Mirror Image?

Antisemitic vs. Jewish Terrorism

“It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends”

You’ve doubtless heard about the appalling arson of Hatzolah ambulances in London, presumably by Islamists. But I was struck at the juxtaposition in the news to another story, about another attack on medical services. Settlers attempted to set fire to a Palestinian clinic in one village in the West Bank, along with various cars and property in another village.

Discussing settler violence is something that upsets or even enrages many in our community. People claim that it’s blown out of all proportion, that it’s just a few dozen teenagers from broken homes (as Bibi falsely claimed), that all the stories are made up or distorted by haters of Israel, that giving any acknowledgement to it is playing into the hands of haters of Israel, that it’s actually the settlers who are defending themselves from Arab violence.

I used to believe all that myself. But recently, like many others, I’ve been forced to realize that it’s just not the case. To be sure, not every accusation of settler violence is true, and there are indeed situations where in the “Wild West” of the West Bank matters are more complicated. In my critique of the film “No Other Land,” I wrote about the problems with many of those pushing the “settler violence” narrative.

Nevertheless there are clearly hundreds (and possibly thousands) of adults who believe in breaking the law to cause physical harm to Arabs and their property, even to those who are not involved in anti-Jewish violence. Indeed, some of them are not shy to declare it openly. During the funeral of IDF soldier Shoval Ben-Natan, his brother Uriah eulogized him by declaring that “You entered Gaza to take revenge — as much as possible. [Against] women, children — everyone you saw. As much as possible. That’s what you wanted.”

The numerous reasons why such violence is wrong is apparently not self-evident, so I’ll briefly spell it out. It’s wrong to deliberately inflict violence on the innocent, it severely corrodes character, it’s wrong to act outside of the law and it corrodes society, and it causes great harm to Israel internationally.

But why do so many people deny that settler violence exists? The psychological drives to deny such things is obvious. But there’s also the fact that many people - including many settlers - are genuinely unaware of the extent to which this phenomenon exists. And today’s stories demonstrate why.

Immediately after the attack on the Hatzola ambulances, a very right-wing person I know commented on how the BBC was not headlining this local event and was instead reporting on settler violence in the West Bank, thousands of miles away. (In fact, it quickly became a headline on the BBC.) But, once again, there was a mirror to be found in Arutz Sheva, which headlined the attack on the Hatzola ambulances in London, but did not mention anything about the settler attack! With some notable exceptions such as the Rosh Yeshiva of Maale Gilboa, religious and right-wing Israeli society simply does not talk or report about settler violence, and thus many people have no idea that it is a genuine and serious phenomenon.

Rav Yehuda Gilad with two Arab victims of violence

Now, to the question: Is the phenomenon of lawless settler violence against innocent Palestinians in Israel actually a mirror image of lawless Islamist violence against innocent Jews in London?

To my mind it seems that there is one similarity, one difference, and one aspect that used to be a clear mark in our favor but is currently not so.

The similarity is the innate nature of it: lawless violence against the innocent, on the grounds that they are seen as being part of a larger enemy group.

The difference is the enormous difference in scale. Arabs do not have to worry about anything from Jews remotely approaching what Jews have to worry about from Arabs (and imagine if the Arabs held the overall power!).

The aspect that used to be a mark in our favor was that such behavior was illegal and punished and rejected by the leadership. That was true in Israel until Bibi, desperate to retain power, broke Likud opposition to Kahanism by legitimizing Itamar Ben Gvir, a man who believes in violence and lawlessness, and even made him Minister of National Security. Since then, there has been a clear message projected that Jewish violence against Arabs will not be taken particularly seriously.

There’s still a huge difference between Britain and Israel. To quote Shany Mor, “Britain didn’t become unsafe for Jews because of a rabble of semi-literates with violent tendencies. It became unsafe because the cultural and academic elite nurtured for years a comprehensive worldview organized around the idea of Jewish malevolence abroad and conspiracy at home.”

But on the other hand, the British government is making the right noises, the security forces will investigate, and if the culprits are found, they will be punished. The same unfortunately cannot be said for how the Israeli government and security forces will respond to those who set fire to the Arab clinic. This is yet another reason to hope for the extremist and anti-Zionist aberrations of the current government to be corrected in the next election.

UPDATE: A friend told me that the IDF takes these things very seriously. See this report that the IDF has transferred a battalion from Lebanon to deal with the problem of settler violence. But how sad that we need to divert IDF forces for such a thing at such a time.