Regarding the recent death of the 18 month old Palestinian toddler Ali Dawabsheh in the Arab village of Duma. I would like to begin by stating that it must be understood by both sides of this horrendous blood feud that there needs to be ZERO tolerance for injury to any innocents!
Indeference to the Palestinian's there are those who will point fingers and make accusations of my Zionist Jewish Israeli viewpoint as being biased and racist.
However, I will nonetheless point out that in past occasions when Jews were slaughtered;
- there were wild mass jubilant celebrations with candies handed out in the streets of Palestinian villages, cities and towns.
- There was mass glorification of morbid scenes of the aftermath of horrendous scenes of gory and bloody deaths.
- There were postings of colorful mass media posters lauding the perpetrators as "Heros" by "Official" governmental agencies.
- And of course there are the ceremonies with Palestinian Authority officials with payments of funds to the perpetrators from money given from donations given to "improve life".
Once the story of the child's death was known to the general populace in Israel there was overwhelming embarrassment, shame and disgust.
Fingers were immediately pointed and tongues unleashed among the "Left" of the secular Israeli establishment in a full scale assault on the "Settlers" and those who reside in Judea and Shomron from whence it is "assumed" the perpetrators of this "Price Tag" attack originated from.
As a matter of course there were mass protests in our major cities as many Israeli's began a process of soul searching for the source of this extremist bitter hatred.
And as of course in our Israeli society there was immediate major news coverage in the Israeli mass media televised, written press and social media as well.
Almost every Israeli openly denounced the horrific act.
There were hours of televised panel debates and criticism of those who could possibly be responsible for the instigating this horrific crime.
There was widespread wall to wall political condemnation of the crime and promises have been made to use all the legal means possible to find the perpetrators and those that inspired and assisted them.
It is also true that there are those who are backers of the "Rightists" who have responded on the social media with denials. They wish to deny and refuse to believe that this act could have been done by "Our Youth." They state;
- That the act is not proven.
- That there are "outstanding circumstances" and it was a "false flag" act.
- That the Arabs themselves did it.
- That it was a part of the ongoing feud within the Village.
- That there is no physical evidence to link any suspect to the scene.
Yet, it is undeniable that, as was pointed out by ex-members of the Shin Bet - Israeli Security Intelligence personnel, that there have been 13 such "Price Tag" attacks carried out in the preceding months. -- However these previous arson attacks did not cause loss of life but did cause physical damage.
Because of this they were
not mentioned on the news or in the press simply because they were labeled as
non news items. However the arson attacks with "Price Tag" Graffiti were left at the scene.
It was also mentioned and discussed by ex-members of the Shin Bet -Israeli Security the fact that these acts in the past are extremely difficult to prove and investigate in the Palestinian administrative areas. That arrests and convictions are a rarity due to the non-existence of "physical" evidence.
Added to this list of recent "Price Tag" hate crimes was the recent firebombing of the Church of Loaves and Fish at Tabgha, on the Sea of Galilee.
In this specific case of arson at the Church, Israeli Police investigators were able to collect and use surveillance videos from several locations to tediously connect the perpetrators to pieces of physical evidence.
In the case of the Dawabsheh arson attack besides the dubious "Price Tag" graffiti little or no
physical evidence has been found.
The case is also hampered by the government and democratic legal investigative measures that can used by Police and Shin Bet investigators against the assumed suspects. The bottom line to consider is that Israel will investigate and will do its' utmost to find those responsible was reflected in the words of Prime Minister Netanyahu who stated,
'Hate and intolerance have no place in our society,' as he ordered an accelerated investigation of the incident.
In his recent article,
"Palestinians: The Difference between Us and Them" Bassam Tawil states:
"Netanyahu's strong and clear condemnation left me and other Palestinians wondering when was the last time we heard similar statements from our leaders. I cannot remember Abbas or any other Palestinian leader ever expressing shock and outrage over the killing of a Jew in a Palestinian terror attack, nor the last time a Palestinian official visited the Israeli victims of a Palestinian terror attack."
To me the response by the Israeli general public shows the deep moralistic sense that pervades within the majority of the Jewish people and fully illuminates the deep chasm of the abyss of the lack of morality on the Arab side. It also fully delineates the reason why this Arab-Israeli conflict is not being resolved.
In recordings of sermons from Mosques and in lessons given by certain Rabbis, on YouTube and in tape recordings religious teachings are being misused by fanatics on
both sides.
In the past few years we can see how in the Arab mass media that Arab behavior is being warped by Islamic teachings specifically those of Dar al Islam al Sham referred to by the acronym Da'ish /Daesh or as you call them ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and Levant/Syria] the international resurgence of ultra-Wahhabi terrorism. which is socially abhorrent and reprehensible. This extremism is worrisome to the Arabs, both Sunnis and Shi'ite alike because it is uncontrollable and it is engulfing the entire Moslem world.
As in all major conflicts, as in the conflict with Islamic extremists raging in Syria and Iraq, it is always the innocents of both sides that pay the ultimate price for blind religious extremism and the obstinance of the adults to reach a solution to their conflict.
It is a fact, based on historical records, that the murder in Duma of an Arab child by Jews, is indeed
a rarity.
Regretfully most of those Palestinian children that have perished in the age old conflict over the years have been killed in incidents involving the Israeli military forces and
NOT in Jewish "terror" attacks.
With the death of the toddler in Duma, voices of the anti-Israel groups have erupted in unison once more in their morbid attempt to accuse and lay the blame on Israel for the murder of the 551 Palestinian children in last summers Operation Protective Shield in Gaza.
