There is a peculiar rule governing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Nobody wrote it down. Nobody voted on it. Yet journalists, activists, diplomats, academics, and social media commentators appear to know it by heart.

When Israelis do something, Israel did it.

When Palestinians do something, we are immediately informed that Palestinians had nothing to do with it.

The Israeli side, apparently, enjoys collective responsibility down to the molecular level. Every Israeli action is treated as a reflection of the entire nation, its culture and its values. Meanwhile, Palestinians are granted a remarkable exemption from this principle. Their actions are forever attributed to some separate entity, some faction, some organization, some group that represents nobody in particular.

An Israeli military operation becomes “Israel attacks Gaza.”

A terrorist attack becomes “Hamas attacks Israel.”

One side is a nation. The other side is an unfortunate bystander to its own politics.

This peculiar asymmetry has become one of the most successful public relations operations of modern times. It has managed to convince much of the world that Israelis possess agency while Palestinians merely possess circumstances.

Thousands of terrorists crossed into Israel. They murdered families, raped women, kidnapped civilians, and committed atrocities so barbaric that some of the footage looked less like a modern war and more like a medieval invasion accidentally uploaded to Telegram. The response from much of the international commentariat was fascinating. We were informed that Hamas does not represent the Palestinians.

Now, of course, it is true that not every Palestinian supports Hamas. It would dishonest to claim otherwise. Just as it would be absurd to judge every Israeli........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)