Not Our Fault, But Theirs!

He is described as a peace activist. One can only wonder what kind of mind it is that accommodates itself to living as a 'peace activist' concerned with the human rights of Palestinians living in Gaza, who finds that it accords with his vision of 'peace' to live under a Hamas-controlled society. Someone who identifies with the mission of Hamas, a jihadist group that clearly states its major concern is to destroy the State of Israel, while considering Israel, concerned with defending itself and its people from mayhem and slaughter, to be genocidal in intention.

A young Italian man who was obviously an idealist. He apparently eschewed the opportunities available to him to campaign against endemic corruption in Italy, against the customary sexual predations on women in Italy, against the violence of organized crime in Italy, against the poverty-stricken condition of many Italians, and opted instead for the more exotic allure of joining the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israeli movement intent on breaking an internationally lawful sea blockade.

So inspired by his mission to travel on one of the "Free Gaza" flotillas he decided to remain in Gaza, and from that vantage point write about the intolerable conditions defying human rights imposed upon Palestinians in Gaza - not by the rigorously theocratic Hamas, but by the IDF, charged by their nation to protect and defend the Israeli population from ongoing rocket attacks, and attempted suicide attacks that continually breached Israeli security and civilian lives.

He was abducted as a potential person of value to be exchanged for rival Islamist gang members whom Hamas has imprisoned. The same rabid-Islamist-Wahhabist inspiration that inspired bin Laden and al-Qaeda, a Salafist faction of Sunni Islam. A-Tawheed wal Jihad used him as a bargaining chip to free some of their own from incarceration. They may have used the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, held by Hamas as a template for their own escapade, kidnapping Vittorio Arrigoni.

Whom, when threats to kill him did not convince Hamas to free the Salafist prisoners they hold - quite unlike the actions of the State of Israel in permitting hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for a single Israeli held by Palestinians - tortured and killed the Italian man who had dedicated his life to the Palestinian cause. One supposes that Hamas did not feel sufficiently co-dedicated to the cause of Mr. Arrigoni's continued lifespan.

Palestinians are now in the throes of bewailing the man's unfortunate death. Another instance of Muslim Arabs dispatching their own, as it were. Here was a foreigner sacrificing his time, energies, passion and future to the cause of the Palestinians. And he is used as a chess piece, a disposable, dispensable object whose life can be bargained away with a check-mate. And then, the grieving Palestinians look about for answers to another of their little bloody tragedies.

A former member of Yasser Arafat's inner circle, now a fervent member of Hamas, bemoans the fact that it is more than obvious to him that the Salafist Muslim group has been infiltrated; no other way to explain how and why they would murder someone dedicated to the cause of the Palestinians. He could see, he said, furiously, Netanyahu's hand in all of this. It was an Israeli plot to avenge themselves on Mr. Arrigoni and upon Hamas.

That would be the same Hamas that pondered the choice of saving Mr. Arrigoni's life in exchange for Salafist prisoners they held, and their discretionary choice condemned Mr. Arrigono who had doubly dedicated his life in vain, to an untimely, and most unfortunate death. Which, of course, Hamas is not responsible for. But Israel, most decidedly is.

"Israel has every right to laugh and sing, even while it massacres its neighbour. Palestinians are only asking to die a different death, one of old age." Vittorio Arrigoni