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Fact: An Israeli settler shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian teenager today.
What you do with that information depends on your perspective of “Ha-Matzav”, The Situation, as it is known here in Israel. If you refuse to see Israel as anything but occupiers, than the nuances of the story are unimportant to you, and you can stop reading here.
If, however, you are a more educated, nuanced consumer of world news, perhaps you would like to know more about the story behind the story. And perhaps, if you’ll indulge me, you’d also like to know more about the broader story - the story surrounding the story.
The Israeli settler who shot the Palestinian teenager was, according to news reports, about to be surrounded by a mob of Palestinians. Just moments before, 200 angry Palestinians attacked an Israeli bus of CIVILIANS traveling through. They hurled rocks at the bus and when they saw the lone settler walking home, turned to attack him. The resident of Neriya took his personal weapon, kept for protection, and fired a warning shot into the sky, presumably to warn the crowd that he had a weapon. They continued to approach him as a mob and he fired at the legs of his attackers, to harm and stop them but not to kill them. When that too failed, his third resort was to ultimately take the life of one of his attackers, and thus save his own.
I’m rather impressed he had the restraint and moral fortitude to attempt to protect both the lives of himself and his attackers TWICE, before ultimately choosing to defend himself. If a mob is approaching, with the intent to lynch you, how many times would you try to stop them without killing them, before you decide that you have no choice, that if you want to live, you need to shoot to kill?
The international community has been condemning Israel for its actions in Gaza. I’d like to condemn Israel for its lack of action for the past 7 years. If there were rockets being shot daily into Saudi Arabia, Canada, or Great Britain, their governments would have responded immediately and responded harshly. Under no circumstance, would any other government have had this much tolerance and restraint for the constant attacks on its civilians. And under no circumstance would that government be withdrawing from their response after only a few days.
It has made news around the world that Israel bombed Haniyeh’s office this past week. What is not often reported (or buried so deep in the report that it is easily missed) is that the building was empty. That was not a coincidence. Rightly or wrongly, Israel often takes the moral high ground. And now, after seven years, when Israel is finally saying “Enough!”, the world is criticizing Her for playing by the same rules as everyone else. When your citizens are in danger (physically or emotionally), you protect them. End of story.
Not taking the moral high ground however, is Hamas. The Palestinians are currently facing a very bleak future. Hamas controls Gaza. President Abbas is the head of the government in the West Bank. If he wants to maintain any legitimacy, he needs to try to represent all of the Palestinians. So even though his own people in Gaza are committing war crimes, politically, he needs to stand behind them. The Palestinians no longer have one clear leader - and you can’t negotiate peace with half of a people. No matter how many average Palestinian citizens want peace and abhor terrorist activity - it is impossible to negotiate a peace agreement with only part of a people.
Hamas is currently stuck between a rock and a hard-place. Their support in Gaza is floundering, and like any government on the verge of demise, they are flailing around, trying to find anything that might work. Although it means stooping low, if they can shift blame for the situation off of themselves, and at the same time, derail the peace process, they will see themselves as victorious. Knowing Israeli’s penchant for self-critique, they know that even if they provoke attacks on their own people, Israel (and the world) will continue to see them as victims. It is a win-win situation for Hamas. And a lose-lose situation for the Palestinian people.
The only way out of this mess is for the Arab world to put enough pressure on Hamas to realize that it is not in their best interest to continue this war, and to help them to both save face and stop their rocket attacks at the same time. In the meantime, not only does Israel have the right to protect her citizens, but She has the moral obligation to do so.
RSS 
Don`t we have any right?
Does our life has no values?
Our children’s life is as cheap as life of stray dogs?
Shira, please give it a thought.
And I applaud you for at least trying to see other side of coin also, though you still have a long way to go.
Looking forward for more conversations from you.
@Andrew, before calling others bloodthirsty, why don`t you look into the past of USA. Number of crimes your government has committed exceeds the sum of total crimes committed in the whole world.
