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Vigilance Matters

Ending The
Silence On
Abuse

We must keep sight of Hamas’ destructive intention.

A

gainst the backdrop of
Chanukah, the Jewish holiday
celebrating religious freedom,
Hamas showed once more why it’s an
unadulterated terrorist organization
committed to destroying Israel.
The first Chanukah candle was lit
Dec. 12. On Dec. 9, the Israel Defense
Forces uncovered and blew up a
Hamas tunnel snaking into southern
Israel from Khan Younis in central
Gaza. The IDF
speculated it was a
tunnel with purpose
given the communi-
cations equipment
found inside, the
Jewish news agency
JTA reported.
On Dec. 13, Shin
Robert Sklar
Bet, Israel’s domes-
Contributing Editor
tic security agency,
announced it had
foiled a Hamas plot
to kidnap an Israeli soldier or settler
from a bus stop near Nablus in the
West Bank during Chanukah. Back
in October, Israeli law enforcement
arrested three West Bank Palestinians
believed tied to the abduction plot.
A gag order held announcement of
the plot until the same day investiga-
tors forwarded their findings to state
prosecutors.
These two incidents as well as
stepped-up rocket attacks emanating
from Gaza underscore the abrupt end
to the relative calm along the Israel-
Gaza border following a ceasefire in
the 2014 Israel-Hamas war.

CAPITALIZING

There’s no mistaking that Hamas
used U.S. President Donald Trump’s
Dec. 6 rooted-in-reality acknowledg-
ment that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital
to reinforce a charter aim to obliter-
ate the Jewish state.
It’s folly to think Hamas could ever
be a rational peace partner along
with Fatah, the supposedly moderate
Palestinian faction governing much
of the West Bank, in pursuit of a two-
state solution to the conflict between
Israel and the Palestinian people.
After demolishing the Khan Younis
tunnel by deploying a new, sophis-
ticated process, the IDF declared
it would continue to “discover and
destroy tunnels in order to defend
and protect Israeli civilians.” The IDF
insisted military might would be used
only as a defense, not to escalate ten-
sion along the Israel-Gaza border.
The abduction plot was the work
of a Hamas cell operating from a
Palestinian village near Nablus. Shin

It’s folly to think Hamas could ever be
a rational peace partner along with
Fatah in pursuit of a two-state solution.

Bet teamed with the Israel Police
and the IDF to disrupt the cell before
three members, all in their 20s, could
“disguise themselves as local Jewish
residents and entice a victim to enter
their vehicle,” according to Shin Bet.

GAZA CONNECTIONS

Meanwhile, at least 18 rockets have
been launched from Gaza since
Trump’s Jerusalem announcement.
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system
is proving its worth.
On Dec. 8, one of three rockets fired
from Gaza damaged a kindergarten
entryway in the southern Israeli town
of Sderot. Another rocket landed on
a residential street. The Iron Dome
intercepted a third. No one was hurt
by those rockets or by another round
fired Dec. 17, but that doesn’t dimin-
ish the danger. Israel’s retaliatory air
strikes on terrorist military instal-
lations in Gaza killed two Hamas
operatives.
Hamas’ long reach extended to
New York City on Dec. 11. The sus-
pect in a midtown Manhattan pipe
bomb attack, a 27-year-old Brooklyn
resident of Bangladeshi origin, told
investigators he was inspired by the
terrorist organization Islamic State.
He also said he was enraged over an
unspecified Israeli “incursion” into
Hamas-led Gaza, CNN reported.
The pipe bomb detonated prema-
turely in an underground passage-
way linking the Times Square sub-
way station with the Port Authority
Bus Terminal, injuring the attacker
and three others.
After Gaza-originating mortar
shells eluded soldiers working in
southern Israel on Nov. 30, Israeli
tanks and planes targeted four
Hamas positions in Gaza. No one
was killed. Israel believes the mor-
tar assault was in reaction to Israel’s
Oct. 30 destruction of another Khan
Younis terror tunnel. In that strike,
the IDF killed 14 Palestinians, many
part of the terrorist organization
Islamic Jihad,
Groups other than Hamas often
fire rockets, but Israel justifiably
attributes any terrorist activity
inside Gaza to the organization rul-
ing the coastal strip.

