The first is the mass celebration of many Palestinians that occurred when an Israeli citizen was murdered this week. This is normal behavior in Palestine, though I am sure not all Palestinians are so joyful.
In this case the Israeli was Dvir Sorek, an 18-year-old yeshiva scholar who was murdered by Palestinian terrorists last week. (He died of multiple stab wounds.) By all accounts he was a good soul, as the article from the Jerusalem Post below reports (click on screenshot).
Two suspects are in custody, one of them a Hamas activist.
From The Times of Israel:
Dvir Sorek, a yeshiva student enrolled in a program combining Torah study with military service, left his seminary in the West Bank settlement of Migdal Oz Wednesday to head to Jerusalem to buy books — a gift for a teacher.
The 18-year-old, whose birthday is next week, never returned.
In the early hours of Thursday morning, his body was discovered on the side of a road leading into the settlement, riddled with stab wounds. He was not in uniform at the time of his death, the army said. Authorities were treating the killing as a terror attack.
“He was found clutching the books that he’d bought,” Rabbi Shlomo Wilk, the head of the Migdal Oz seminary Machanayim, said Thursday morning, as word of Sorek’s murder was met with shock and sadness by those who knew him.
“He was an amazing man, very sensitive, smart, modest, who fused wisdom and quiet… This is a man who at the beginning of the year saw an Arab walking around the area with a donkey that looked unwell, sick, so he offered to buy the donkey. He bought it, treated it, and sent it away,” Rabbi Sarel Rosenblatt, who taught Sorek, told Channel 12 news.
Now if you wanted to excuse his killing, you could say that Dvir was preparing to be in the Israeli Defense Forces, but I seriously doubt the killers knew that. After all, when he was stabbed he was dressed as he was below, with the sidelocks and yarmulke, not in uniform. How could he be distinguished from any religious Jew who wasn’t in that IDF program? (It goes without saying that I don’t adhere to the superstitions that Dvir was studying, but that makes no difference about the immorality of his murder and the shamefulness of celebrating it.)
At any rate, who would celebrate the stabbing death of a kid like this? You know who.
How sick and vile is this?
Palestinians at Birzeit University near Ramallah handing out candy to celebrate the brutal stabbing murder today of 19 year old Israeli student #DvirSorek. pic.twitter.com/s2QBfRyoyb
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) August 8, 2019
Another form of inexcusable behavior is the well known “pay for slay” program of the Palestinian Authority (no, not Hamas), whereby those terrorists who kill Israelis, and either die as suicide bombers or are put in jail, receive large amounts of money from the PA, which goes to their families. (I believe that about 6% of the PA’s budget goes for these goulish emoluments.)
On August 9, 2001, Palestinian terrorists perpetrated a suicide bombing on the Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem. It was a bad one: 15 civilians were killed, including 7 children and a pregnant woman, and 130 people were wounded. These were just people out to enjoy a pizza. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility; 8 terrorists were found responsible, including the bombmaker, the guy who blew himself up along with everyone else, and Ahlam Tamimi, the woman who scouted the location. (She was let go in an exchange of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, many of them convicted terrorists who committed more terrorism after their release, in return for a single Israeli soldier!)
Tamimi and all the others got their “pay for slay” money, of course, and on the anniversary this year, the total amount paid to the perpetrators of the attack was calculated by Palestinian Media Watch (click on screenshot below). It’s nearly a million dollars now, and continues to grow.
Tamimi now lives in Jordan, and since one American (a pregnant woman) was killed in the attack, she was charged by the U.S. in 2013 with using a weapon of mass destructions to kill Americans outside the U.S. But since Jordan has no extradition treaty with the U.S. for terrorists (although they do for other lawbreakers), she can’t be brought to the U.S. for trial. She shows no remorse for the slaughter, and in fact hosts a television show in Jordan that spreads hatred of Israel and the Jews.
