests around the Arab world. Here too, word about the rallies was spread on social media sites.

“The Palestinians are not less rebellious than other Arab peoples,” said Ali Baraka, a Hamas representative in Lebanon.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said the day’s protests were aimed not at creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel but at destroying Israel.

I agree fully with Netenyahu on this. This was not about protesting towards a 2-state solution, but an attempt to overwhelm Israel with an eye towards subverting Israel's very existence.

I have no doubt that the intentions here were not to protest towards a 2-state solution, but rather a coordinated attempt to overwhelm Israel in every conceivable fashion. Given how the media will likely cover this, expect the Arabs to make still more attempts.

Moreover, it's curious how the protesters from all around the region were able to coordinate their efforts towards breaching Israel's borders in such a systematic method. They were also counting on taking Israel by surprise, and to that extent - they succeeded. It also provides another relief valve on the Arab regimes that have been under assault for all these months - they can simply redirect the ire and anger on the street towards Israel, even though Israel was defending itself against an invasion.



Israel will continue to defend its borders against incursions and invasion - just as any other sovereign nation would do. The Arab regimes and the Palestinians themselves have no interest in peace with Israel and continue in their ongoing assertion to seek Israel's destruction. Those who are killed in confrontations with Israel are seen as martyrs to the cause, and the more that are killed the better.

For Syria's Assad, this couldn't come at a better time since it means that the spotlight will shift from his butchering of hundreds of Syrians who have rose up to protest Assad's brutal regime to Israel killing protesters who have invaded Israel in protest of Israel's very existence. Indeed, the irony is rich that Syria is complaining about Israel's defense of its borders while Assad murders Syrians without mercy.

The skirmishes occurred along the Lebanese border, the Syrian border, and along the Green Line between the West Bank and Israel and the border with Gaza.

Leave it to Hamas' Haniyeh to once again state the blatantly obvious - there can be no peace when the Palestinians want nothing less than Israel's destruction.