Friday, July 4, 2014

The Real Palestinians Have Stood Up - Take a Good Look!

You should not judge a country, people, or community based on the actions of tiny minorities or individuals from that community, no matter how heinous, but rather on the reactions of that community to those actions or people.

Earlier this week, Israeli streets were almost empty as people stopped to watch the funeral of the 3 murdered Israeli teenagers - Gilad, Eyal and Naftali. 60,000 people attended the funerals, including the president, prime minister and chief rabbis of Israel, all of whom spoke. Nobody called for revenge, or blood - indeed the mothers of the boys called for calm and peace and remembrance of three young lives. There were incidents of protest by young Israelis in Jerusalem, quickly quashed by police, but on the whole, the event was about grief, sorrow and healing.

There is little doubt that the Palestinian terror group which governs Gaza - Hamas - is up to its necks in this horrific crime against three school boys as PM Netanyahu has said. There is plenty of evidence linking the three prime suspects to the crime, all of whom are associated with Hamas and Hamas has been making regular calls for kidnappings of Israelis since the Gilad Shalit release deal. So whether Hamas actually planned the attack or merely created the environment for it to occur, they are complicit. We must remember that the Palestinian Authority, led by Fatah's Mahmood Abbas, is now "in bed" with Hamas following the unity government deal, implemented just weeks ago, effectively killing any possibility of the peace process finding new life and hope in the near future.

In the wake of the kidnappings, the IDF conducted mass searches for the boys, which uncovered terror networks and infrastructure in the West Bank and involved the re-arrest of Hamas operatives released in the Shalit deal. Israel knew it was walking a tight line between inflaming the Palestinian street and finding the boys, but also knew if the kidnappers had succeeded there'd be three new Shalits. Israel also had to make the point to the Palestinians - being encouraged to commit this crime by Hamas - that such acts cannot be tolerated and would make their lives more difficult and to Hamas, that it would seriously impact their infrastructure and ability to operate in the West Bank.

Now this week we saw another crime - An Arab boy kidnapped and murdered. Unlike the Israeli boys, at the time of writing this blog, we do not  yet has a clear picture of what happened. It may well be a 'revenge killing' by some very evil Israelis, and the boy's family were quick to blame Israel, but there maybe other circumstances other than revenge as there have apparently been several attempted kidnappings by other Arab clans against this family in recent weeks. In any case,  if it turns out that it this poor boy was murdered as a revenge killing, Israel will demonstrate anguish & horror that one of our own could do such evil.

Never the less the Palestinian's have already reacted with violence and vandalism - unlike the Israeli and Jewish world, they haven't held prayer vigils, called for calm or done acts of kindness in the name of this boy. They have rioted. They have burned the Jerusalem light rail near Arab areas - built along that route to bring opportunity to Arab Jerusalem as well as Jewish - they have started fires in woodland and along roadsides, and they have thrown rocks at civilian vehicles and buses - as I write this, the funeral of the murdered boy is taking place and unlike the funerals of Eyal, GIlad and Naftali, there are no calls for peace and calm, but rather for blood, and revenge. The crowd is chanting "Martyr" and while this takes place Arabs are throwing rocks and vandalizing in their neighborhoods of this great city, even on "Temple Mount", home of the Dome of the Rock, their own 3rd holiest place, they are causing desecration.

Don't judge the Palestinians because the three Israelis were murdered, and don't judge Israel because this poor Arab boy was murdered - judge them on their reactions! When this Arab boy turned up dead, the vast majority of Israelis were horrified and saddened that it may have been one of theirs that did it. When the three Israelis were taken and murdered, Palestinian parents and teachers took 100s of photos of their small children holding up three fingers in delight at the act. The people who danced on 9/11 gloried in kidnap and murder. Judge them on that.


1 comment:

  1. The way the funeral was conducted highlights the difference between jews and arabs.

    They'll soon be complaining about the public transport system!

    ReplyDelete