By Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, issued this statement (Ynet News);
"The phenomenon of taking the law into one's hands and violent and brutal rioting is intolerable, and will receive an immediate response by the law enforcement authorities," Olmert said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. "There will be no pogroms against non-Jewish residents in the State of Israel," he added.
"A terror attack took place over the weekend in northern Samaria against a Yitzhar resident. A terrorist entered the community, a young boy was injured and there was an attempt to carry out a more severe attack. This is a serious and grave matter.
"The security forces are handling this issue and will reach anyone involved in this attack. They will do all that is needed and everything they do on a regular basis in a dignified manner," the prime minister said.
While I am sure the Palestinian population has breathed a sigh of relief that there is no ‘official policy of pogroms against non-Jewish residents in the State of Israel’ I am still not clear if the open season on Jews has been ended – just think Amona.
And while I appreciate the reassurance that the security forces are handling the issue, I would like to suggest the ‘settlers’ might not be inclined to ‘riot’ if a security force officer in charge of guarding the settlement did more than shout at the Palestinian terrorist responsible for the attack.
Maybe it is me, but shouting just doesn’t seem like an ‘adequate’ response nor do I believe it would it inspire confidence in the state’s ability to protect anyone. In fact, I would argue that the limp wristed directives issued from the political echelon to the security forces in recent years is directly responsible for the frustration many Israeli civilians feel when faced with Palestinan terror. If the state will not actively protect you, rightly or wrongly; why should the laws of the state compel or limit your actions?
What is lost in the rush to demonize the rioting settlers by Israeli media and politicians is the actual terror act which was the event which triggered the rioting, and if a mere 9 year old boy had not confronted and wrestled with a Palestinian terrorist, the events proceeding the rioting could have been substantially more horrific. As it stands, I stand in awe of the courage of a 9 year old Israeli boy who was stabbed five times and then thrown 12 feet off a balcony.
Arutz Sheva carries the story:
The story began at 6:30 a.m. when an Arab terrorist reached the outskirts of Yitzhar, located 22 miles east of Herzliya, and set fire to the Ben Shlomo residence. The family was out of town celebrating the grandmother's birthday, at the time of the arson.Watch the interview here.
Next door neighbor Revital Ofan woke up to the crackling of the flames, and to the sound of the Arab terrorist trying to prow his way through the plastic blinds on her bedroom window. She shut the blinds from inside the house, and secured the front door. In the meantime, the nine-year-old neighbor Tovia came running to her house to wake her family and warn them of the approaching fire. But, before Tovia could reach the Ofan's door, he met the terrorist.
In the above video, Mrs. Ofan tells of the brave fight that he put up, before being stabbed 5 times by the Arab.
In other news, kassams were again launched via the Gaza Strip into Israel. The official Israeli response is to close the border crossing into Israel for 24 hours...as if that would discourage an incoming kassam.
2 comments:
Well, re that "shouting but not shooting" story - it appears only in Arutz 7, which is not the most reliable source. I doubt that the big papers would have missed it if it were true.
On the other hand, you may be interested in this:
http://www.zionism-israel.com/log/archives/00000601.html
Cheers.
Interesting article and it certainly brings to light a great deal of what I have been watching and reading in the last few years. While I would concur a divided house cannot stand, the fact remains the larger political echelon is committed to the path of its own impotency and bears a great deal of responsibility for the current situation in the disputed territories.
In the last six months reports have surfaced of Israelis developing their own homemade rockets – this would have been unthinkable in the past but I sense a larger pattern here.
Larger and larger pockets of Israelis are either being sympathetic to civil disobedience or actively promoting the establishment of a second Jewish state. While I would concede the establishment of a second state is a fringe thing at best; it is an idea which also was unthinkable in the past nor would it have been even uttered within the public domain but now it is. Furthermore, the cynical use of the demonization process towards the settler and religious population by the media and political echelon will only hasten a vast disconnect within Israeli society.
If anything, the greatest threat to the Israeli state has never been external enemies but e(in)ternal ones. What is needed is a political leader with the wherewithal to unite all fractions within the Israeli state. My Lubavitch brethren would probably suggest now is the time we should all pray the day of redemption is at hand…although I would be just as content to see a politico rise with real political vision and purpose, who definitely lacks any feeling for or sense graft.
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