31-Jul-15: In the Wake of a Lethal Arson Attack

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July 31, 2015, 2 PM ET

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Originally published at This Ongoing War.

Awful news. Reports of a dead baby, a devastated family, indications of a gloating attacker and first signs of self-justification. It's a scenario we have witnessed from within.

Though it's too early for anyone to be certain of what has happened, two points immediately stand out:

In all the years (and this week it's exactly 14 years) since our daughter was murdered, we have not found a single Arabic-language post, article, tweet or speech condemning that attack in the center of Jerusalem or the killings. We don't say there have been none, and don't claim perfect knowledge. But we look for them all the time (as we noted here, here and elsewhere) and have not found them - and we very much do want to be wrong on this. On the other hand, there is an endless supply (easily found - no need for us to republish them here) of the opposite in the opinion columns, on Twitter and Facebook and YouTube.
No society has been free of people with murder on their minds, ever, anywhere. What distinguishes one from another is how that society deals with it. Does anyone doubt that there is going to now be a manhunt, a trial, an incarceration, and revulsion among the people on our side?

And some speculation. It's unlikely (to say the least) that whoever did this terrible deed and eventually gets brought to justice is going to be described as a "detainee" who is "kidnapped" by the police because of his/her "resistance activity". Or that posters are going to be held aloft by protesters demanding his/her release now. Whatever self-justifying argument gets expressed by the perpetrator/s now or later will be pushed aside with disdain by Israel's mainstream.

On the whole, of the two societies, of the two value systems living side by side, we know which we want to be counted among.