Such is the behavior of the Palestinian Authority (considered the lesser of two evils when compared to Hamas!) vis-à-vis the murder of Israeli civilians. Can anyone defend “pay for slay”? Because the whole purpose of the program is to incite the murder of civilians and to create “martyrs.” If you know your family will be taken care of if you’re killed or imprisoned in a terrorist attack, you’re more likely to commit one. A more inhumane program I cannot imagine.
The victims and the terrorists, along with the dosh paid to the latter by the Palestinian Authority (from the PMW page):
“Can anyone defend “pay for slay”?”
No, no-one can defend it, or at least no-one morally reasonable. So the only other option is to acknowledge it…or ignore it. The latter’s much easier.
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https://imgur.com/x64VhlU
I doubt this madness will ever end.
As I’ve said so many times before, imagine if Mexico was constantly firing rockets into US towns in the border, killing civilians and having their government pay the families money and the people celebrating, hiding missile launchers In hospitals and schools, using civilians as human shields, digging tunnels to get to the US and kill the first civilian Christian they see, etc. Just imagine the outcry thay would be heard around the world. Imagine if it was happening to another country, like Greece from Turkey, or Turkey from Bulgaria. The surrounding countries would be doing everything the could to help eradicate the terrorism.
If this was happening to any other country, there would be nobody of note saying that occasional incursions into the Mexican land around the border to take out terrorist cells and missile launchers was murder or genocide. There wouldn’t be a movement to condemn the US as an “apartheid state.” The UN Human Rights Council wouldn’t make over half of its resolutions since 2004 about the US’ horrifying brutality. In fact, the US could probably launch a full-scale war/invasion against Mexico and most of the academics, politicians, activists, and media yelling about Israel would still see it as justified, or at least entirely understandable.
If this was happening to literally any other nation, the reaction we see against Israel is unimaginable. Yet here we are, and the only difference I can see is that Israel is the one Jewish nation on Earth. The amount of restraint the Israeli government has shown over the years is remarkable, as is the amount of money they’ve put into becoming the world leader in developing technology and tactics to minimize civilian casualties during strikes. And it’s not as if Israel is some giant world superpower; it’s smaller than New Jersey.
Yet here we are.
So true. I believe that part of it with the UN is about pleasing Muslim countries so they will stay members and then they will have a small amount of control over them. It’s about the appalling human rights records, especially in relation to women and LGBT people, of Muslim countries, and efforts to bring those countries into the 21st century. Israel is a very,very unfair casualty of that effort.
I wish I could believe that, but the Council is pretty farcical. It’s a rotating committee. According to Wikipedia, “The Council consists of 47 members, elected yearly by the General Assembly for staggered three-year terms. Members are selected via the basis of equitable geographic rotation using the United Nations regional grouping system. Members are eligible for re-election for one additional term, after which they must relinquish their seat.”
Between 2017 and 2019, among the 47 countries on the panel were Saudi Arabia, China, Afghanistan, “Democratic” “Republic of the” Congo, Iraq, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, Qatar, and Pakistan. Not exactly the world-beaters in human rights (I don’t know if that was a funny pun or a sad pun. You’ll have to decide).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Human_Rights_Council#Structure
I’m talking about the UN as a whole, not individual committees.
Apologies. That was meant to be a regular comment, not a reply
There is no other action that is not unconscionable but to declare the Palestinian Authority a terrorist organisation, if they will persist with these payments.
I have difficulty in seeing another path.
Because phenomena like this doggedly persist in so many forma despite all dedicated efforts down through the years and even the centuries to dissuade people from such behavior…
…the more pessimistic might have good reason to wonder much of the time…
…if there might be a fatal flaw in humanity generally, if not all of its members,…
…that will one day terminate with extreme prejudice the entire human race…
…before global warming and/or global thermonuclear war get the chance to do this.
I have checked if the mainstream media indeed ignore the fact that the Palestinians handed out candies to celebrate the murder. As far as online media sources are concerned, unfortunately Jerry is correct. The celebrations are mentioned almost exclusively by the Jewish and the conservative Christian media.
