I could, of course, quote Rabbi Elazar in the Midrash Tanhuma, at Metzora :
“he who is merciful to the cruel, in the end becomes cruel to those who are merciful”
But the fact of the matter is that not of our initiative, we are in a terror war, one the Arabs have directed almost totally exclusively against the unarmed and defenseless, especially children. It was launched in the political sense in April 1920 although anti-Jewish violence meant to prevent Jews from buying property and repopulating the land of the Jewish homeland reached back to at least 1851.
If many people can seek to support and justify an Arab claim to establish an independent state of Palestine after all this terror, this ongoing terror, then I admit, I feel no moral inadequacy in this matter for as much as the ‘price tag’ phenomenon is wrong, criminal and senseless, besides being quite unhelpful and even harmful to our enterprise – and Hirschhorn’s article is an example of that – I do make comparisons overall and see our moral and ethical standard as much higher than that of our neighbors overall. After all, we recently learned that the Palestinian Authority promotes a libel, informing all that “Jews of high position” planned an arson attempt at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Duma is nothing compared to what this portends.
As for Duma itself, I am still not convinced Jews perpetrated the torching (and there are more doubts) and until suspects are caught, place on trial and found guilty, I’ll be a Western democrat human rights advocate and withhold judgment. That would be the ethical stance. – – – – –
And now comments on some excerpts from her op-ed, Israeli Terrorists, Born in the U.S.A.:
1. “ON July 31, in the West Bank village of Duma, 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh was burned alive in a fire. All available evidence suggests that the blaze was a deliberate act of settler terrorism.”
And exactly how much evidence is “available”? Can she explain a Chabad-like graffiti on the wall? She should have noted that the police were not neutral in that instead of the standard reaction of “all avenues of investigation are being followed”, the police targeted Jews specifically.
2. “More disturbingly, several of the alleged instigators, currently being detained indefinitely, are not native-born Israelis — they have American roots. But there has been little outcry in their communities. Settler rabbis and the leaders of American immigrant communities in the West Bank have either played down their crime or offered muted criticism. [my emphasis].”
As for quantity and quality, see above.
3. “After years of impunity for settlers who commit violent crimes, Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, has now supposedly cracked down”
Impunity or perhaps bad police procedures or being fixated on certain subjects, the wrong ones?
4. “by rounding up a grand total of four youths believed to be connected to recent acts of settler terrorism — three of whom trace their origins to the United States.”
So, that’s it? Four? And they are only suspects.
5. “…Rabbi Shlomo Riskin…to him, settlers were now the victims. “We’re not fighting against an enemy who plays by the same rules as we do,” he argued. “Given the cruelty and barbarism of the Arabs to their own people, our ethical imperative is not to commit suicide.”
And he is wrong?
6. “…many mainstream American settlers…have also learned the value of speaking fluent “liberalese” on the international stage. By translating scripture into sound bites, Jewish-American settlers have played a pivotal role in the public relations rebranding of the Israeli settler movement — and these professed liberals are now helping to deflect attention from crimes committed by Jews.[my emphasis]”