The news ticker says "Martyrdom of settlers and wounding of two others as well as the death of the attacker in Jerusalem."
Many newspaper articles and social media lit up with anger at Egyptian TV daring to call innocent Jews who were murdered "martyrs" and the Arab attacker as merely "dead."
The TV network apologized for the error, but that is not enough for the angry Arabs who are convinced that the Egyptian government is tilting towards the Jews and against the heroes who murder them.
The irony, of course, is that by definition practically no Arabs are "martyrs" but the innocent Jews being slaughtered really are. Martyrdom applies to those murdered because of their faith, and as we have seen, the Jews being stabbed and run over are chosen purely because they are Jews, not because they are "Zionists" or "Israelis" or "settlers."
Unfortunately, Jews are uncomfortable using an accurate term for their martyrs and they cede the emotional language to those who wholeheartedly support the murderers. And the casual news consumer is more sympathetic to stories that use emotional language.
Don't worry, though: one Israeli publication freely uses the word "martyr":
Martyrs are not heroes because they died, but rather because their humanity is manifested in their dreams, their connection to the land, their resilience in holding on to life in the face of oppression... The martyrs were not born to take part in a project of martyrdom, they were born to take part in the project called life. They sanctify life by sacrificing themselves for it.Sorry - this is the anti-Israel +972 magazine, and they are talking about Arabs as well, not Jews. Ultra-left publications like +972 doesn't give a damn about Jews who are murdered except to use them as an excuse to bash Jews. But Arabs who are unfortunately killed while rioting are "martyrs."
(h/t Ibn Boutros)
