It is with this in mind that I question an NBC story about
an American citizen allegedly beaten to death by settlers in the West Bank
while visiting relatives. According to the report, when the ambulance that had
been called arrived, it was blocked by settlers for three hours before being
allowed to proceed and attend to the victim.
I have no idea what precipitated this violent incident. Or why the ambulance was blocked. The
settlers may have been acting in self-defense. Which is what they always claim
in cases like this. It could very well be that they are completely innocent of
any wrongdoing, and that the Palestinians interviewed skewed the account to
make it appear as random, unprovoked violence when in fact it may have been
nothing of the kind.
But I also wouldn’t be surprised if this self-defense claim
is completely false or at least not the full story. The truth is, we just don’t
know. And we can’t trust the media to report on this event without their
typical anti-Israel bias.
First, the media uses the word ‘settlers’ as referring to anyone living in Judea and Samaria. Always in a pejorative sense. That would mean Yeshivat Har Etzion is part of the settler movement. I’m sorry. I do not think of Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, Rav Yehuda Amital. the entire Gush student body and faculty as a settlers. Nor do I see anyone living Efrat or the Old City of Jerusalem that way.
What we should be talking about are the gun toting extremists who
set up makeshift outposts near Arab villages in deep into Yehuda and Shomron. Whose philosophy is to restore
Jewish sovereignty over every inch of Eretz Yisrael by any means necessary,
legal or not. They intentionally set up outposts near Arab villages to
encourage the local population to leave. And in some cases, they have been
known to commit violent acts for that purpose. Often using revenge as a pretext
to torch homes or rampage through Palestinian towns. This has happened more
often than many of us would like to admit, and often with the support or tacit
approval of some extremist right-wing members of the Israeli government.
I don’t know how many settlers fall into that category. But one
is too many.
These extremists are ideologues who are meticulous in their
observance of mitzvot. Much the same as the extremists known as Neturei Karta.
It doesn’t matter how long their peyos are or how big their kipot are. They are
evil. These extremists are a living, breathing Chilul HaShem of the
highest order. Same as Neturei Karta. They make it easy for the media to vilify
Israel.
We’ve seen how influential media coverage can be. Walter
Cronkite was one of the most respected broadcast
journalists of his time, which coincided with the Vietnam War He initially
supported the war effort. But after visiting the region, he came out against
it. That shift helped turn public opinion - and we all know how that war
eventually ended.
We cannot afford to ignore the media - especially when it is
biased against us. By allowing these extremists to operate freely and establish
unauthorized settlements near Arab villages, they will inevitably be seen as
inciters of violence, no matter how peaceful their stated intentions may be.
They should not be allowed to create these outposts at all.
Violations should be met with swift and decisive action, and offenders
prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. It is long past time to put an end
to this Chilul Hashem — and to end the kind of education that foments
it.
