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Source: http://online.wsj.com/articles/ruth-wisse-the-abyss-between-two-heinous-episodes-1404683221
The Abyss Between Two Heinous Episodes
(Wall Street Journal) Ruth R. Wisse - Representatives of the American government seeking peace in the Middle East have been shuttling between Israeli and Palestinian leaders as though dealing with equivalent societies with an equal investment in territorial compromise. Now that Jewish suspects have been apprehended in the Jerusalem murder of a 16-year-old Arab there are those who would cite the parallel between this heinous crime and the recent murders of three Israeli teens as proof of moral and political equivalence between the two societies. But are the situations comparable? Speaking at the funeral of the three Jewish boys on July 1, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "A deep and wide moral abyss separates us from our enemies. They sanctify death while we sanctify life. They sanctify cruelty while we sanctify compassion." It is one of the ironies of Israel that Jewish parents whose children are murdered by Arabs are not guaranteed justice as surely as Arabs whose children are murdered by Jews. Ms. Wisse is research professor of Yiddish literature and comparative literature at Harvard University.