Settlers are Not Inherently Evil

View of cars burned by Jewish settlers during riots last night in Hawara (JTA)

Although Prime Minister Netanyahu condemned the unhinged rioting that took place by Religious Zionist settlers against innocent Palestinians in Huwara last week, he seemed to compare it to the demonstrations against his government all across Israel yesterday. They were nowhere near the same. What happened in Huwara was far more violent. By orders of magnitude.

It was in effect a pogrom. The same kind of violent pogrom experienced by our European ancestors at the hands of their Christian neighbors. Only this time it was by fellow Jews against their Palestinian neighbors. Their motive doesn’t matter. Innocent people were attacked simply because they were Palestinians. Same as innocent people were attacked in Europe simply because they were Jews. Those rioters have stooped to using the very same tactics. Although Holocaust analogies are never appropriate, pogrom analogies are.  Sadly this is exactly what our fellow Jews did in Huwara.

 I am happy to see these same views being expressed by the OU – quoted by JTA: 

“How can such a thing happen?” “How could it come to this, that Jewish young men should ransack and burn homes and cars?” continued the statement from Rabbi Moshe Hauer, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, who added that “we cannot understand or accept this.” He concluded with a note of desperation: “What happened yesterday must never, ever happen again.” 

Hauer’s anguish was all the more notable because it came from a group whose constituency, American Orthodox Jews, has historically sympathized with the movement to create Jewish settlements in the West Bank. 

That last point is not an insignificant one. Although I am not one of them - there are many good people that support the settler movement. Including my own Rebbe, Rav Ahron Soloveichik. What should be gleaned from this is that the values that encourage settling all parts of Israel regardless of the danger are solidly based on Torah values. That there are differing opinions that argue against the settler movement are also solidly based on Torah values. (Which I am not going to get into because they are beyond the scope of this post.) 

It also shows that even among those of us that share the same values, there can be stark differences in what we do about them. This is how Rabbi Hauer’s comments should be taken. 

Why is there such a divergence between people that have the same values? How can pogroms against innocent Palestinians be justified in the minds of some while being condemned in the minds of others – when both have the same ideology? 

I don’t think there is a simple answer to that. Which is why Rabbi Hauer asked the question, ‘How can such a thing happen?’ Are these settlers simply innate haters - willing to harass  innocent Arabs for theological reasons …the way Christians in Europe harassed innocent Jews for their theological reasons (punishing us for ‘killing’ their god)? 

I’m sure there might be some of that kind of thinking taking place. But I think it is more about taking revenge against the murder of an innocent Jew by one of their people. Which was only the latest incidence of that. The number of terrorist's attacks where Jews were killed are way too numerous to mention. All of which builds up in anger and frustration in the people closest to those murdered. 

That of course doesn’t make it right – as I keep saying. But it does explain why idealistic devoutly religious Jews who are so dedicated to settling all the land of Israel - that they are willing to risk their lives doing it – resorted to this horrific tactic.

I recall back in the 70s watching a PBS documentary called ‘West Bank Story’.  It was about the settlers (mostly followers of Meir Kahane) living in and around Chevron.  In a rare instance of balanced reporting the settlers were humanized. portrayed as idealistic human beings who cared about their Palestinian neighbors. Only that they wanted them to know that they too had a right to live there. But were nevertheless happy to live together with them as neighbors in peace and friendship. 

I remember feeling quite proud of those settlers. And hoped they would be successful in creating a positive relationship with their Arab neighbors that had been living there long before they did. There was no hatred.  No animosity. Just a determination to fulfil the Mitzvah of Yishuv Eretz Yisroel while at the same time living in peace with their neighbors. 

That dream of about 50 years ago has been shattered many times over. And has turned many of these settlers from trying to live in peace with their neighbors into seeing all their neighbor as terrorists out to kill us all if they could. Being constantly terrorized by your neighbors can do that to you.

 Like I said. Not excusing it. Just explaining it.  And still condemning it. 

The way things stand now, I do not believe any Jews should be settling in places like Chevron – or anywhere else where almost 60 years of animosity has been built up between West Bank Jewish settlers and West Bank Palestinians. Because that just ends up with a lot of murder and mayehm against us. And revenge retaliations against them.

Unfortunately the current Israeli government is going in exactly the opposite direction. How this will end is anybody’s guess (as are any predictions about the future). But, sadly, as things stand now I fear that a lot more Jewish blood will be spilled. And that pogroms against innocent Palestinians will increase.