After Istanbul Bombing, Palestinians Scramble To Make It About Them

As more details emerge it will be easier to seize on one or two of the details of the attack and use them to shoehorn the Palestinian issue to center stage.

Ramallah, June 7 – A powerful car bomb exploded in Turkey’s economic and tourism capital this morning, sending Palestinian leaders and advocates into a furious quest to show that the apparent terrorist attack is really about them.

At least eleven people were killed when a car bomb went off near a bus carrying policemen in Istanbul today. As of this writing no group has claimed responsibility, making it more of a challenge for the Palestinians to draw a specific connection to their plight, but they still seek a way. As more details emerge and an investigation takes place, Palestinian leaders say, it will be easier to seize on one or two of the details of the attack and use them to shoehorn the Palestinian issue to center stage.

The key is finding the right detail of the bombing, explained Fatah official Saeb Erekat. “Right now we only know that there was a bombing attack, not who perpetrated it,” he said. “If we knew right away that it was, say, the Kurdish insurgency, we could draw parallels between the brutality of the PKK and the brutality of the IDF, and say we face that kind of brutality every day at the hands of the IDF, altering the story to be about us instead of Turkey.”

“Alternatively,” he continued, “if it turns out it was the Islamic State that perpetrated the bombing, we would point out how Daesh has suspiciously not attacked Israel, and it is common knowledge in the Muslim world that Israel is behind Daesh, and the solution to their problem – which is really just a symptom of our problem – is the defeat of Israel.”

“Another possibility is that it’s any number of groups allied with the Syrian regime,” he added. “Depending on which one – some local Shiite militia, Hezbollah, whoever – our hook for making it about us will have to be developed accordingly. It’s a little bit frustrating to have to wait until more details are known, because there’s only so much rhetorical hay you can make with general pronouncements of solidarity.”

Palestinian activists and advocates for their cause have for years attempted to hijack others’ struggles for political or diplomatic leverage against Israel, asserting that their cause and the cause of other oppressed victims are inherently linked. They have been encouraged in these efforts by governments across Europe and the Americas that, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, pursue a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the linchpin for regional stability, enabling the Palestinians to believe everything really is about them.