ELUSIVE PEACE

Hamas is a proxy of Iran, a state spon-
sor of terror, so Trump’s Jerusalem
pronouncement had no bearing on
the Shiite Muslim organization. Like a
jungle cat in hiding, Hamas was wait-
ing for the opportunity to intensify
the hunt against its perceived enemy:
Zionism and its supporters.
Meanwhile, Fatah not only boasts
its own terrorist wing, Al Aqsa
Martyrs Brigades, but also cites its
disgust with Trump in a renewed
push to seek Palestinian statehood
via international channels such as the
United Nations, not by direct, bilat-
eral talks with Israel.
Such talks represent the only
authentic conduit for bringing
Israeli-Palestinian recognition of
the prospect of a Jewish state and a
Palestinian state living side by side
in peace with safe, secure borders.
Dual recognition could set the stage
for addressing such tougher, deeply
entangled issues as borders, security,
settlements, refugees, holy rights,
water rights, longstanding claims
and, yes, Jerusalem.
It’ll take a cultural sea change not
just in the de facto Palestinian capi-
tals of Ramallah and Gaza City, but
also in Jerusalem for the two-state
solution to regain the traction it had
in 2000, 2001 and 2008 when Israel
and the U.S. made generous land
offers in exchange for peace with the
Palestinian Authority (P.A.).
Israel must demonstrate a willing-
ness to negotiate certain autonomous
rights of rule in the Arab-dominated
neighborhoods of the eastern sec-
tor of Jerusalem. For their part,
Palestinian leaders somehow must
move beyond fixating on Donald
Trump to realize a better of way of life
can only emerge through a peace that
resonates from the Jordan River to
the Mediterranean Sea.
While the U.S. can still play the role
of peace broker if Trump can deliver
a strategic plan that convinces both
Israel and the P.A. that compromise
can be beneficial, it’s important to
remember that Saudi Arabia, Jordan
and Egypt, all largely Sunni Muslim
with varying ties to Israel and the U.S.,
also have the capacity to intervene. •

I

n the last two months, the avalanche
of stories about sexual abuse and
harassment has touched virtually
every sector of American society. The rev-
elations about deeply troubling behavior
on the part of politicians, journalists and
figures in the entertain-
ment world have trans-
fixed the country.
As more victims come
forward to tell their sto-
ries, the consequences
have gone beyond the
disgrace of some promi-
nent individuals, the
Jonathan S.
end of careers and, in
Tobin
Alabama, a surprising
election result. What
began with a shock-
ing story about movie
mogul Harvey Weinstein has led to what
may well be a crucial turning point in the
way sexual misconduct is viewed.
We are no longer in an era in which
all forms of abuse — be it violent crime,
abuse of minors as well as unwanted
physical touching, abusive verbal com-
ments and forms of pressure — that might
have once been viewed as permissible if
unpleasant behavior can be ignored or
dismissed.
Under these circumstances, it is only
to be expected that some of these stories
would involve the Jewish community.
This week’s JNS feature by Elizabeth Kratz
concerning alleged abuse carried out by
a since-retired United Synagogue Youth
(USY) director follows the same pattern of
the rest of the #metoo scandals. (Read it
at thejewishnews.com.)
A powerful person used his position
to carry out sexual abuse, in this case,
against minors. The victims felt unable
to step forward at the time, both because
of the shame they were made to feel by
the predator and also because they felt
nobody in a position to do something
about it would listen. Organizations that
should have been on guard against abuse
were, like the rest of society, not listening
or indifferent about what was going on
under their noses.
The Conservative movement respon-
sible for the USY program in question was
not alone in this respect as such scandals
have, in one form or another, touched
other Jewish denominations. To its credit,
the United Synagogue of Conservative
Judaism appears now to have taken
appropriate action, not only to sever
any ties with alleged abusers, but also to
ensure, as much as it is possible, that simi-
lar misconduct doesn’t recur.
This story is so similar to numerous

continued on page 10

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December 28 • 2017

jn