The more Israel expands outwards, the more Palestinian rockets will be launched. The more rockets that are launched, the more military campaigns Israel launches. Rinse and Repeat.. The only solution would be to dissolve the two nations, and try to create one larger secular nation with both sides having equal representation in senate. Of course this is idealistic and the whole thing would go down the crapper no less then 5 minutes of it happening, both sides splitting back into the chunks they are now. Only death awaits warring nations.
It is great to see an Israeli perspective here on the ongoing and seemingly never-ending conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. I cannot agree more with you when you say that Israel has the duty and the right to safeguard its citizens from terrorists and external aggression.
I vividly remember a few years back the incident where two Israeli soldiers lost their way and strayed into Palestinian territory where they were taken to the Palestinian Police Headquarters by a lynch mob and lynched them like animals. Even animals don’t do what the mob did to the two soldiers who lost their direction. To make matters worse, I still remember the image of the man who was showing hos blood stained hands out of the window. Israel did the right thing by retaliating and then subsequently firing a missile through the same window in the then empty building demolishing the place. No civilized person can ever condone such hideous murders.
Perhaps this is the scene that might have flashed in the mind of the Israeli settler who was being chased by another potentially life threatening lynch mob. So, the firing of the shot that killed the Palestinian teenager is well justified as an act of self defence.
Having said all the above, I would do a grave injustice to my own observance if I don’t narrate you the incidence televised all across the globe capturing the imagination of the people worldwide about Israeli brutality against Palestinians. You might have guessed it by now. Remember the incidence when a father and his 12-yr-old boy was caught in a crossfire? The father tried to save the boy for over 5 minutes. But an Israeli soldier shot him dead deliberately.
Every story in a conflict has another side. Here, no one can disagree that both the Israelis and the Palestinians behaved like sub-human species bereft of any compassion that makes us different from other animals.
A common accusation made by Palestinians against the Israelis is that we can’t look to history for validation for the right to this land. You want to talk about the past people in this land? Then I’ll want to go further back than you do and talk about when the Jews were living in the Land of Israel, long before Islam was even a religion.
I suggest leaving that argument aside, seeing the situation for what it is today, and finding a solution that works for as many people as possible.
There are very few people left in Israel who believe that a one-state solution (meaning all the land would belong to Israel) will happen. Its time that the Palestinians gave up the similar notion (that this land will be a Palestinian state), and understand that the only option is a two-state solution.
Andrew - I respect your opinion but disagree. Dissolving both nations is an answer that no one will go for. Additionally, I was incredibly offended by your first comment, and have thus deleted it. Please use this space to respectfully voice your opinions.
You have not answered me. Listen, Israel and India are friend, but I want answers.
Either way, yes, this situation has forced people on both sides to do things that they never expected to do. Israel is asking 18-21 year olds to guard borders, make life or death decisions, and protect an entire nation. I’m not jealous of that job! I have no doubt that wrong decisions were made - we’re all only human. In order to have any sympathy at all, I have to remind myself that the other side is also, only human - making decisions that seem right, in the heat of the moment, but perhaps would be made differently at a different time.
I appreciate your friendship and support, as well as your open-ness to asking for answers.
My goal is not to convince any of my readers that I am right - but rather to open minds to a different view. Thank you for engaging in it.
The terrorists are the ones who have no morals. Israeli forces don't blow up discotheques full of teenagers. We have never bombed Beirut indiscriminately. We had to carry out attacks in Lebanon to target Hezbollah terrorists operating from there to save our citizens from being killed.
in 1976 israel took a brave decision and its special forces commandos rescued hostages from far off uganda during a similar hijack situation.........
israel is doing the right thing......
Now where does Indian Airlines Flight 814 come in the picture here? Your comment is completely out of context here.
No they can't. They are the primary cause of misery to these two regions. So please don't talk rubbish.
