Palestinian Terrorism and Settler Violence

Hallel and Yagel Yaniv (TOI)

I am both saddened and sickened. Saddened by what happened to two innocent young Jewish brothers and sickened by what happened in the Palestinian village of Huwara near Nablus (Shechem) on the West Bank.  The Jewish settlers who did this should be treated pretty much the same way Palestinians terrorists are treated. Regardless of their motives. If and when they are caught, they should spend the rest of their miserable lives in a prison cell together with their Palestinian counterparts. They deserve each other. From JTA: 

A gunman shot and killed two Israeli brothers driving through a West Bank town, which was later rampaged by settlers who burned cars and buildings. A Palestinian was killed and dozens were injured. Israeli leaders called on the rioters to stop — though at least one settler official tweeted that the Palestinian town should be “wiped out.” 

The Israeli victims, who lived in the nearby settlement of Har Bracha, were driving Sunday through Huwara, a town near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, reports said. The two victims, brothers Hallel and Yagel Yaniv, ages 22 and 20, were on Route 60, a West Bank thoroughfare that runs through the town. They were both students at academies in which students combine military service with Torah study. 

Hours after the Palestinian attack, hundreds of settlers began rioting in the town, burning dozens of cars, shops and homes, and throwing rocks at Palestinian drivers, according to Israeli reports. Videos posted to social media showed widespread fires in Huwara and smoke billowing into the air. Dozens of Huwara’s residents were injured and one Palestinian was killed in another town, Za’tara, south of Huwara. 

First let me say that I am horrified that 2 dedicated idealistic young Jews - brothers who fulfilled their duty to both God and to the IDF have been so brutally slaughtered by a Palestinian gunman.

This is the kind of thing that is often celebrated by Palestinians who never miss an opportunity to celebrate a successful attack against Jews.  The more Jews that are killed, the more they celebrate.  And that’s been happening a lot lately: 

Sunday’s violence came amid months of escalating violence in Israel and the West Bank. Fifteen Israelis have been killed this year in Palestinian terror attacks, the vast majority of them civilians. 

Settler terrorism in Huwara (TOI)

As difficult as it is for me to read stories like this… as impossible as it must be for the parents of Hallel and Yagel Yaniv to live through their loss in this way, the revenge attacks this attack generated make me as angry as the attack against 2 innocent young Jewish brothers makes me sad. 

Huwara and other Palestinians towns like it on the West Bank may be hotbeds of terrorism from which that gunman came. But in no way does that excuse the random violence perpetrated by the Jewish settlers. Rioting, torching buildings and cars; and throwing rocks at Palestinian drivers that had nothing to do with the attack - can only be described as Jewish terrorism. Regardless of their motives 

Imagine if homes and other Jewish property in Monsey, New York were destroyed and Jews living there were pelted with rocks by a mob of Palestinians living nearby - who decided to take revenge on the Jews for all the untold suffering by their Palestinians brothers under Israeli occupation.  The situation wouldn’t be all that different. In both cases innocent victims would be targeted in an act of revenge about something they had nothing to do with.

The current far right  government in Israel has a chance to rise to the occasion here. They have to treat Jewish terrorists the same way they treat Palestinian terrorists. Politics ought to be put aside for the purpose of justice. The messianic religious Zionists that make up the core of West Bank settlers tend to be followers of the late Meir Kahane whose ideology included acts of violence against Arabs that did not accept Jewish rule over all of Israel. That mentality has to end. And his followers stopped.

I know this is not going to happen, but if I were in their shoes, I would dismantle every makeshift settlement in the West Bank. Especially the illegal ones. That might change a few hearts and minds about the ruling far right government.  A change from the position of a ‘take-no-prisoners’ settlement expansion policy into a common sense policy might actually save some lives.

But as I often say about unlikely scenarios like this, there are 2 chances of that happening: Slim and none. In fact take out slim.

Settling all the land of Israel may be the ultimate goal for the Jewish people. But not now and certainly not like this. Settler violence isn’t only a danger to our own people, it is a huge Chilul Hashem that may give rise to even more frequent terrorist murders than there have been till now.  

This is not surrendering to terror – as the right always tends to paint it. It is avoiding it by reducing our civilian presence in their neighborhoods and replacing it with a military presence. 

That the current government is unlikely to do that - and instead doing the opposite by increasing settlements makes attacks like the latest one more likely and partially their own fault.

My hope against hope is that cooler heads will prevail. The focus must be not only on stopping Palestinian terrorism. It must also be on stopping revenge terrorism by hard core settlers like those who participated in this abomination. 

Meanwhile the rest of the Jewish world, especially those of us that are Orthodox, must cry out in both sorrow and  anger over all of this. There is no solace to the bereaved when sympathetic settlers terrorize innocent Palestinians in an act of revenge. No solace - and no excuse.