Jerusalem Today – Murder in a Synagogue

Jerusalem Today – Murder in a Synagogue

The brutal murder of four Israelis praying in an East Jerusalem synagogue and the subsequent death of an Israeli policeman earlier this week is as dangerous and brutal as the actions taken by Da’ish [ISIS]. As I listened to the educated debate on the PBS News Hour with Judy Woodruff discussing this situation with Dennis Ross from the Washington Bureau for Near East Policy and Professor Shibley Telhami from the University of Maryland, I noticed a glaring omission in the interview. Both men agreed that the actions were reprehensible, while Ms Woodruff drove the point by asking where these actions might lead. Is this only the tip of a third Intifada and can an outright condemnation by Palestinian President Abbas hold back the ongoing situation?

Both men spoke quite freely, although with varying degrees of disagreement. Professor Telhami believes that President Abbas is a virtual shadow, his words going unheeded; therefore what he says is not listened to by the majority of Palestinians therefore he has little power to stop the brutality. Actions like these murders, Telhami asserts, are imbedded in the Palestinian psyche as a result of the past 60 plus years of mistreatment at Israeli hands. Mr Ross disagreed by stating that Abbas, though he condemned today’s actions, continued the basic problem, demonizing Israelis in general thereby creating an atmosphere for Palestinians to continue acts of violence. But one point neither man addressed, and that was Mr Netanyahu’s response to the situation. Not only did he condemn the Palestinians, applauding the fact that both terrorists were killed, he continued his diatribe saying that the families should be arrested and their homes torn down, burned if necessary, which threat he in fact had carried out the very next day. Families were arrested, their homes demolished and burned to ashes. Is this not also an act of demonization which Mr Ross pointedly remarked was what Palestinian radio and TV continue to spout?

Vitriol such as Mr Netanyahu’s comments will never lead to a change in relations between the Israelis and Palestinians; they will merely increase misunderstanding, ill-will, and multiply acts of terror by both sides. Interestingly enough, at the interview’s conclusion a bare mention arose that these despicable murders were in retaliation to the hanging death of a Palestinian bus driver in East Jerusalem which the Israeli police determined as suicide. The world didn’t hear about this death, no global action or comments were elicited. Is it a cover-up with the two incidents completely isolated, or is this an act, a horrific act indeed, but in retaliation to a perceived lack of justice and demonization by both sides? It appears that the process of demonization is a two-way street; Near East observers must be careful to suspect both sides in this ongoing, terrible conflict.