printTheir detractors—and yes, this butchered Jewish family, the youngest of whom was three months old, has detractors—claim that they were settlers, occupiers of Palestinian land. They deserved to be slaughtered by Palestinians as they slept, their gruesome deaths (images below) “celebrated with carnivals by Hamas which handed-out sweets to passers-by.” (HERE)
The “settler” exculpation—used indirectly by Obama to condemn the victims, not the perps—still does not explain away the existential meaning of stabbing “an eleven-year-old in his heart and slitting a four-year-old boy’s throat.” (HERE) Remember: the Arab citizens of Israel proper prefer to live surrounded by a Jewish majority than migrate to the Palestinian Authority. Shouldn’t they be “encouraged” to pack up and relocate to the PA? Evidently not. For one, their civilized, peace-loving Jewish neighbors have accepted them and granted them full citizenship rights: “They vote. They elect leaders to the Knesset. They serve on the Israeli Bench. They publish Arabic-language newspapers. They preach anti-Semitic hate sermons in their mosques. There is almost no limit to the freedom bestowed on Arabs of any faith within Israel.” (HERE) Why are they not considered occupiers of land not theirs?
Watch the scene of the crime. (Read a write-up.) I’ll continue this tack below.
From “THE SATANIC SHEIK AND THE ENABLERS OF EVIL”:
“In The Case for Israel, Alan Dershowitz, Harvard law professor and indefatigable civil libertarian, elucidates the moral components of the vortex of terror and counterterror, action and reaction into which the Palestinians have plunged Israel. He observes that the number of innocent Israelis killed intentionally by Palestinians is considerably higher than the number of innocent Palestinians who have been killed accidentally by the Israel Defense Force.”
“The vast majority of Palestinians killed by Israelis are directly involved in terrorist activity. Those not directly involved were killed accidentally in the course of legitimate military actions against terrorists. ‘Israel’s moral responsibility for these accidental, although often foreseeable, casualties of war,’ he avers, ‘is in no way comparable to the responsibility of Palestinian terrorists who have deliberately targeted every single Israeli civilian victim.'”
“This distinction, one would presume, is a no-brainer: ‘Every reasonable school of philosophy, theology, jurisprudence and common sense distinguishes between deliberately targeting civilians and inadvertently killing civilians while targeting terrorists who hide among them.’ Nevertheless, anti-Zionist bigots, who understand the difference between accidental death and willful murder in ‘other contexts,’ embrace moral relativism when it comes to the Jewish state.”
Professor Dershowitz makes one other particularly chilling observation:
Israel has nothing to gain and everything to lose from inflicting civilian casualties. The opposite is true for the Palestinian terrorists. Palestinian casualties play in their favor, and Israeli casualties play in their favor.”
[SNIP]
I have vehemently opposed Israel’s anti-terrorism reprisals as disproportionate in their use of force. Still, everything said above obtains.
UPDATE I: BECK BREAKS FROM THE PACK.
UPDATE II (March 16): Justice is Not Vengeance. The right thing to do is catch the perpetrators, try them, and kill them. Beck is missing the meaning of the grieving father’s words; refracting them through his Christian beliefs. Said Ruth Fogel’s father, Rabbi Yehuda Ben-Yishai:
“I have worked in education many years, and as an educator, I try to strengthen and teach people faith. I understand that I cannot be satisfied with words and that I also must implement the same principles on which I have educated others. This is a test of my faith, and therefore I agreed to be interviewed.
I believe in the country, in our strength and in the strength of the army, and I ask how did this strength not save our children?
… We will take upon ourselves the difficult task and pave for them the path so that life will be victorious.
Their mother and father will pray for them from the Heavens, their grandfathers and grandmothers will give them a lot of love, and the People of Israel will hug them and encourage them to grow and continue in the path of their parents.viewing them through the prism.”
[SNIP]
The above is profound, simple and beautiful, but it is hardly a statement of loony Christian forgiveness. To forgive evil in Jewish thinking is evil. Rabbi Yehuda Ben-Yishai simply expresses his love for his surviving grandchildren and his determination to help them. There is nothing as unhealthy here as forgiveness. That’s a Christian hobby horse. There can be no justice without proportional punishment. Jews get that.
UPDATE III (March 20): TINY TAMAR SPEAKS. This gifted little orphan articulates ideas and has a depth of understanding absent among her peers in the West/US. For those who understand Hebrew:
This is sickening. But I am not shocked by this type of thing anymore. Sadly, our President doesn’t give a damn about Israel or its Jewish citizens. There will be no outrage in the world press regarding these terrible murders. If these were Palestinian children we would never hear the end of it. I didn’t think my opinion of Islam could get any lower. It is actually lower than the gutter.