Next to the body of the murdered Israeli yeshiva pupil, Dvir Sorek, there was a book by the famous left-wing Israeli author David Grossman. I am left-wing too, and this really broke my heart.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-palesting-gaza-occupation-conflict-hamas-blockade-gaza-tensions-islamic-militants-a9051231.html
There are several colleges in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank (interestingly, all formed under Israeli rule, and none under the previous Jordanian Arab rule). One might wonder whether the widespread Palestinian celebration and incitement of murder will lead a single western idealist to call for boycott of Palestinian academic institutions. It would be unwise to hold one’s breath waiting for this development.
“This is normal behavior in Palestine, though I am sure not all Palestinians are so joyful.”
Yes — those who are disgusted by the killing and celebration of it would be faced with the choice between accepting a sweet or risking having their lives ruined or ended, for failing to comply with the prescribed emotions that all Palestinians must feel — as prescribed by the PA and leftist antisemites.
Trump seems to hate Muslims in general, so I wonder why the Palestinian Authority hasn’t been declared a terrorist organisation. This would also seem to appeal to has loyal supporters. So, why hasn’t this taken place? Any ideas out there?
He doesn’t know what the Palestinian Authority is, wouldn’t be able to pronounce it and would have fallen asleep by the time anyone had pronounced both words together.
(He’s heard of Jerusalem and likes the idea of putting an embassy there, and likes it even more if ti makes the left angry, but doesn’t know what an embassy is either.)
None of the above is meant as a joke. Many (present company excepted) still haven’t figured out the extent of his ignorance, or rather, the smallness of his knowledge base (not to mention the narrowness of his range of comfortable behaviours — hence the thumbs up for an orphaned baby: he thought he was being nice.)
It’s because much of the world sees the PA as a government of a country (even though Palestine isn’t a country). Hamas is a designated terrorist organization, as are multiple governments that provide material and financial support to Hamas and various other Palestinian organizations devoted to the same goals (and which are also all designated as terrorist organizations).
If the Trump or any other administration wanted to slap a terrorism label on the PA, it would likely use the “State Sponsor of Terrorism” label, so as not to offend various other countries and people, including many allies. But to do this would be to recognize the PA as a legitimate government of a legitimate country, so this won’t happen either.
The never-ending blood-lust is frightening.
Bitterly sad. I remember reading something about the ruthlessness of Arabs stemming from their roots as a nomadic herding society. Something about their historic vulnerability to attack by bandits. Perhaps demonizing the enemy and sanctioning atrocities is intended to dissuade the enemy from attacking in the first place. In a modern setting, it seems grotesque.
“The actions … taken by the Palestinian Authority and many Palestinians, are ignored by the Western press. I don’t know why, exactly, except that perhaps it doesn’t fit the liberal narrative of “Israel bad/Palestine good”. But I wish more people knew about them, because if Israel (or the U.S.) engaged in this kind of behavior, it would be trumpeted and shamed from the rooftops. When Palestinians commit these acts, they are quietly shelved in the newsroom.”
Apologies if I have posted this before, but it is the best explanation I have run across for why the media is so biased about news coming from the Middle East.
In a nutshell, it is because news organizations have had their budgets slashed budgets to the bone, offering an insidious opportunity to propagandists with huge financial backing. Lovely folks like, perhaps, Qatar, who have spent $1.5 billion subverting Middle East studies departments.
Here is a video of an eyewitness to the subversion of the world’s news bureau feeds by antiZionist elements whose funding is unknown. It’s revelatory and worth the watch. It starts with an example of Pallywood, but then moves on to the news bureau feed infiltration.
Sickening. The world should condemn this, but it stays silent and sits on its hands, like it did when jews were being murdered by nazis before the war. Does anyone doubt how jews would fare under the one state solution?
