Beginning of the end?

When the Jordanian and Israeli ambassadors to Canada spoke together in Vancouver last month, it was in the aftermath of the terror attack in Amman, Jordan's capital. Israel, of course, has been the victim of sustained violent terror for most of its existence, but for Jordan, the experience was a horrific new chapter.

Vancouver Quadra member of Parliament Stephen Owen, a member of the federal cabinet, moderated the main public event, which took place at Temple Sholom. Owen, who has much experience in foreign relations, noted that the dawn of an era of peace can be a very dangerous time. It is at this time, when traditional enemies are becoming friendlier, that those with the most to lose are motivated to act in ways that undermine the emerging peace.

This, Owen suggested, may have been what was transpiring in Jordan.

It may also have been a motivating factor for the terror attack in Netanya Monday. It is possible that the attack at a mall was the last gasp of a Palestinian terror infrastructure sensing its demise, as Palestinians and Israelis in general sort out their differences through peaceful methods.

The alternative to this line of thought is less palatable – that the murders on Monday were just the latest in a long, disgraceful period of terror attacks motivated not by the desperation that comes from imminent irrelevance, but rather a far more routine example of a six-decade assault on the Jewish presence in the Middle East. Pray that it was the former.