Israel Faces a Familiar Foe From a New Direction
Iran has made inroads in the West Bank, and it has been helped by Netanyahu’s policies.
Iran is making inroads.
Photographer: Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP/Getty Images
Watching television coverage of armored vehicles rumbling into the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin over the weekend, I was reminded of the last time the Israeli Defense Forces mounted a large-scale assault on the West Bank town. In the spring of 2002, I was covering my first kinetic conflict, and the brute power of the IDF left a lasting impression.
For those who remember the so-called Battle of Jenin, the pictures and video clips from the aftermath of the latest incursion evoke a sense of deja vu: Bombed buildings, roads torn up by tractors and heavy treads, electrical wire dangling from poles. There are echoes from memory of Palestinian claims of indiscriminate violence by the IDF and Israeli protestations of targeting only terrorist cells and bomb factories.