Disasters - Natural and Otherwise

An earthquake and a tsunami hit Japan this past weekend and killed thousands of Japanese citizens. The world is reaching out to the Japanese people, helping to search for survivors and deliver aid in a global expression of empathy at the unexplainable loss of life and property from this natural disaster. Rightly so, people around the world feel sadness over the grief and shock that have overwhelmed the Japanese people.

In Israel, five members of the Fogel family were slaughtered while sleeping in their beds in the town of Itamar, a settlement deep in the West Bank this past weekend. The act was one of terrorists intent solely on murdering Jews. This (or those) subhuman monster(s) slaughtered Udi, 36, his wife Ruth, 35, and their children Yoav, 11, Elad, 4 and Hadas, 3 months. The Palestinian response to this unnatural disaster was telling:

From PA President Mahmoud Abbas:

In a statement released by his office, Abbas "stressed his rejection and condemnation of all violence directed against civilians, regardless of who was behind it or the reason for it.” Abbas added that "violence produces violence and what is needed is to speed up a just and comprehensive solution to the conflict.”

From the Editor-in-Chief of the official daily newspaper of the PA:

"I don't believe that the incident in Itamar is an act of resistance, but rather an act by individuals whom we condemn, in the event it was carried out by Palestinians. Stabbing children in their sleep is not a heroic act but rather that of the heartless, like some of the occupation soldiers and settlers, who murder children," Hafez Barghouti, editor-in-chief of Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, wrote on Sunday.He added that the "real murderers in Itamar are the zealous settlers and anyone who burned a tree, vandalized the cemetery in Awarta, forced out the residents of Khirbet Yanun, took control of a plot of land or robbed an olive harvest .... The act at Itamar was a message to the occupation and to the world ... whose meaning is clear - the occupation must go."

From Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority:

We "clearly and firmly denounces the terror attack, just as I have denounced crimes against Palestinians. We are against all types of violence. Our position has not changed. As we have said many times before, we categorically oppose violence and terror, regardless of the identity of the victims or the perpetrators.”

From Hamas:

After arresting three of its activists near Qalqilya and Jenin in the West Bank, Hamas Spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said, "The report of five murdered Israelis is not enough to punish someone. However; we in Hamas completely support the resistance against settlers who murder and use crime and terror against the Palestinian people under the auspices of the Israeli occupation soldiers."

From the unbelievable; “there’s no proof we did it” to the absurd; “you forced us to do it” to the horrifying; “we are justified,” these responses tell a story no human being should accept; that the lives of Jews are worth less than those of others. The PA’s unceasing policy of incitement of Jewish anti-semitism has generated its latest terrifying result. Five Jewish souls are gone, three little children, one just 3 months old.

Words matter, ceremonies matter, National honors matter. Naming streets and squares after murderers, encouraging public celebration at the news of Israeli deaths, teaching children from textbooks espousing Nazi ideology and denial of the Holocaust, sending children to summer camps endorsing suicide bombing, and on and on is a mark of shame on the Palestinians. From Israel National News:

On the day before the brutal slaying of the Fogel family, Sabri Saidam, adviser to Abbas and under-secretary of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, told PA Arabs in a speech that “the weapons must be turned towards the main enemy [Israel] and that internal differences of opinion must be set aside.” Saidam denounced the low monthly stipends to families of terrorists who murder Israelis. He also called for the naming of another public square in honor of Dalal Mughrabi, the bloodthirsty terrorist who led the 1978 Coastal Road massacre that left dozens of Israelis dead, including 13 children.

From Eli Hertz’s website, “Myths and Facts”:

Political and religious incitement plays a crucial role in mobilizing and motivating Palestinian terrorism. After the horrendous 2002 suicide bombing of a Passover Seder in a Netanya hotel, Fouad Ajami, a Middle East scholar at Johns Hopkins University, wrote:

"The suicide bomber of the Passover massacre did not descend from the sky; he walked straight out of the culture of incitement let loose on the land, a menace hovering over Israel, a great Palestinian and Arab refusal to let that country be, to cede it a place among the nations, he partook of the culture all around him - the glee [that] greets those brutal deeds of terror, the cult that rises around the martyrs and their families."

Despite pledges to renounce violence against Israel, PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas continue to incite, inflame and encourage Palestinian Arabs to pin every problem they face as individuals and as a society on Israel. This strategy of channeling frustrations into hatred and the desire for revenge against Israel is adopted both by Israel 's immediate Palestinian neighbors and Arab leaders throughout the Muslim-Arab world. Arab leaders and the European Union [EU] lend support to the Palestinian cause with money and a combination of anti-Israeli and anti-American messages from government-controlled media outlets and educational systems. Sermons that legitimize violence in the name of Islam are encouraged, delivered by extremists throughout Muslim countries and in free countries in the West.

Absent from the texts, absent from the Palestinian media, absent from the PA spokespeople and leaders are the basic principles of normalization and co-existence with Israel. Israelis have made recognition of Israel as a Jewish State, in other words that there will be two States as envisioned in the original Balfour Declaration and UN vote, a prerequisite to an agreement. This weekend’s unnatural disaster is a reminder of the desperate need for these basic principles.

Sources for this post include:

http://www.mythsandfacts.org/Conflict/5/Incitement.pdf

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/142857