A report on a hate crime in the Daily Star in Lebanon. I wonder if this will get into the New York Times (which did cover price tag attacks last spring), let alone be the basis of a big feature on growing rightwing thuggery in Israeli culture:
Palestinian cars were vandalised overnight in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, in an attack that bore the hallmarks of a hate crime by rightwing Israeli extremists, victims and police said on Sunday.
Eight vehicles belonging to the same family had their tyres slashed, and one was daubed with the slogan in Hebrew reading “Price tag Gaza,” suggesting the vandalism was a response to massive Palestinian rocket fire during the recent Gaza flareup.
The “price tag” mentality of lashing out at bystanders seems to be mirrored in official Israeli policy. Didn’t Israel announce at some point that if they were hit by Hezbollah (or whomever), that they would strike Gaza in retaliation?
Is the settler movement influencing the government, or is the rot coming from the top down? Or maybe there’s never been that much of a difference between the two entities.
At this point I’d argue that the “price tag” violence has as much to do with disappointment with the lack of a ground-war bloodbath in Gaza as it does with anger at rockets reaching further into Israel (and settlements).