The PLO Cairo Document outlining the strategy to destroy Israel in stages (1984) included a provision for the "Palestinization" of Arab Israelis to make them join the residents of the West Bank and Gaza in violently confronting the Israel Defense Forces. The goal? - the delegitimization of the border between Israel and the West Bank (whatever that is).

The results were not what the organizers hoped for. As of 1:27 Eastern Time, reports indicate that after thousands of incidents and thousands of people involved in the confrontations, the results were one Arab dead and about three hundred wounded, of which 37 (other sources indicate 51) were wounded by the Israelis. The rest, obviously, wree wounded either by the demonstrators or by Arab police. All in all, I believe it shows the remarkable restrain of the Israeli border police, which used stun grenades rubber bullets and tear gas to break up the mobs converging on Israel's borders.

Other demonstrations through the day were pacific: 10,000 Palestinians gathered for a sit-in in Jordan, ten miles from the Allenby bridge and a few thousands gathered in Southern Lebanon near the Israeli border in peaceful protest as well. Unfortunately, among those in Lebanon were representatives of the Naturei Karta, an ultra-orthodox Jewish group which opposses Zionism and has sided in  multiple occassions with Yasser Arafat and his successors. These Jews provided Hezbollah with a great publicity story...

When compared with the demonstrations in 2011, these were just puny...a shadow of last year's agression. So by now the Palestinians failed when trying to overwhelm Israel by sea (The Gaza Flotilla), failed when they called for thousands of peopleto  flood Ben Gurion Airport and now failed again when trying to overwhelm Israeli checkpoints by land. What is then left for Palestinians to press their case? One option is still open to them: come around the table and negotiate a settlement. The Israeli government has issued multiple invitations to the Palestinians to negotiate, and multiple offers have been summarily rejected by the Palestinian Authority over the years. As for Hamas, they have never rejected any Israeli proposal for a settlement...because they just won't negotiate with Israel at all.

I have to say that I was relieved. I expected a far worse siuation to come out of the demonstrations, but Jordanians and even Hamas security forces showed a healthy dose of pragmatism by preventing things from escalating. On a side bar, 700 pro-Assad demonstrators joined the anti-Israel demonstrations in downtown Damascus in the midst of a government massacre of Syrian citizens that continues unabated, and it is even praised by the Iranian government.

Many criticize Israel for the building of the security fence...but what would have happened if the fence wasn't there? Many will criticize Israel for stopping the demonstrators, but wouldn't any other border police in the world tried to stop people from crossing border controls? The UN Human Rights Council is upset that Israel will not cooperate with their fact-finding mission on the effect of Israeli settlements on the civil rights of Palestinians, but when was it last time that same council conducted an investigation on the targeted killing of Israeli civilians by rocket fire and Arab sharpshoters? - let me give you a hint: Never. If any alien from another planet were to judge who is the biggest violator of Human rights on Earth based exclusively on the Human Rights Commission Resolutions, they would believe it is Israel. Syrian killing of its own citizens? Sudanese extermination of tribes on the South Sudan border? Sudanese ethnic cleansing in Darfur? North Korean repression? Chinese repression in Tibet? None of that exist in the alternate reality of the UN Human Rights Council - Only Israel.

Well, I'm sorry but I'm proud at the restrain showed by Israeli forces in the face of overwhelming odds. I wish nobody died, but hundreds could have died instead of just one. I'm sorry that the Palestinians do not have complete control of their own lives, but the path to get there was laid out in 1993, and the Palestinian leaders have consistently refused to accept any solution, seeking instead to perpetuate the conflict.

Crocodiles many times eat their own eggs, so in Spanish there is an expression referring to "crocodile tears" meaning a crocodile crying for the unborn babies of the eggs it ate. Palestinians have a choice: they can either put the long pants on and sit around the table to hammer a deal and take control of their own state with a capital in parts of East Jerusalem, or they can continue to run around and blame all their woes on Israel and avoid taking responsbility.

Based on what I heard so far (Friday, 1:57 PM Eastern Time) I would have to say: Well done, Israel!