I’m totally dispirited by the killing of the three teenagers and by the Israeli government’s (and the Jewish organizations here) ugly reaction to it. Ugly and political, designed to justify the war against Hamas that Netanyahu lusts for.
Credit: Creative Commons
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s response was perhaps the most repulsive response to an event like this that I have ever seen by any national leader of a civilized country. He vows “revenge.” Revenge? Not Even George W. Bush used that term after 9/11, pledging instead to bring the people who committed the crime to justice. FDR after Pearl Harbor? The parents after Newtown?
Meanwhile other Israeli politicians and Jewish organizations here are in their “we are one” mode which means standing together as Netanyahu blasts innocent Palestinians, and pretending that the settlement enterprise is not responsible for almost all of this.
Disgusting.
There is no Israeli action I would not support against those who perpetrated the crimes, ordered it or harbored the killings–and no act of collective punishment I would support. Collective punishment is a war crime and those whose inflict it should be tried and convicted, nothing less.
Of course, that didn’t stop Begin, Sharon, Olmert and Barak. Or the terror leaders who order bombings in Israel, as in 2000-2003.
And then there are the anti-semitic websites (excuse me, “anti-Zionist”) which cannot refer to the dead teenagers without calling them settlers, just as the Israeli right calls all Palestinians “terrorists.” No, they are kids. Their parents took them to the West Bank. It wasn’t their choice. As I keep saying: children have no agency. Parents, including stupid and reckless parents, make their decisions for them. Like moving to a settlement on land snatched from Palestinians. Or hiding Hamas weapons in the basement of a house they live in.
And Hamas, with whom I favor negotiating (yes, even now, especially now) which probably had nothing to do with the crime but celebrates it, which is as immoral as it is stupid.
100 years after French, Germans and Brits happily marched off to a war which ultimately (including in its inevitable sequel), killed 100 million people, the fools are doing it again. Hooray for our team. Let’s kill to stop the killing.
And the children die.
I am on nobody’s side–except all people who say NO to this insanity.
And those three dead teenagers, and their counterparts on “the other side.” All the same.All kids. All innocent.
I agree with you completely! I thought revenge was wrong in our religion. In any case we don’t know who the killers were. Some say ISIS. So is Israel now going to attack Iraq as well???
Well said.
Rosenberg is illiterate in Judaism. Whenever a non-Jew murders a Jew, on his tombstone it is inscribed in Hebrew “Hashem Yinkom Domo” (“May God avenge his blood”). If Rosenberg doesn’t like this, he is free to convert to Christianity, the “religion of love.”
As the writer, editor, and publisher of the Argentum Post, and as a son of survivors of the Nazi crimes against the humanity of Jews and several others, I cannot but abhor the egregious, criminal, and counter-productive behavior and actions of PM Netanyahu who confessed (documentably) as I have written about in the Argentum Post, that he was proud to have sabotaged that Oslo peace talks.
Netanyahu is guilty of crimes against the humanity of Palestinians and in an ideal world he will eventually have to be brought before the International Criminal Court. His obsessive and constant incitement for military action against Iran coupled to his support of the settlers violations of international law all the while cynically and dishonestly trying to appear to be a participant in peace talks, should suffice for decent, rationalists and humanists Israelis to remove him from the leadership position which he as abused for too long.
I agree completely US government should stop supporting PM Netanyahu’s government.
6 suspects in the murder in the murder teen have been arrested. The kidnappersand murders of the Israel teens are still at large and the PA are not making any effort in helping find them. Why is that? Dsmn Nazi Jews
Stan, it is because of the distortion of historic events, the re-growing hatred of Israel and the jews, and the fact that sympathy for the Palestinian “cause”- distorted beyond all reason – elevates Israeli atrocities (if and when they exist; that’s another matter) and trivialises Palestinian atrocities so that the latter barely rate a whimper in the press or in bloggs, other than to blame jews for their own losses at Palestinian hands.
There is no justification for murdering a child. Or for murdering 3 children. Both are heinous crimes. Both should receive the same outrage in the press and in bloggs. But it doesn’t happen. It won’t happen.
Yes violence from both sides should be abhorred. But don’t forget it is Israel occupying Palestinians, not the other way around.
Killing is a sin ,reconciliation is great, but none of the wishfull thinking will take place till justice is implemented . We know what Israel intentions toward the Palestinians is ,as we see the facts on the grounds for the last 100 years and still going. What else do we need to understand beside that there is a huge case of injustice here, and till this is corrected, this types of atrocities that strip us from our humanity will just continue and will damage the victims and the perpetraiteros . Lets be real and raise our voices for justice not just words of sympathy while crimes continue to occur in this very imbalanced conflict.