There’s been plenty of Israeli incitement in recent days, and two Palestinian children were lately blinded by rubber bullets, and on Sunday night a Palestinian bus driver was found hanged, and Palestinians all over East Jerusalem are subject to unrelenting occupation and persecution.
But for American officials, the terror killings of four Jewish men in a West Jerusalem synagogue today are the one and only story. “Pure terror,” as our secretary of state puts it. President Obama condemned the killings with not a word about the Palestinian experience:
We know that two attackers senselessly and brutally attacked innocent worshippers in a synagogue during their morning prayers. Obviously, we condemn in the strongest terms these attacks.A number of people were wounded, and four people were killed, including three American citizens.So this is a tragedy for both nations, Israel as well as the United States.And our hearts go out to the families who obviously are undergoing enormous grief right now.
Secretary of State John Kerry, in London, also said nothing about the recent killings of Palestinians, and crackdown on Palestinian neighborhoods:
I was just on the phone to Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel. This morning, today in Jerusalem, Palestinians attacked Jews who were praying in a synagogue. And people who had come to worship God in the sanctuary of a synagogue were hatcheted and hacked and murdered in that holy place in an act of pure terror and senseless brutality and murder.
I call on the Palestinian leadership at every single level to condemn this in the most powerful terms. This violence has no place anywhere… And to have this kind of act, which is a pure result of incitement of calls for days of rage, of just an irresponsibility, is unacceptable.
So the Palestinian leadership must condemn this and they must begin to take serious steps to restrain any kind of incitement that comes from their language, from other people’s language, and exhibit the kind of leadership that is necessary to put this region on a different path. Our hearts go out to all Israelis for the atrocity of this event and for all the reminders of history that come with it. This is – simply has no place in human behavior, and we need to hear from leaders who are going to lead – lead their people to a different place.
Samantha Power, US ambassador to the UN, is also concentrating sympathy on one side:
My thoughts are with the families of the worshipers murdered today, including Americans Aryeh Kupinsky, Cary William Levine & Mosheh Twersky
Even Yaacov Lozowick, the Israeli archivist, offers more context than American officials do:
TV news interviews with east-jerusalem Palestinians: attack is revenge 4 murder of bus driver… who committed suicide.
As if Yusuf Hassan al-Ramouni, the Palestinian bus driver found hanged in a bus on the east side of Jerusalem Sunday night, killed himself. Palestinian accounts state that he was lynched.
Here’s some context for Americans. Power journalist/Israel lobbyist Jeffrey Goldberg says the lesson of today’s attack is that Palestinians just can’t accept the presence of Jews in Israel. Oh, and that Hamas wants to kill all Jews:
the events of the past couple of weeks in Jerusalem suggest that a core issue of the conflict remains the unwillingness of many Palestinian Muslims to accept the idea that Jews have rights in their ancestral homeland. And in the case of Hamas and like-minded groups, that Jews have a right to live.
He really ought to say what rights Jews have in the ancestral homeland. All the rights?
Update. Here’s Bill de Blasio, mayor of NY:
New York City stands in solidarity with Israel, and we hope and pray for a peaceful and secure future for all of its people.
“So this is a tragedy for both nations, Israel as well as the United States.”
what words did he utter when Israel has murdered Americans???
not a word about Netanyahu’s incitement, nor that of his government or IOF/police…
>> just: what words did he utter when Israel has murdered Americans???
>> not a word about Netanyahu’s incitement, nor that of his government or IOF/police…
You’d think he’d at least say such things were “unhelpful”.
I am simply disgusted with the way our officials keep kissing up to Israel. They act so outraged and give Israel immediate love and sympathy whenever they are the victims of an attack, but only give a luke warm response whenever the Palestinians are massacred by the hundreds. What kind of game are they playing? How can we expect the world to consider us “honest brokers” in this conflict, when we have (shamelessly) always sided with the brutal occupier?
If what the Palestinian men who attacked the synagogue is blood libel, then what should we call the Gaza massacre that killed 2000 and injured thousands more be called?
“Netanyahu: Palestinian blood libel led to Jerusalem terror attack
Prime minister accuses Palestinians of incitement, says ordered homes of two terrorists demolished.” Haaretz
The Israelis have a sick fascination for demolishing homes too. They do it to steal lands, and they do it to punish Palestinians. Whoever called Israelis a sick society is absolutely right.
“And in the case of Hamas and like-minded groups, that Jews have a right to live”.
Cry me a river. 17 Jews killed this year in “teghogh”.
Israel murdered 490 children in Gaza in the summer.
And Jews are the victims?
When does the whining stop ?
http://www.haaretz.com/misc/iphone-article/.premium-1.600449
“A great majority of the time, for most of the Jews here, the Palestinian suffering is completely denied. When it is not documented on video it interests almost no one, and when it is documented it is repressed as a conspiracy. What significance is there to the display of mutual responsibility of these days if when they see the Palestinian baby who survived a premature birth and a car accident, but did not survive a live bullet fired at his upper body, in light of the documentation of his death we do not become angry and give our hearts out to him and his family; and instead we ask with estranged cynicism and in arrogant contempt: “Why don’t they show us what happened earlier?” ”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-peace-conference/1.601122
“Almost every Israeli in the last 47 years has done military service in the territories. Almost all of them have had to do things that go against human decency and morality – often not for the sake of Israel’s security at large, but to protect some isolated outpost of settlers. If indeed Israel were to reach peace with the Palestinians and the Arab world, most Israelis would have to live with the painful realization that most of what Israel has done to the Palestinians was unnecessary; that Israel could have ended the occupation a long time ago; and that the energies and resources invested in the West Bank’s colonization could have been invested in Israel’s flourishing instead.
This idea is too difficult to bear, and the regret would be unendurable. It is, therefore, psychologically imperative to create a narrative that explains why the occupation was inevitable; why Israel had no choice but to hang onto the West Bank; why all the sacrifice in human lives, moral turpitude and political isolation were necessary for Israel’s survival.”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.612622
” In his speech, Rosen-Zvi said, “I want to single out two things that seem new and very frightening to me. First, the death of soldiers no longer creates the same public pressure as in the past. It’s a new mechanism and different from what we knew, when coffins created a sense of revulsion that led to criticism and media pressure. It seems that now death creates togetherness and at the same time invites more death in order to justify it.”
Today’s development is another step on the road to the eventual arrival of ISIS or some descendant at the gates of Israel.
That’s where the right is leading Zionism.
I’d love to hear what Gutvitz has to say. It is so depressing.