Tensions between Israel and the Palestinian governing authorities, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas, have been rising after the kidnappings and murders of teenagers from both communities. Last month the disappearance of three Israeli teenagers sparked hostilities with Israel pre-emptively accusing Hamas despite the latter’s denials. The bodies of the teens were recovered after an 18-day manhunt: The dragnet that Israeli authorities spread in the occupied territories led to 400 Palestinians being arbitrarily arrested and the deaths of seven people, including two children, and provoked widespread outrage amongst the Palestinians. Last week a Palestinian teenager was burnt alive in an apparent revenge killing by Jewish extremists in East Jerusalem. Another Palestinian-American teenager and others were brutalised by Israeli police while in custody on stone throwing charges. Israel on Sunday said it had arrested six Israeli nationals in connection with the murder of the Palestinian teenager and indentified two suspects affiliated with Hamas in the murders of the three Israeli teenagers. Israeli airstrikes in Gaza over the last two weeks have left 12 people dead, with the latest strike on Sunday killing nine people. Hamas responded with rocket fire from Gaza. The escalation of tensions in the Gaza Strip has been echoed by protests in the West Bank. It is necessary to understand that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has incrementally been reduced to a ‘no-contest’. Israel has a preponderance of military force and the Israeli government controls everything related to the Palestinians. This total control is most apparent in the West Bank, and concerns everything from where Palestinians can travel, to how much water they consume per month. Currently, there is only the omnipresent power of the Israeli government on display, desperate attempts at resistance notwithstanding. The peace process is dead in the water because of Israeli intransigence and aggression. This trend dates back to the founding of Israel, when Zionist leaders expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians by force from their homes. The policy was force and it was applied from the beginning. Some analysts argue that Israel’s siege mentality is so deeply rooted, and the view of history taught in Israel so distorted, that Israeli leaders are unable to rationally assess the conflict in political terms. Other analysts argue that increasing Israeli aggression, assassinations of Palestinian leaders, and the ghettoisation of Palestinian territories show a long term plan of complete annihilation of the Palestinians as a distinct national entity. It is possible that the inability to see the political roots of the conflict is what leads to the genocidal notions that abound within Israel’s government. Recently there has been talk in Israel of a ‘final military solution’ (an ironic echo of the Holocaust) that would finish Hamas as an entity, an action that will undoubtedly leave countless Palestinian civilians dead. The murder of these teenagers being manipulated to provide a military casus belli points again to the fundamental injustices of this long standing scenario. *