There is a subtext behind all reporting out of Israel. This subtext is both bigoted against Arabs and antisemitic at its core - at the same time. And it is a subtext that is accepted not only by the media but by many Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs as well.
After every terror attack, without fail, the terror groups and Palestinian apologists say as a chorus, "This attack was a natural reaction to their suffering at the hands of Israelis."
Yet when Jews act with 10% of the irrationality and anger that the Palestinians are expected to act with all the time, it is proof that there is something deeply wrong with the Jews.
Israeli settler vigilantes tore through several Palestinian towns in the West Bank following a deadly shooting attack on a nearby settlement Tuesday night, setting cars and fields on fire, vandalizing homes and terrorizing residents in a grim repeat of an incident some termed a pogrom earlier this year.
Palestinians in Luban a-Sharqiya, Huwara, Beit Furik, Burin and other towns south of Nablus in the northern West Bank said carloads of settlers rampaged through the villages Tuesday night, hurling stones and setting cars, fields, homes and other property ablaze.
Three Israelis were arrested over the attacks, Israel’s Ynet news reported.
The rampage was set off by an attack hours earlier in which two Palestinian gunmen opened fire on a hummus restaurant and gas station in the settlement of Eli, killing four people, including two 17-year-old boys, and injuring four others.
I want to be crystal clear: these vigilante actions are wrong and should be condemned.
But both Jews and Palestinian Arabs should be judged the same way. When Palestinians riot, it is just as wrong as when Jews riot. When Palestinians attack civilians, it is just as wrong as when Jews attack civilians. While Jews are expected to hold themselves to a higher standard and not attack random Palestinians, Palestinians should be held to the exact same standard and not excused when they attack random Jews.
Anything else is bigotry - bigotry that says that Arabs are naturally violent, and bigotry that says Jews must not show anger when their friends are murdered.
When Jews get targeted and murdered by Palestinians, the media shows lots of photos of crying Jews at the funeral. When a Palestinian dies and Jews are blamed, it shows angry crowds. Jews are expected to rise above such base emotions as anger and vengeance while Arabs are not.
Double standards for Jews and for Palestinians is bigotry, by definition. It is a bigotry that is embraced by the media as well as by Palestinians and terror supporters who justify every terror act, no matter how heinous, as natural and acceptable and part of a "cycle of violence." . And to an extent Israelis are guilty of it as well, priding themselves on being on a different moral plane than Palestinians are. For the most part, that is true, but that attitude also helps keep the status quo of Palestinians being expected to act like animals.
Both sides should be expected to act morally and according to the law. Neither side should target civilians, ever. Neither side should celebrate the deaths of innocents on the other side (and only one side ever does that.) And each side should strive to always be better, to improve, to be more moral.
It is up to the players themselves to choose to act morally, to rise above the desire for blind vengeance. It is not for the world to impose one set of morality on one side and a completely different set of standards, or no standards whatsoever, on the other.
By the same token, it is human to get angry when something truly outrageous occurs, and Jews have that right as much as Palestinians do. Chanting "Death to Arabs" is unacceptable, but "Death to Hamas" is appropriate. It is antisemitic to insist that Jews react to Palestinian atrocities with nothing but coolness, logic and restraint.
All of this should be obvious. But the reality is that expectations are very different for the two sides. The world tolerates and encourages this bigotry, and the violence is partially a result of these double standards. The Western world, by accepting Palestinian irrationality as normal, encourages more terror.
Judge everyone equally. Be more critical of the side that acts with less regard for human life and that literally celebrates death.
Why is that such a difficult concept?
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Monday, July 31, 2023
Elder of Ziyon
