Mosque attack

On Monday night there was an attack on a Mosque in the West Bank village of Beit Fajjar. The carpets were set afire and several copies of the Koran were deliberately burned. Also, messages were written in Hebrew on the walls, including "payback," that is a code used by extremist settlers to indicate their revenge for attacks against Jews. It should be remembered that 4 Jews were murdered in a car attack a few weeks ago, and two more settlers were injured in another attack last week. However, that is not to justify this Mosque attack.

PM Netanyahu "strongly condemned" the attack on the Mosque, as did most of the Israeli political establishment, and today a delegation of local Rabbis and settlers visited the Mosque to apologise for the attack and brought replacement Korans with them. They were received in friendship by the Imam of the Mosque and there was no violence or demonstrations. However, In Gaza, under Hamas control, there was a demonstration that called for revenge from all the Muslim world.

There are extremists on both sides and we can expect such attacks to continue. However, I like to point out the differences between us and them. Their terrorists commit murder against our civilians, while our extremists burn books and carpets (not even the building was damaged). While our political leaders and civil society condemns such attacks on houses of worship, their leader barely condemns terrorist attacks. Pres. Abbas has said that such terrorist attacks do not advance the Palestinian cause, but he does not condemn them as morally wrong. They still name streets and buildings after their "shaheeds" (martyrs). Until they change their basic culture they will not be on a level with the majority of civilized opinion in Israel.