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Editorial

Vigilante Murderers Stain Israel's Soul

T

he revenge killing of a
Palestinian teenager by three
Israeli Jews who are part of
the same extended family drew inter-
national outrage, as the despicable act
should have.
The July 2 killing, in retaliation for
the June 12 kidnapping and murder
of three Israeli teens by two Hamas
operatives, triggered near-universal
disdain from Israeli Jews. Vengeance
has never found justification in a civi-
lized culture.
That's not to say some Israeli Jews
haven't been wantonly vengeful. The
most infamous incident occurred Feb.
25,1994, during Purim and Ramadan.
Baruch Goldstein, a U.S.-born Israeli
doctor who was part of Israel's far-
right Kach movement, shot to death
29 Palestinian male worshippers and
injured more than 100 at the Ibrahimi
Mosque at the Cave of the Patriarchs
in the holy city of Hebron, touch-
ing off West Bank protests and riots,
some deadly.
More recently, Israel has confronted
and condemned the emergence of
"price tag" attacks by Jewish extrem-
ist settlers and their supporters.
Motivated by hatred, racism and
fanaticism, these assailants commit
malicious vandalism typically in repri-
sal for Israel's freezes on new settle-
ments and demolition of illegal settle-
ments or to exact retribution against
Palestinian attacks on Jews. Moving

4:. .

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August 7 • 2014

forward, Israel's Shin Bet internal
intelligence agency must be given
full control to investigate, capture
and punish before somebody dies in a
"price tag" attack.
Israelis, representing a civilized
society, typically embrace life.
Islamists, representing a revolution-
ary radical political movement among
Muslims, view life as a means to
"martyrdom" in Allah's name. The
upshot: all infidels, all non-believers
of Islamism, are fair game for murder,
revenge or otherwise. Within less-rad-
ical Islamic culture, "honor killings"
allow Muslims to put to
death even relatives who
"tarnish" family or com-
munity honor.

MISSILES OF DEATH
SENT TO ISRAEL

jic:4

AND MESSAGES
OF HATE SENT
TO THE
STREETS OF
WESTERN
COUNTRIES

In Jerusalem District Court on July 17, Israeli police escort one of the Jewish

suspects in the murder of Palestinian teen Mohammed Abu Khdeir.

car

Dry Bones

GAZA, UNDER MAMAS,
HAS DEVELOPED TWO
MAJOR EXPORTS

Vengeance has never
found justification in
a civilized culture.

..,...w ■ '•'..•• ■•■,„

IN THE OLD DAYS
GAZA PRODUCED
FLOWERS AND
ORANGES!

A Swift Response
The revenge killing of
16-year-old Mohammed
Abu Khdeir of east
Jerusalem was random,
but premeditated. Israeli
investigators say the
Israeli Jewish suspects,
who have confessed, kid-
napped the Palestinian
teen and took him to the
Jerusalem forest, where
they beat him till he
was unconscious, then
set him afire. The main
suspect, Yosef Haim Ben-
David, 29, is on trial for
kidnapping and revenge
murder. He announced in
Jerusalem District Court
last week he is "the mes-
siah." He is seeking an
insanity plea.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu pledged an all-out search
for the killers and promised bearing
upon them "the full weight of the
law." In condemning the savageness
and vowing the captured perpetrators
would be brought swiftly to the bar of
justice, Netanyahu echoed the view of
American Jewish organizations across
the political spectrum.
The Israeli leader also spoke with
the slain boy's father, Hussein Abu
Khdeir, saying: "We denounce all bru-
tal behavior. The murder of your son
is abhorrent and cannot be counte-
nanced by any human being."
In another example of Israeli com-
passion, Yishai Fraenkel, uncle of
Naftali Fraenkel, one of the three kid-
napped and murdered Israeli yeshivah
students in the West Bank, also spoke
with Hussein Abu Khdeir. In that
conversation, the two men of vastly
different backgrounds consoled each
other.
Naftali's mother, Rachel, denounced
the self-styled vigilantes who attacked
the Palestinian teen. While mourn-
ing the deaths of her son and fellow
yeshivah students Gilad Shaar and
Eyal Yifrach, she eloquently said: "It
is difficult for me to describe how
distressed we are by the outrage com-
mitted in Jerusalem. The shedding of
innocent blood is against morality, is
against the Torah and Judaism, and is
against the foundation of the lives of
our boys and of all of us in this coun-
try."

Different Worlds
In the Palestinian world, murderers
of Jews become elevated to "martyr-

dom." Considered heroes, they have
public streets or squares named after
them. Schoolchildren are taught to
revere them. In between the Hamas-
driven murders of the three Israeli
yeshivah students and the Israeli-
extremists' murder of the Palestinian
teen, Fatah, the governing party with-
in Palestinian-controlled areas of the
West Bank, posted a Facebook video
promising, "Stop and consider, sons of
Zion, that death is near." That was an
appeal to murder Israeli Jews.
This is in sharp contrast to Israel,
which doesn't differentiate between
terrorists — Arab, Jew or otherwise.
All face justice in a court of law.
Israel has gone so far as to pros-
ecute members of its fighting forces
who felt they were above the law. And
it tries to let Palestinians know, via
text, phone and aerial-dropped leaf-
lets, that air assaults on their neigh-
borhoods are imminent.
If anything, Israel, engaged in a
multi-front battle against competing
Palestinian Arab terrorist factions,
could be accused of being too careful
in wartime and not using its military
advantage to rein in at least Hamas'
military capacity.

Higher Standard

Jewish terror, statistically tiny as it
is in a nation of 8.1 million people,
including 6.1 million Jews, can only
damage Israel in the arena of inter-
national opinion. Palestinian terror-
mongers are noted for routinely
kidnapping and burning perceived
enemies, even among their own. When
Israeli Jews stoop to such atrocities,
they not only sway the headlines away
from Palestinian acts of terror, but
also lower Israel's ethical edge.
Israel is held to a high standard
because it has set the bar of morality
high.
The heinous murder of Mohammad
Abu Khdeir unfortunately gave
Palestinian terrorists — within Hamas
and Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
alike — sufficient moral ammunition
to keep up incitement and violence
against Jews through unrelent-
ing rocket, missile and propaganda
attacks on an already terror-weary
Israel.

❑