Talking About Duma (Dedicated to Lara from Peace Now)

I am quoted in the Jerusalem Post in a story by Eliyahu Kamisher so:

According to Yisrael Medad, a longtime resident of Shiloh, located around six kilometers from Duma, “no one talks about Duma – we are just looking ahead.”

That's it.  That's all.

I spoke to him for at least twenty minutes.  Oh well.

Peace Now's Lara Friedman, based on that, wrote:

Just a year post-triple murder, @ymedad tells JPost: "no one talks about Duma – we are just looking ahead”

Actually, what was quoted was a very small part of our telephone conversation (and Lara, being so sophisticated and knowledgeable could have surmised that).

I spoke to him and told him of our opposition to the violence that has been perpetartedand that the very first people who complained about the so-called "price-tag" policy years ago were members of the Yesha Council including Dani Dayan and myself. We pleaded with law enforcement agencies to rid us of this stain. I told him how we in Shiloh caught a Mevasseret Tzion kid breaking windows of parked Arab cars at Shiloh and complained to the police.

I actually told him that we do discuss Duma and the fact that the trial is dragging on and despite Moshe Yaalon's statement that he knows who did the bombing, the lack of a clear verdict, unfortunately, assists those who believe in conspiracy theories. I also pointed out that the previous week another firebomb was thrown there causing people to ask if either a Jewish terror group is still active or perhaps there is some truth to the claim that it isn't clear what is happening, and had happened earlier, regarding perhaps internal feuding there.

We do "talk about Duma" but we don't let it interfere with our goal of leading our lives as normally as possible, not allowing people like Lara to sabotage Zionist achievement or others to besmirch our enterprise by the acts of the few, if they are indeed guilty (and I hope the court clears that up soon).

_____________

UPDATE

Lara has now tweeted:

@ymedad corrects the record: a year later he DOES talk about Duma murders. Read for yourself.

^

She Came To Pillory, Not To Praise

Sara Hirschhorn has an op-ed in the New York Times (see below) and I will deal with its contents further on but one element jumped out at me and so I left a comment there and it is this:

"Settler rabbis and the leaders of American immigrant communities in the West Bank have either played down their crime or offered muted criticism."

That assertion is either a lie or a sign of ignorance to my mind.  Or a dubious misrepresentation of the reality.  Either Sara is an op-ed columnist or she is an academic, at east in this stage of her life.

More than three dozen Rabbis, leading Rabbis from within the Gush Emunim/Yesha camp, Rabbis of communities, signed a proclamation entitled "Thou Shall Not Murder" and more joined later.  Here: 

Leading spokespersons of the Yesha Council denounced the act as they have done for the past years, notably by Dani Dayan and others. So have educators like the head of the most prestigious pre-Army mechina. Rabbi Haim Druckman issued a strong statement. Tzohar Rabbis, too. There is also this story and even I upped the poster at my FB account.  There was an interfaith event in Gush Etzion. Well, sort of interfaith. If she was looking for a serious moral problem she should have pointed the finger at the Palestinian Authority and its attitude towards the killing of Jews.  The few Rabbis that were equivocal in their pronouncements are either part of the 'price tag' thinking or known for their out-of-camp views and no one follows them.  Maybe she relied on this claptrap.  Of course, for some people, there is never enough evidence that some people are not doing the wrong thing.  

Pillorying is easier than praising.

I know Sara, even well, and here we are in the hills back of Shiloh.  

I  tried to assist her in her research and connect her to friends.  No regrets.  Luckily, she found a wealth of documentation to trace the history of Jewish Americans in the early days of the revitalization of Jewish life in Judea and Samaria and Gaza then as well.

I am aware that Sara doesn't think this is happening enough.  Condemnations should be louder and stronger in her opinion.  By the way, did the PA condemn an American's act of terror in the driver-by murder of Malachi Rosenfeld?

She assumes that 'price tag' activities are being tolerated like this person publishing in the Jewish Press.  She probably would have me send out of our community someone like my neighbor Era Rappaport who was sentenced to prison for an attack on a terrorist leader even after he fulfilled the terms of his imprisonment and punishment.  Raising money for his defense fund seems to be a crime in her mind.

Our fundamental respect for life, she assumes, has been lost.

We Shilonians turned in a 'price-tagger', who did not live in Yesha, who had broken windows of the cars of Arab laborers in Shiloh parked outside our entrance gate.  A recent inflammatory poster on churches didn't last the night on our billboards. We need no patronising lecturing.

I could, of course, quote Rabbi Elazar in the Midrash Tanhuma, at Metzora :

he who is merciful to the cruel, in the end becomes cruel to those who are merciful

But the fact of the matter is that not of our initiative, we are in a terror war, one the Arabs have directed almost totally exclusively against the unarmed and defenceless, especially children.  It was launched in the political sense in April 1920 although anti-Jewish violence meant to prevent Jews from buying property and repopulating the land of the Jewish homeland reached back into the mid-1850s.

