Pay back?
The settler community has developed a password for revenge attacks against the Palestinians when violence is used against them. It is called "pay back," and this slogan is scrawled on walls and buildings in the Palestinain areas after there is a revenge attack. Note that the settlers never initiate violence, only carry out revenge for an attack. However, often the Palestinians attacked are innocent of that particular crime.
When the Palestinian terror attack is of national significance, as the heinous murder of a couple and their three young children in Itamar, the Government must react to the crime. In this case, PM Netanyahu not only reacted verbally and condemned the attack in the strongest terms and he visited the survivors of the Fogel family sitting shiva, but he also initiated Government action. He decided to give permits to allow ca. 500 housing units to be built in already existing major towns in Judea or Samaria (the "West Bank"). So now we know what an Israeli life is worth, one hundred housing units! Of course, he could have issued permits for 10,000 units (since there has been a full freeze in effect for several years) or he could have issued none. But, as he said the Zionist response to murder is not to use violence against the perpetrators, but rather to do something positive, to build. This is what the Jewish community here has always done, and that is why there are so many places, villages and towns, named after civilians who have been murdered by Palestinians, such as Kiryat Shmona (City of the "eight"), Ein Hashlosha (well of the "three"), Ma'ale Hahamisha (ascent of the "five"), Halamed hey (the "thirty five"), and so on. Except now the housing units will be scattered among these major settlements rather than in a separate named settlement, thus diffusing the effect.
Is this suitable national "pay back" for this act of terrorist violence? It is hard to say. It already resulted in criticism by the Obama Administration and others as being an inappropriate response to the murder. What would they have us do, send out IDF soldiers to murder a Palestinian family of five in their beds? No, we don't stoop that low. Would it be more acceptable to them if the number of permits had been lower, say 50 instead of 500? Isn't it an immoral political statement to, in the same breath as giving condolences for a horrific crime, to criticize the Government for what is considered here as a really minimal and in many ways inadequate response to such an attack. Well, we have never expected a balanced response from our friends, they are always trying to play both sides of the fence, never really supporting us wholeheartedly. In my opinion and that of most Israelis, this response was a minimal one from the Government, and if such attacks should continue we would hope to see much greater response.
Meanwhile, the PA is being challenged to show that it is not fomenting violence by incitement in school books, in lessons, in the media and in its Arabic statements. Of course, we know that they are, but they hide this in their English statements to the international press. It's time the EU and other liberal organizations stopped paying them to incite the death of Israelis.
When the Palestinian terror attack is of national significance, as the heinous murder of a couple and their three young children in Itamar, the Government must react to the crime. In this case, PM Netanyahu not only reacted verbally and condemned the attack in the strongest terms and he visited the survivors of the Fogel family sitting shiva, but he also initiated Government action. He decided to give permits to allow ca. 500 housing units to be built in already existing major towns in Judea or Samaria (the "West Bank"). So now we know what an Israeli life is worth, one hundred housing units! Of course, he could have issued permits for 10,000 units (since there has been a full freeze in effect for several years) or he could have issued none. But, as he said the Zionist response to murder is not to use violence against the perpetrators, but rather to do something positive, to build. This is what the Jewish community here has always done, and that is why there are so many places, villages and towns, named after civilians who have been murdered by Palestinians, such as Kiryat Shmona (City of the "eight"), Ein Hashlosha (well of the "three"), Ma'ale Hahamisha (ascent of the "five"), Halamed hey (the "thirty five"), and so on. Except now the housing units will be scattered among these major settlements rather than in a separate named settlement, thus diffusing the effect.
Is this suitable national "pay back" for this act of terrorist violence? It is hard to say. It already resulted in criticism by the Obama Administration and others as being an inappropriate response to the murder. What would they have us do, send out IDF soldiers to murder a Palestinian family of five in their beds? No, we don't stoop that low. Would it be more acceptable to them if the number of permits had been lower, say 50 instead of 500? Isn't it an immoral political statement to, in the same breath as giving condolences for a horrific crime, to criticize the Government for what is considered here as a really minimal and in many ways inadequate response to such an attack. Well, we have never expected a balanced response from our friends, they are always trying to play both sides of the fence, never really supporting us wholeheartedly. In my opinion and that of most Israelis, this response was a minimal one from the Government, and if such attacks should continue we would hope to see much greater response.
Meanwhile, the PA is being challenged to show that it is not fomenting violence by incitement in school books, in lessons, in the media and in its Arabic statements. Of course, we know that they are, but they hide this in their English statements to the international press. It's time the EU and other liberal organizations stopped paying them to incite the death of Israelis.
posted by Jack Cohen at 9:44 AM
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