Daily Alert Archives

Judge Jewish Rioters, But Don't Rationalize Arab Murderers

(JNS) Jonathan S. Tobin - In terms of media coverage, the most important event in the Middle East in the last week was a riot carried out by Jews in Huwara following a terrorist attack by Palestinian Arabs that took the lives of two young Jewish men. That this is so is, in a sense, understandable. Terror attacks against Jews are commonplace events. In the last five weeks alone, 13 Jews were slain by Palestinian terrorists. Yet examples of Jews attempting to exact some sort of revenge for terrorism are actually rare. Events on the scale of the riot in Huwara are almost unknown. Incidents of Jewish violence amount to a fraction of the number of attacks of all sorts on Jews in Judea and Samaria. Terrorism against Jews and Israelis is not only widely supported by Palestinian Arabs but embraced by their political parties. This includes the supposedly moderate Fatah Party that runs the Palestinian Authority, as well as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, whose public support is rooted in their record of violence rather than state-building or bettering the lives of their constituents. Financial support for those who kill and wound Jews is official PA policy; terrorist murderers and their families benefit from their crimes. The support that the PA retains in the international community and the willingness of the Biden administration to resume aid to it - regardless of its legal obligations to cut it off because of the 2017 Taylor Force Act that ties assistance to the Palestinians to their ending this "pay to slay" policy - demonstrates the world's indifference to anti-Jewish terror. Jews should condemn extralegal violence and/or acts of revenge that will do nothing but aid the cause of their enemies. Yet as long as terrorism is cheered by Palestinians, don't blame Israel for the continuation of the conflict or the Israeli people for feeling frustrated by the free pass the murderers get from those who dare to lecture terror victims about morality.
2023-03-02 00:00:00
Full Article