Here's a depraved story from Haaretz: an 18-year-old Israeli Jew indicted in Nazareth for killing a Palestinian Israeli by stabbing him in the head, just because he was an Arab, and that bugged him. The Arab man tried desperately to escape through traffic.
Why give this story any attention? It's just a crazy crime. I know; you're right. But the story has a weird resonance.
It reminds me of killings during the Mandate years., the 20s through the 40s. The British couldn't control violence in Mandatory Palestine. Arabs were attacking Jews, and vice versa. The area was in a crisis of sovereignty. The British wanted out. British soldiers were getting caught in the meatgrinder too.
The intensity of the blood-hatred here, and the fact that the alleged killer is evidently a Russian Jew (Vitaly Sayenko), makes me wonder whether We haven't become the new Mandate authorities in Israel– the United States/western Jewry/the lobby– with the same responsibility for the situation as the Brits had. And makes me wonder how long before we get sick of this whole deal.
(Thanks to Rob Browne for the tip.)
