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| Jews who said Kaddish for Palestinian killed by the IDF at Gaza protest (TOI) |
The recent events in Gaza where Palestinians ‘protested’ on the Gaza-Israel border is a case in point. This is yet another example of how a liberal approach to world events by the mainstream media affects its reportage. In almost every report I saw on the various news media, Israeli soldiers were blamed (at least by implication) for the deaths of dozens of Palestinian protesters from Gaza. An example of this kind of bias can be seen in a May 16th story in the Washington Post.
When the mainstream media focuses on the death, injury, and suffering inflicted on people who lead lives of hardship and deprivation... and blame it on a blockade to Gaza at the hands of an oppressive occupier using its superior military might to enforce it... then of course Israel looks like a monster.
The mainstream makes no attempt to understand the context or who is really at fault. At fault is a Palestinian leadership who uses the misery of their people as an excuse for their real purpose of destroying the Jewish State. They encouraged their people to put their young children in harm’s way in the hope they will be shot by an indiscriminate bullet or by tear gas Israelis used to disperse the crowds. So they can call Israeli soldiers baby killers.
None of this is new.
In the situation at hand, the mainstream media has reported that of the approximately 60 ‘protestors’ that were killed in Gaza a couple of weeks ago, 50 were members of Hamas. That is reported without comment. Almost as though Hamas were just a political party albeit a militant one. Implying that those killed were innocent victims.
I recall a segment on the PBS News Hour at about that time, where the host, Judy Woodruff expressed sympathy for all the protesters that died, implying that Israel could have somehow responded with less force. As though she were in a position to say that.
But one of the more outrageous expressions of sympathy for the Palestinians who were killed was when a group of Jews in London said Kaddish for them - as reported in the Times of Israel:
A few dozen young people in London recited Kaddish, the Jewish mourning prayer, for fatalities in Gaza whom a Hamas official had said mostly belonged to his organization.
One might say that any human being that is killed is tragic. That human life is sacred. And when someone dies – he should be properly mourned. But that is patently false. Some people deserve to die. Killing them is a Mitzvah.The activists gathered outside Parliament Square Wednesday, reading the names of the 62 Gazan Palestinians listed by the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza as killed in clashes Monday and Tuesday between tens of thousands of protesters and Israeli troops guarding the border with Gaza. The riots were part of a march organized by Hamas whose stated goal was to breach the border fence and cross into Israel.
Let us examine the case at hand. Very few of them were innocent victims. They were members of group that - given the chance would commit genocide against the Jewish people. No different than Nazi Germany. If genocide is required to gain the land of Israel and convert it to Palestine, that’s just fine with them. Because to the Islamic fundamentalists like Hamas capturing all of Palestine and making it an Islamic state is a religious imperative.
Saying Kaddish for people like this is beyond misguided. It is beyond foolish. It is almost like to saying Kaddish for the Nazis killed in the Warsaw uprising during the Holocaust. Although there are some obvious differences - the analogy fits. Which is why I sympathize with Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet. From the Jewish Chronicle:
An outspoken Orthodox Rabbi has been criticised for “dangerous and divisive” behaviour after he called those who took part in a Kaddish for Palestinians killed on the Gaza border “Kapos”.
In his weekly 'Ask the Rabbi' column, Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet, the Rabbi of Mill Hill United Synagogue, described the memorial prayer recital outside Westminster two weeks ago as “Kapo’ism" and branded the attendees "crackpots".
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| Rabbi Yitzchak Schochet (Jewish Chronicle) |
Some Jews are upset that an Orthodox Rabbi has referred to a group of Jews in such disparaging terms. But that shoe more or less fits. I’m not sure I would call them Kapos. (I’m not even sure Kapos deserve all the vilification they get. They too were victims who in most cases suffered the same fate as their brethren. But that is another issue.)
One thing is certain. The views these Jews have have little bearing on reality. Saying Kaddish over people killed - people whose goals include annihilating the Jews of Israel is almost as bad as saying Kaddish over Nazis killed during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
And yet who can blame those that might sympathize with these poor misguided Jews – when all the mainstream media reports describe Israel using excessive force just to stop a ‘peaceful protest’?! Seeing people die in protest especially when some of them are children can easily evoke sympathy for the underdog. Undeserving of that sympathy though they may be. Comparing Israel’s mighty military firing at innocent civilians to Nazis firing at innocent Jews during the Holocaust is not such a stretch.
While even some of the far left has repudiated this event, it is clear as day that the reason these Jews said Kaddish is at least in part because of how the mainstream media reports this. Without context or explanation. It is comparable to seeing someone kill another human being and considering him a murderer without seeing that that man he killed was about to shoot someone.
Fortunately these misguided Jews are an insignificant cog in a very large wheel – minuscule in number. They do not represent anyone except themselves. But it can’t be denied that there are not a small number of Jews that might sympathize with a sentiment that generated their Kaddish. That fellow Jews are acting like Nazis – all because of how those ‘protests’ were reported.
If the mainstream media were to do the right thing and report the context and history - publicly recognizing the truth about Islamic fundamentalist intentions with respect to the Jewish people, that might just reduce these kinds of protests. Because once the Palestinian propaganda machine would be exposed for what it really is it might just stop people from sympathizing with them. Without the propaganda benefit, they probably wouldn’t try to have their babies killed by the IDF.
I am not going to hold my breath about them doing that, though. Unfortunately it would take a lot more effort at integrity than the mainstream media has ever shown.
I am not going to hold my breath about them doing that, though. Unfortunately it would take a lot more effort at integrity than the mainstream media has ever shown.