What is disproportionate in the use of force? Should one group be slowly bled to death by another group who despises the very existence of those who are being bled? Perhaps a time of ultimate reprisal is approaching for those locked in an existential, limited-action fight in which casualties accrue decade after decade after decade. Did not the Union forces and the Confederate forces engage in a winner-take-all conflict? The disproportionate use of force appears to have resolved the conflict for 140+ years and we have moved-on. Le monde va lui-meme.
What would be a proportionate response to this slaughter? Why does Israel help their enemy to live another day (provide the water, the hospital care, jobs, etc). The humanitarianism seems a bit disproportionate to me. I am having a very tough time with the murders of the Fogel family. I know God said “Vengeance is mine.” That’s a hard one to swallow, but in the end what keeps me from being as big a monster in my thirst for revenge.
My first reaction was that the killings of the Jewish family by Palestinian terrorists came directly out of the pit of hell. The fact that they were so called settlers is irrelevant. This argument is unadulterated bull $#!+.
I offer my condolences and solidarity with the Israeli people.
Low life cowards celebrated as heroes.
I agree with Dennis on the issue of so called disproportionate use of force… all is fair in love and war. And lets face it, Israel is at war.
Christian forgiveness is misunderstood by just about everyone, especially Christians. Jesus said to forgive your brother when he asks you to. That’s a brother, not the serial killer of your children. He also said that when your brother shafts you and refuses to make it right, take him to court if necessary to get justice. Turning the cheek when slapped means- don’t get into a fight with your neighbor, you can stomp a home invader into the carpet. Christian counselors advise Christians to forgive in many cases where the victim has no other recourse in order to remove the self destructive hate and desire for vengeance that can eat the victim’s own life. Unfortunately most Christians are taught their religion by lawyers quoting verses, rather than the instruction of whole books or letters of the Bible’s writers and so we have a great deal of misunderstanding. Christianity is a sect of Judaism not required to follow the Law of Moses but still retain it’s concepts, justice included. That said, I would not object to the citizens hanging the celebrators with the perps, they’re just as guilty in my opinion.
The nature of arabic peoples goes all the way back to Genesis and their progenitor, Ismael, the illegitimate offspring of Abraham and Hagar, the Egyptian maid to his wife. Arabic people have always had a violent philosophy. When we match this up to a fanatic religion of hate and constant teaching of hatred from birth we get the Palestinians. They cheered and celebrated on 9/11. They cheered and celebrated when Saddam dumped SCUDs on Israel during the Gulf War. They would naturally celebrate the slaughter of a mere Israeli family. This attitude is not impossible to deal with but first the gutless fools in control of our country and culture have to admit we have a problem.
As I read the comments of Rabbi Yehuda Ben-Yishai I do not hear words of forgiveness either. I am a Christian, the born-again kind. I see his statement more as a statement of his faith even though it is being severly tested. He has asked the fundamental question: “…I believe in the country, in our strength and in the strength of the army, and I ask how did this strength not save our children?…”
What he is showing is a tremendous amount of grace and dignity under horrific circumstances. His faith is being tested but he has not given up on it. The principles he believes and teaches require that justice must be served.
And finally, Rabbi Yehuda Ben-Yishai is showing the love and devotion he has for his family.
Thanks for the reply, Mr Glisson. I always thought Beck was a Mormon which is a rather strange sect of the Christian tradition. I don’t purport to know what Jews teach in regards to justice and am always leary of those Jews who want to teach me my Catholic Faith, but the ideas of Justice as outlined above by Mrs. Mercer are conistent with my own.
I am a Christian who believes in the 10 commandments. That heinous murderers can live their lives out rather than receive the punishment they so richly deserve is an abomination. Ilana, you lived in Israel. How many people have been executed there in the last 20 years? How many muslim terrorists? Here in the US, we just call them crazy and lock them away. I just don’t want to get like those old ladies in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the ones who really got into stoning.
[Israel does not have the death penalty. So, the answer to your question: 0.]
For all you folks ranting about Palestinian terrorists, the prime suspect so far in this murder is a Thai immigrant worker. Not that I have any love for the former, but you should do your homework. [Provide a link, please.]
Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe the Palestinians are (mostly) refugees from the old Ottoman Empire & that Israel is pretty much the only country in the region that has been willing to take them in. Shouldn’t Jordan & Egypt be taking some responsibility for the refugee crisis instead of just keeping their collective traps shut & letting Israel take the heat?
Robert Glisson is right about the distortion of Christian forgiveness. True Christian forgiveness is pair with contrition on the part of the sinner; Christians aren’t expected to just blanket forgive evil-doers who show no remorse. The terrorists (be they Palestinians or Immigrants) have shown no acts of contrition, and so there is nothing to forgive.