If the NY Times can report on the criminal trial of a U.S. rapper in Europe, and the Trump Administration sending a diplomatic envoy to undertake the arduous duty of sitting in the courtroom to “monitor” the trial; and run articles and letters sympathetic to distracted parents who leave their helpless infants to die in hot cars, the Times can trouble itself report on this heinous murder.
Every killing is deplorable, but Dvir was a soldier on an occupied territory. Regardless of what you think about Israel’s right to the West Bank you have to agree that the local Palestinians are devoid of any civil rights so they have a right to resist by use of force. You assume the attackers did not know Dvir was a soldier but you are probably wrong – the locals know all too well abut these pre military Yeshivas – actually a misdemeanor
since the students actually join the army at age 18. Accordingly Dvir was buried as a soldier.
In the last years it seems more of the Palestinian attacks are directed against Israeli armed forces (including police)as opposed to citizens. As much as I would like to see all killings stop, this is somewhat better than what used to be the frequent targets of choice (e.g. Sbarro).
D.D.: I am an Israeli citizen.
As an Israeli citizen you know better than I do that both murderers were from Beit Kahil, a Palestinian town under the rule of Palestinian Authority. If they do not have any rights you should blame Palestinian Authority, not Israel.
I wonder how you came to the conclusion that Palestinian terrorist are directing their attacks against soldiers and not civilians. Only from september 2018 following people were killed by Palestinians: Ari Fuld (450, Ziv Hajbi (35), Kim Levengrod (29), baby Ish-Ran (4 days old, its mother wounded but survived), Moshe Fedor (68), Moshe Agdi (58), Achiad Ettinger (47) Ori Ansbacher (19) (there are more, this is just an example). Soldiers?
And, as an Israeli, you should know better than I why there are no more massacres like Sbarro. It’s not any kind of Palestinian decision to stop targeting civilians – it’s because there is a security barrier now and it’s not easy do come with a load of explosives into Israel.
And how was it before 1967, before 1948, before the first influx of modern Zionists into the area in 19th century? Were all the attacks and all the killing of Palestinian Jews by Palestinian Arabs because of the “occupation”?
I don’t think there is much pint in going into the roots of the conflict, some 150 years ago, and I don’t deny that terror was used just about from the start of the Zionist immigration. Actually my own grandmother was almost killed and had to flee her home in the 1929 Safed massacre (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1929_Safed_riots), many years before the establishment of the state of Israel.
Needless to say, I don’t support terror by any means.
That, however, is not the point I made.
Unfortunately you are totally right: citizens are still targeted and all to often die from Palestinians terrorists attacks. However the statistics *seem* (as I carefully wrote) to change in the less horrifying direction. I don’t have the numbers so I might be wrong, but I do follow the daily news and many of the attacks in the last years are aimed at soldiers and policemen (policepersons?). I don’t think the wall plays such a big role for a couple of reasons: first it is far from being airtight and many Palestinians cross it on a daily basis, and second even when there are citizens in the vicinity of the attackers, many times they target the soldiers nearby (again: not always, but more than 10 years ago or so, unless my memory plays tricks with me. I guess I should really try to find out the stats but it’s not an easy task. For some reason the sources available to me do not aggregate by that category). It is within this context that I thought it was worth mentioning that Dvir Sorek was a soldier (and at the same time a very good, decent person by what I hear). If I came out as being insensitive to the grief many feel it was not intended.
Well, both according to the statistics of killed Israelis (decrease of over 90% after security barrier was built), Israeli security agencies and even terrorists themselves (I can’t find now statements I read a few years ago both from Hamas, and Fatah, saying how much more difficult it was now to infiltrate Israel and cerry out “quality operations”). So, yes, I firmly believe that the security barrier played a huge rol in making Israelis safer.
We will probably never agree about the importance of history.
It is hard not to respond with overwhelming violence when faced with this degree of brutality day to day for decades. Israel should be praised for its restraint.