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| Scene of a terrorist attack near Chevon (JTA) |
Shay Nigreker, 60, and his son Aviad Nir, 28, had traveled to the Palestinian town from their home in Ashdod to do errands when they were shot to death while at a gas station. The town was the site of riots by Jewish settlers in February after two Jewish brothers were shot to death there.
An Israeli woman was killed and her driver injured in a shooting attack outside Hebron.
I have long urged my fellow coreligionists to stay away from dangerous neighborhoods. Placing oneself in a Makom Sakana (dangerous place) is against Halacha. It doesn’t matter whether we are talking about Chicago’s West side of Israel’s West Bank.
Unfortunately this kind of common sense advice is ignored in Israel by Jews who view settling all parts of Eretz Yisroel as an obligation to be acted upon regardless of the consequences. As I have said many times, the Mitzvah of settling all parts of Israel does not override the requirement to avoid dangerous places. One may not put themselves in harm’s way for that purpose.
Settlers and their supporters counter with what has become a virtual mantra: Jews might as well stay away from Tel Aviv then, since the Arabs want that land too. But as I constantly say, as true as that may be, there is not a doubt in my mind that Judea and Sumeria (the West Bank) is by far more prone to terrorist murders of innocent Jews than is Tel Aviv. Anyone that denies that is either lying or deluded.
They will also say that there are major differences between Chicago’s West Side and Israel’s West Bank. There is no Mitzvah to live in the former while there s clearly a Mitzvah to live in the latter. That too is true. But that Mitzvah is to be avoided in matters of Pikuach Nefeseh. Which is why the majority of Charedi religious leaders do not agree with living in those areas. Preserving one’s life overrides that Mitzvah.
Had those 3 poor souls stayed away form those areas, they would still be alive. I say this not to hurt bereaved family members who may read these words (unlikely though that may be). It is simply to point out that sad reality as a means of warning others.
That being said, innocent Jewish blood has been spilled by vicious Palestinian murderers who do not value life. It doesn’t matter that they have serious grievances. Murdering innocent people is not the way to address those greivances. Pursuing justice demands that the killers be found and suffer the consequences of their actions. I don’t think anyone would disagree with that.
Problem is, finding these killers may be a near impossibility. So what can be done to best end these murders?
In my view Israel needs to take a much harder line on Palestinian terrorism. Jewish blood should not come cheap. This does not mean exacerbating the problem with settler pogroms. Like the one that happened in Huwara recently. That too is unjust and will only make matters worse.
Israel does however need more military operations like the recent one in Jenin. Israeli intelligence is among the best in the world. They know who those terrorists are and where they are hiding.
Their military ought to go into every nook and cranny of every suspected hotbed of Palestinian terrorism and smash it to bits, and shoot to kill anyone that gets in their way.
What about world opinion? Any fair minded nation will understand what Israel is doing. They will understand that Israel is not there to kill innocent people. They will be there to stop terrorist strongholds from killing innocent Jews. Any nation that says otherwise is either stupid or blinded by an ancient antisemitism inherited from their forefathers.
What about politicians like Omar, Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez, and Sanders? They can twist what Israel does into a narrative that suits their anti Israel bias - all they want. But no one can blame a sovereign nation form doing whatever it takes to protect its citizens.
What about the legitimate issue of Palestinian suffering? There is a simple (albeit thus far - unreachable) solution to that. All that needs to happen is for them to stop trying to kill Jews. How that will be assured? The devil is in the details and of course way beyond my pay scale. But clearly Israel would not harm a single Palestinian soul if it were not for the constant attacks against its people by Jihadist terrorists. Where giving up their lives in the belief that it is highest form of service to God. Until that kind of thinking is eliminated from the narrative of Palestinian leadership, nothing will change.
If they would stop trying to kill Jews, they could actually have their state. Until then Israel needs to continue and even increases its hard line measures if it wishes to stop or at least reduce the kind of murder that happened in the West Bank over the least few days.
Israelis staying out of dangerous places and increasing Israel’s crackdown against Palestinian terrorism are not mutually exclusive measures. In my view, both are necceray if Israel is to continue to be a just society that places the highest of value on the life of its citizens
