Spring for Arabs,winter for Jews

摘要

FOR months the Arab spring seemed to have passed the Palestinians by. But it caught up with them over the weekend of May 14th-15th, when they demonstrated en masse-and more daringly than usual-to commemorate the day the Palestinians call the naqba, or catastrophe, when Israel was created 63 years ago. Abetted by Syria's government in Damascus which was seeking a diversion from its own troubles, hundreds of unarmed Palestinian protesters (pictured above) breached Israel's defences in the Golan Heights, something no Arab army has managed to do for 38 years. Four were killed. Throngs pushed into an Israeli-controlled Druze town, Majdal Shams, raising Palestinian and Syrian flags in the square and hailing the daring move as a first step to "going home".