Acting in the wake of last week’s firebombing of a home in a West Bank Arab village that took the life of a 20-month-old child, Israel’s government announced that it would use administrative detention — jailing someone without charges — in an effort to crack down on the Jewish extremists who allegedly carried out the atrocity. One can only hope that such draconian measures will be sufficient to control the small group from whom such murderers arise. Just as important, it’s vital that this event cause those who have considered the phenomenon of such “price tag” attacks on Arabs as an understandable reaction to Arab terror to sober up and realize the way such attitudes are leading to a dangerous escalation of an already difficult situation. But I’m not optimistic about that. The murder of an infant should cause everyone — Jews and Arabs as well as right-wing Jews and left-wing Jews — to view all forms of terrorism as a threat to us all. Yet that isn’t happening. The denial of the seriousness of the problem on the part of some on the Jewish right is disturbing. But it is no less discouraging then the willingness of the Jewish left to treat the actions of a few as an indictment of everyone who disagrees with them on policy questions. The same can be said of the hypocrisy being exhibited by Palestinians who honor terrorists that kill Jews.
The reaction from some on the right to this awful crime shows how hard it is for some people to think outside of the ideological boxes in which we put ourselves. The several-decadeslong siege of Israel against an Arab and Muslim world that for the most part is still unwilling to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders are drawn, has conditioned those of us who support it to view the conflict as one of good guys and bad guys. The notion that there are some Jews that have become the mirror image of Islamist terrorists is too much for some of us to accept. Even when we are confronted with evidence of how a tiny minority of Jews has started to act in the same manner as Israel’s enemies, some deny it. Judging by some of the reactions to my initial piece about this tragedy, there are a lot of Jews on the right who need a reality check.
Though these same people denounce those who believe terror must be condemned no matter which group is doing the killing as accepting enemy propaganda, it is they who have succumbed to the logic of Israel’s enemies. The fact that a few Jews have committed an evil act does not undermine the legitimacy of the Jewish state or Zionism. Facing up to the facts about Jewish terrorism and doing something about it, as Israel’s government is attempting to do, is an affirmation of Zionism, not its abandonment. Denying the need to speak out against this unfortunate strain of hate is both irresponsible and harmful to Israel. Those who play this game, whether in Israel or abroad, are doing the cause they purport to support no favors.
By the same token, the glee with which some on the Jewish left have embraced this terrible crime as being somehow the fault of everyone who supports the right of Jews to live in the territories is just as counterproductive (for an example of this, read just about any article on this subject that has been published in Haaretz). That they are doing this to make political hay out of a tragedy is self-evident. But what they fail to understand is that the logic of their arguments is self-defeating.
What is most curious about those who seek to associate every one of the hundreds of thousands of Jews who live in the settlements (a term that applies to residents of much of Jerusalem and the blocs of communities that even most left-wingers acknowledge will remain inside Israel even if there was a land-for-peace deal with the Palestinians) and center-right political parties with the murders is that they treat Jewish terrorism more seriously than the Palestinian variety.
The Jewish left ignores or dismisses as irrelevant the daily incitement to hate Jews in the official Palestinian Authority media and the explicit embrace of terrorists by PA leaders such as their preferred peace partner Mahmoud Abbas. Yet the same people indict Prime Minister Netanyahu and a host of other Jews that disagree with them about the peace process and settlements also consistently condemn Jewish violence as somehow responsible for Jewish terror. While Palestinians get a pass from the left for their culture of hate, those invested in the illusion that peace is currently possible with them, miss no chance to demonize Jews who aren’t so foolish. Suffice it to say that the PA (not to mention Hamas) subsidizes terrorists. Israel’s government prosecutes them. Terror against Jews is widely applauded by Palestinians. The reaction from Jews to terror against Palestinians is just the opposite. But for those whose main goal is to trash their opponents on the right, there is no charge so extreme that they won’t embrace it in order to score some dubious political points. If that helps Israel delegitimize all of Israel — and, remember, Hamas and other anti-Zionist think Tel Aviv is just as much “occupied territory” as the most remote West Bank settlement — they don’t care.
As for the Palestinians, their hypocrisy is boundless. While every decent person should share in the grief for the victims of the despicable attack on Duma, the notion that Abbas, who has not only spent much of his early career facilitating acts of terror against Jews but who explicitly endorsed such attacks in Jerusalem last fall and who honors the murderers of Jewish children, has any moral authority to speak on this subject, is absurd.
This terrorist attack as well as the stabbing attack at the Jerusalem Gay Pride March last week ought to signal a pause in business as usual when it comes to talking about violence in the Middle East. Acts of terror must be condemned without reservation no matter who committed them. So, too, must attempts to demonize political opponents. This a moment to lower our voices and to seek an end to violence and intolerance rather than engage political score settling.
