One waits for an outpouring of condolences for the kidnapping-murders of the three Israeli teenagers, one of whom was also an American citizen. Especially, one waits for such statements from the most ardent supporters of a Palestinian state in the disputed territories.
One waits in vain.
However, as soon as the news of a kidnapping and murder of an Arab teenager, European, American, and Israeli Jews rushed to express outrage, grief, and to condemn, in advance, any Jew or Jews who might have committed this heinous act. The Guardian focused on the awful murder of Mohammed Abu Khedeir and on the police beating of his Palestinian-American cousin who participated in a riot against the police and/or the IDF. The kidnap-murder of the three Israeli teenagers was mentioned in passing as having incited “racist” outbreaks among the Israeli Jews.
The Guardian writes: “Tensions have risen after three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped on 12 June and later found dead in the occupied West Bank. That has been followed by an outbreak of racist incitement on Israeli social media sites, street attacks and Khdeir’s murder, a suspected revenge attack.”
This would be acceptable if The Guardian also noted the Islamic and Islamist racism towards Jews and their happy and heartless response to the kidnapping murder of the three Israeli teenagers–but they do not.
CNN has been covering this story intensely. The Palestinian “rioting,” in which they destroyed their own neighborhood and attacked Israeli forces seriously, is interpreted as an understandable response to Mohammed Abu Khdeir’s murder. This same perspective was lacking when Israel went into the West Bank–a disputed territory, not an occupied territory–to find, arrest, and destroy the Hamas infrastructure which they believe was behind the murder of the three Israeli teenagers. A similar perspective was lacking when the IDF began to bomb Gaza after 20 rockets were fired on Sderot and Bersheva (fifteen over the Sabbath alone). This is true for CNN and it is also true for much of the Western media.
The New York Times has covered the alleged “revenge” killing of Abu Khdeir and the police beating of his cousin continuously and intensely. One wishes they would cover the ongoing and endless atrocities against Jewish civilians in context, with historical perspective, and perhaps with as much sympathy and outrage as they routinely lavish on Palestinian victims of Jewish Israelis.
I no longer wait for something like this to happen.
The first statement out was on July 2nd and it was issued by Anat Hoffman the Director of the Israel Reform Movement’s Religious Action Center. Her statement was titled: “With a Heavy Heart” and, while ostensibly fair and balanced, her focus and passion were strictly reserved for the murdered Palestinian boy. She wrote:
“It is with a sad and heavy heart that I share with you that the body of a 15-year-old boy, Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir, was found early this morning in Jerusalem. There are signs of much violence on his body. Right now, riots are breaking out in his neighborhood Shuafat in East Jerusalem. Last night, the streets of Jerusalem were lined with hundreds of rioters shouting “death to Arabs” and “revenge.”
Yesterday I wept with millions over the bodies of Eyal, Naftali and Gilad who were murdered by their Arab captors. Today I am choking up with tears over an innocent Arab boy who appears to have been murdered in their revenge.”
We do not know this yet as a fact. We merely fear that it may be so. We keep hoping that this is not true.
One also waits for the Palestinian Authority, Al Fatah, Hamas, ISIS, etc. to yield up the Hamas operatives who kidnapped and murdered the Israeli teenagers–and who were heard, on a cellphone, celebrating the teenager’s deaths. One waits for the kind of immediate condemnation and commitment to find the killers that Israel routinely offers and has done so in this case.
One waits in vain.
However, some days ago, the Israeli police and Secret Service arrested six Jews, some of whom are minors. They released three, have described the remaining men in custody as “nationalists.” They seem to be football fanatics and thugs, not religious, not necessarily settlers. They have not yet been charged nor have they been convicted. In fact, more than 12 hours ago, the Israeli police cancelled a press conference about the matter. It is feared that, in haste, errors may have been committed. The boys’ lawyers insist that their clients are innocent and that they will prove this at trial.
One waits for Hamas to arrest and try their glorified and pensioned-off murderers but of course, one waits in vain.
Now, a group of passionately pro-Zionist bloggers, most, but not all of whom have chosen anonymous website names, have signed a very principled statement. They find this crime abominable no matter who may have committed it and they say so as proud Jews. You may find it here.
One waits in vain for similar statements from Abbas, Meshal, Omar the Chechen, and self-appointed Caliph, Al-Bagdadi.
Civilization=1. Barbarism=0.
My Right Word blogsite makes another important point, namely that Jews are human; provoke them enough, kill them again and again, while the world pretends not to notice and not to care–and eventually, even Jews will strike back. They have done so in the Holy Land of Palestine from the early twentieth century onwards as they were attacked by Arabs.
Sometimes, the “strike-backs,” while unusual, and few in number, may almost resemble the business-as-usual aggression and ceaseless persecution against them. The barely warmed Warsaw ghetto inhabitants took on the mighty Nazi Army and fought for twenty days. This does not prove that Jews are as vicious as Nazis; rather, that Jewish heroes arose at a midnight hour and fought for their lives.
The same may be said of the Irgun when it carried out its warning to the cruel Brits. British hung Jews fighting to be free in Palestine–and in turn, the Irgun hung some British soldiers. Same act–very different meaning. The Brits had closed Palestine to Jewish refugees, sent them back to die on the open seas or would not let them even leave Europe. They wanted to keep Mandatory Palestine a colonial possession and the Arabs posed little threat to them. Even though the Arabs backed Hitler, the British created Transjordan for them, violating the Balfour Declaration and then equipped them with arms, money, and training. The Jews were relatively unarmed, surrounded, and without serious support from American Jewish leaders or from American and British leaders. They were fighting for the survival of the remnant of their people.
Same act=different meaning.
Read the extraordinary speech written and delivered by playwright Ben Hecht who, with the help of Jewish gangster Mickey Cohen, raised $200,000.00 for the Irgun. The speech was only recently discovered and is printed in the current issue of The Jewish Review of Books.
I hope and pray that Israeli Jews continue to act in a civilized manner: To condemn such vigilante violence, seek out its potential perpetrators and put them on trial. A civilized country–the kind that is incredibly productive in terms of medical and scientific advances that benefit all humanity, has a responsibility to humanity to survive. That is, I hope, precisely what Israel will do.
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