The fact that
British military expert Colonel Richard Kemp has testified to the fact that most of the Palestinian children who were killed, were killed in attacks against Palestinian terrorists themselves. The Hamas members cynically used the families as "Human Shields" during house to house fighting in densely populated and crowded areas of the
Shuja'iyya neighborhood in Gaza. The overwhelming majority of cases the deaths of the Palestinian children were unintentional and could have been avoided if the parents of the children had taken steps to protect their children by distancing themselves from the area of conflict.
Colonel Kemp specifically referred in his testimonies to the cynical use of guerrilla warfare which was used by the Hamas in the
Shuja'iyya neighborhood in Gaza purposely that lead in the great majority of the cases to unintentional and unavoidable civilian deaths.
"I consider myself as having an objective view of what's happening over here. The IDF does not need me to defend them; they have proven it over the years. It's the dispassionate military perspective that I bring."
The proof that Hamas used it's citizens as "Human Shields" is clearly stated by Hamas political leader Fathi Hammad who says in a
TV interview:
"[The enemies of Allah] do not know that the Palestinian people has developed its [methods] of death and death-seeking. For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land. The elderly excel at this, and so do the Mujahideen and the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the Mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine. It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: "We desire death like you desire life."
We hear of this also from a resident of the Shuja'iyya neighborhood who was asked in an interview from Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas/Gaza) television when the person being interviewed was asked who he thought responsible for the injuries that he received during the recent conflict:
"But of course Hamas was responsible. My father received a text-message from the Israeli army warning him that our area was going to be bombed, and Hamas prevented us from leaving. They said there was a curfew. A curfew, can you believe that? I swear to God, we will take revenge on Hamas. I swear to God I will stand on my other foot and fight against Hamas. Even if Israel leaves them alone, we will not. What had my two-year-old nephew done to be killed under the rubble of our home so Khaled Mashaal [Hamas leader based in Qatar] could be happy? We want change at any cost. I am not claiming the Israelis are innocent, but I know Hamas has fired rockets from every residential spot in Gaza. If that was not hiding behind civilians, then it was stupidity and recklessness. Nobody who is normal, in his right mind, in Gaza supports Hamas. People have lost parents, children and friends, and have nothing more to lose. I believe if given the chance and the weapons, they will stand against Hamas."
In all cases that involved the loss of innocent civilian lives our soldiers and officers in the IDF have shown remorse and have attempted to correct the errors or steps that caused these deaths. The cost that Israel paid in the lives of it's soldiers in their efforts to prevent civilian casualties was unheard of.
As Jews we are moralistic and we do not rejoice in the death of our enemies nor their children. As Golda Meir once stated;
"Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us."
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan comment; "a people whose children were burned in the Holocaust needs to do soul-searching at a time like this." Reflected the response of outrage and soul searching in Israeli society. we witnessed this in the massive response by most Israeli's in large outdoor rallys and demonstrations against those in our society who may have done this beastly thing.
It is true that our children have suffered from terror by those immersed in hatred. Over the years hundreds of Jewish children have been gruesomely murdered in intentional terrorist attacks to kill Jews simply because they are Jews.
The central fact for the continuation of this conflict remains that the Palestinian children have suffered from the greedy and blind leadership who trough their total unwillingness to compromise refuse to accept their fate. It is truly regretful that this ancient conflict was never resolved because of the
Palestinian leaderships consistent refusal and unwillingness to share land and accept the Jewish people as their neighbors.
"...that the real tragedy of the Palestinian people has been -- and
remains -- bad and irresponsible leadership."
This is the same view that I have always
expressed that the first real step for finding a "Peaceful Solution"
to resolve the Israeli Palestinian conflict is for the Palestinian people
themselves to realize at long last that they lost the war in 1948.
In our Israeli educational systems we do not teach militarism and anti Arabic hatred. Our children are taught to value life and to grow to enjoy it. We do not dress our children in military garb and teach them "martyrdom". We teach our children the love for the "Land of Israel". We attempt to teach tolerance and acceptance.
The Palestinians, through the UNWRA funded Palestinian Authority, on the other-hand teach their children that Jewish "settlers" - not the settlers of Judea and Shomron but the Jewish presence in ALL of Palestine have usurped their ancestral homes and that only through military struggle will their return to their "Homeland" be achieved. The call to "wipe the Jewish nation" and "Jewish People" off the map is taught to the children on a daily basis.
Let me clarify by stating that we should not tolerate their use of terror and we should aspire to do our uttermost to eradicate it by legal means.
As Zev Jabotinsky once stated:
"All of us, all Jews and Zionists of all schools of thought, want the best for the Arabs of Eretz Israel. We do not want to eject even one Arab from either the left or the right bank of the Jordan River. We want them to prosper both economically and culturally. We envision the regime of Jewish Palestine as follows: most of the population will be Jewish, but equal rights for all Arab citizens will not only be guaranteed, they will also be fulfilled."
Yes, there have been protests by those who are labeled as "Leftists" who are ignorant of the very reason for their presence in this land. Their parents had been so fearful of those that drove them here they negated and hid their faith in Judaism thinking it would "save them"from the utter hatred in the lands that drove them out. They negated their religion as they attempted to assimilate and hide thinking that by denying who they were that it would save them from the storm of anti-Semitism. In doing so they never taught their children the actual basis for their presence here.
What needs to be understood by those of us who
do know our reason for existing here in the Land of Israel, is that the youth that committed the attack of burning the homes of Palestinians did so from an ideology based on pure hatred which cannot be tolerated.
As Jews we come from a higher moral plain than those who hate us, for this is why HaShem choose us. We need to aspire to a higher code of conduct while on the other-hand retaining the willingness to defend our people and our land.
Silkworm (missile)
