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| Photojournalist Heidi Levine after an attack by extremist Jewish settlers (Forward) |
The Forward
reported that last Friday, Heidi Levine, a Washington Post photographer, was
attacked by masked settlers.
“I got jumped and I saw in the very beginning at least 25, maybe 50 of them, and I was on the ground and they were kicking me for like 10 minutes,” she said.
I have no words.
One of the typical defenses of events like this is that we
don’t know what precipitated them. The argument typically is that what really
happened was that Jews were attacked, and civil minded local residents came in
to protect them. Had they not intervened, the consequences for the Jews might
have been even worse, possibly even deadly.
That may or may not be true. Sometimes. But it doesn’t
matter to me anymore. The very fact that these people exist as a movement with
a stated mission to evict Palestinians from any part of Eretz Yisroel, by
peaceful means or, if necessary, through violence, makes them the guilty party.
They are the instigators of violence, not the Palestinians residents who resist
being evicted from land upon which they and their ancestors have lived for
decades, if not longer.
It doesn’t matter how much violence is perpetrated against
us by Palestinian terrorists that live in Judea and Samaria (The West Bank).
Nor does it matter that the resident Palestinians being terrorized - hate us,
celebrate any attack against us - and would like us OUT! They did not
hurt us. Not once.
The reality is that these violent Jewish extremists are not
simply a team of citizen police there to protect Jewish residents there from
terrorist attacks. Although that is what they would like the public to believe
and they do sometimes act in that capacity. The real reason they are there is
to retake all the land of Israel for the Jewish people. By any and all means
necessary.
The idea of using our right to all the land of Israel as a
justification to terrorize Palestinians is abhorrent in the extreme. And their
sympathizers and apologists don’t help matters. That some of these Jewish
extremists may have served in the army does not in any way excuse the terrorism
they inflict on Palestinians.
And yet these people seem oblivious to the increasing
condemnations directed at them, no matter where they come from or who issues
them. The most pro-Israel US ambassador in history, Mike Huckabee, has once
again condemned Jewish extremists. This time calling it a despicable act of
terror!
The last thing any Israeli should be doing now is alienating
a supporter like this. They are not exactly growing on trees. And yet these
extremist Jews could not care less! In fact, they consider such condemnations a
badge of honor because they believe they are fulfilling the word of God.
President Herzog condemned the attack and called for
justice. But Prime Minister Netanyahu stopped short of fully condemning it,
saying that although he condemns the violence - the circumstances of the attack
were unclear.
I’m sorry, but that doesn’t matter to me anymore.
Circumstances that might provide a more understandable context for an attack
like this don’t matter These people shouldn’t be there in the first place.
Now is not the time to be “settling” all the land of Israel.
It is costing us too much blood and too much goodwill on the part of our
closest ally, the United States. It gives our enemies more excuses to condemn
Israel - and exacerbates violent antisemitic attacks all over the world.
Retaining all the land won’t mean much if Israel loses the
support of the entire world including the US. Which these ‘religious’ Jewish
extremists are clearly accelerating!
The problem is that they actually have prominent
rabbis who guide them…
To continue reading - and/or to comment on this post -
click on this link: substack.
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