{Cross-posted at Jews Down Under.}
Joshua Levitt of the Algemeiner reports that at the Munich conference on Saturday, American Secretary of State John Kerry claimed, "Last year, not one Israeli was killed by a Palestinian from the West Bank." Leaving aside the question of what, exactly, is a "Palestinian," or where the "West Bank" is in relation to Judaea and Samaria, it never ceases to amaze me how for so many western progressives violence toward Jews, even the killing of Jews, is not considered violence at all.
Through the final months of 2012 southern Israel was bombarded by rocket fire coming from Arabs in Gaza. Something like 200 Qassam and Katyushas were launched at Israel causing the residents of S'derot and Ashkelon to flee into bunkers at a moment's notice. During the entire period of that bombardment the West, with the exception of a few conservative outlets, remained entirely silent because they simply did not care. The European Union did not care that Jews were targeted for violence by anti-Jewish racist Arabs. The president of the United States did not care that Jews were targeted for violence by anti-Jewish racist Arabs. And, sadly, most progressive-left diaspora Jews remained silent, as well, suggesting that they did not care that Jews were targeted for violence by anti-Jewish racist Arabs.
And now we have the Secretary of State of the United States telling a gathering of high-level politicians and diplomats engaged in the effort to create yet another Arab-Muslim state that "Last year, not one Israeli was killed by a Palestinian from the West Bank."
I am sure this must be a great comfort to the family and friends of the Israeli stabbed to death by a local Arab on April 30th of last year in Tapuah Junction in Samaria, according to The Algemeiner.
I am equally certain that the family and friends of the Israeli who was shot dead near the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, in September, must feel tremendous comfort at the knowledge that the American government does not consider the murder of Jews to represent violence. The same, of course, goes for the Israeli who was murdered by Arab murderers in Beit Amin/ Qalqiliyah.
Likewise, the family and friends of the Israeli stabbed to death in Brosh / Jordan Valley in October must feel gratitude to Kerry for acknowledging that this murder does not count as murder.
And it goes on and on and on.
Throughout European, Arab, and Muslim history the killing of Jews was not considered actual violence. Jewish self-defense was considered immoral, illegitimate, and illegal, on religious grounds. These very same terms are now stamped onto the foreheads of Jews who dare to live in Judaea and Samaria which is where Jews have lived for around 3,500 years; long before there was any such places as London or Paris or Washington D.C.
I think that I can probably speak for most American Jews (those who are not craven sycophants of the Obama administration) that we are getting a bit tired of the vicious double-standard that sees violence toward the tiny Jewish minority in the Middle East as a matter of righteous social justice as derived from progressive-left political ideology.We are getting a bit tired of the vicious double-standard that sees Jewish self-defense as representing aggression.
John Kerry, speaking for the Obama administration and the American people, stood up before the world on Saturday and essentially claimed that violence towards Jews, even the murdering of Jews, is not violence at all. He did not say that explicitly, of course. He is a "diplomat," after all. He merely implied it and probably did so in an entirely unconscious manner.
From the comments:
OkeyI actually doubt that Kerry is intentionally lying. He simply doesn't know the truth because he has plenty of other things on his plate and he probably doesn't really give a damn one way or the other. Some trusted source told him that no Israeli Jews were killed in Judaea and Samaria last year and he simply believed and repeated it despite the fact that it is entirely false. The effect of this, of course, is to imply that the Jews of the Middle East are a little paranoid about the violence directed at them by the great Arab-Muslim majority in that part of the world. The implication of Kerry's statement weakens the argument for Jewish self-defense by implying that there is little need for such self-defense.
Kerry has a profession. It's called lying.
Kerry's intentions are not the issue here. It is the effect of his actions and words that matter.
CarolI publish the comment above for no other reason than that I have the sense of humor of a twelve year old boy!
I'd like to take him up, give him a buffing with some nice abrasive sand paper and then drop into an Olympic sized pool full of Heinz extra hot hot sauce.
Fuuny how he doesn't know facts when they aren't convenient to him.
Concerned citizenI would say that "Concerned citizen" is a tad paranoid. There is nothing to indicate that any of this is coordinated with the Iranian negotiations for the purpose of undermining Israeli well-being. However, he or she is absolutely correct in the claim that this is not a "peace process" but a "Palestinian state process."
It is not a peace process but a Palestinian state process.
And what a coincidence. Negotiations are coming to a head in the midst of the Iranian negotiations just as Iran is ready to break out.
Couldn't have been planned better.
We need to move beyond what I call the "Oslo Delusion."
The idea that if Israel can find the right combination of concessions to the Arabs this will incline them to leave the Jews in peace is simply mistaken. The history of the conflict from 1937 (Peel Commission) to the present demonstrates quite clearly that the Arabs have no particular interest in ceasing the long war against the Jews of the Middle East for at least two reasons. The first reason is that the war has a Koranically-based religious mandate. The second reason is that given the fact that Arabs outnumber Jews by a factor of 60 or 70 to one in the Middle East means that the great majority of their population will not suffer through using the Palestinian-Arabs as a bludgeon against us.
And so the conflict continues.
Now that we understand that "Oslo" is done and that the "peace process" is largely a hoax, it is time to tell our non-Jewish friends that we are simply done with this thing.
As I have been arguing for a number of years, now, Israel needs to declare its final borders on its eastern flank, move the IDF to behind those borders, and then, in the words of our friend Trudy, toss the keys over the shoulder.
This will not end the long war against the Jews in the Middle East, but nothing is going to do so short of a Muslim reformation and that is not happening anytime soon.