If many people can seek to support and justify an Arab claim to establish an independent state of Palestine after all this terror, this ongoing terror, then I admit, I feel no moral inadequacy in this matter for as much as the 'price tag' phenomenon is wrong, criminal and senseless, besides being quite unhelpful and even harmful to our enterprise - and Hirschhorn's article is an example of that - I do make comparisons overall and see our moral and ethical standard as much higher than that of our neighbors overall.  After all, we recently learned that the Palestinian Authority promotes a libel, informing all that "Jews of high position" planned an arson attempt at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.  Duma is nothing compared to what this portends.

As for Duma itself, I am still not convinced Jews perpetrated the torching and until suspects are caught, place on trial and found guilty, I'll be a Western democrat human rights advocate and withhold judgment [UPDATE, in Hebrew: unlike the IDF which is "sure" it's a Jewish terror act].  That would be the ethical stance.  [UPDATE, in Hebrew]

   -     -     -     -     -


And now comments on some excerpts from her op-ed:

Israeli Terrorists, Born in the U.S.A.
Jerusalem — ON July 31, in the West Bank village of Duma, 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh was burned alive in a fire. All available evidence suggests that the blaze was a deliberate act of settler terrorism. 

And exactly how much evidence is that "all"?  Can she explain a Chabad-like graffiti on the wall?  She should have noted that the police were not neutral by not offering the standard reaction of "all avenues of investigation are being followed".

More disturbingly, several of the alleged instigators, currently being detained indefinitely, are not native-born Israelis — they have American roots.  But there has been little outcry in their communities. Settler rabbis and the leaders of American immigrant communities in the West Bank have either played down their crime or offered muted criticism.

See above for quantity and quality.

After years of impunity for settlers who commit violent crimes, Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, has now supposedly cracked down 

Impunity or perhaps bad police procedures or being fixated on certain subjects, the wrong ones?

by rounding up a grand total of four youths believed to be connected to recent acts of settler terrorism — three of whom trace their origins to the United States.

So, that's it?  Four?  And they are only suspects.

...Rabbi Shlomo Riskin...to him, settlers were now the victims. “We’re not fighting against an enemy who plays by the same rules as we do,” he argued. “Given the cruelty and barbarism of the Arabs to their own people, our ethical imperative is not to commit suicide.” 

And he is wrong?

...many mainstream American settlers...have also learned the value of speaking fluent liberalese on the international stage. By translating Scripture into sound bites, Jewish-American settlers have played a pivotal role in the public relations rebranding of the Israeli settler movement — and these professed liberals are now helping to deflect attention from crimes committed by Jews.

No, we are not.

For all their protestations that they are good liberals, many American settler leaders have been deafeningly silent on recent acts of Jewish terrorism...Where are their op-eds in American and Israeli newspapers condemning violent Jewish extremism?

The NYTimes, The Forward, etc. do not publish me for I am a "settler".

For four decades, their condemnation has often been either muted or tempered by attempts to play down Jewish terrorism by framing it as an issue of “understanding the context” — a euphemism for reacting to Palestinian violence. 

And, for a scholar, context is ... wrong?

...it is not enough for Jews to preach to Palestinians that moderates must speak out, murderers must be cast out, and incitement must be stopped without taking the same aggressive steps within their own communities.

And it is not enough for Sara and fellow liberals to preach solely to the Jews.  Or to castigate them unfairly, especially to promote a book, based on her PhD dissertation, like her forthcoming “City on a Hilltop: American Jews and the Israeli Settler Movement Since 1967.”

_____________

P.S.  I see now that the Israeli government is to blame:.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has said it holds the Israeli government "fully responsible" for the death of Riham Dawabsheh, the mother of a Palestinian toddler killed in an arson attack on 31 July in a Palestinian village in the West Bank...Saeb Erekat, Palestinian chief negotiator, called the assassination a consequence of a "culture of hate that has been developing in Israel by supporting settlements and apartheid", which, he claimed, is fuelled by "hate speech, settlement expansion and the impunity granted to Israel by the International community".

^

The House in Duma

Several Hebrew-language articles (here by Sarah Beck and now here by Ayelet Kahane) and English ones (here and here)  have addressed the common assumption of the police, the IDF and, most importantly, the media, that the torching of a house in Duma in which resulted in the deaths of two people, an infant and the father, was the work of Jews, most probably "hilltop youth" who were engaged in a "price tag" action.  In the Los Angeles Times, all of Israel was blamed.

Sandy Tolan, associate professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC, whose book has been sharply criticized and who accuses Israel of apartheid wrote

The fire in Duma cannot be seen as a random event. Rather, it is the outcome of decades of Israel's expansionist policies in the West Bank. 

Kahane's column

includes a photo of the location of the house which is deep in the village:

The question raised is why would Jewish youth infiltrate a house not on the edge of the village but prefer to walk several hundred meters, past many houses with dogs and residents, to commit their heinous crime?

So, far, four fires have occurred at Duma all involving the Darawshe Dawabsheh family which raises a curious problem: who, or what, is responsible for all these flames?

P.S.   And read this.

^

The Negative Value of 'Price Tag'

First published in the weekly Parsha sheet, Shabat B'Shabato, #1524 this past week, and subsequently republished at various web sites (I have provided below the full Hebrew text), Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, head of the Tzomet Institute and a firm Land of Israel/Gush Emunim/national-religious figure, criticized scathingly the "tag price" phenomenon.  And not for the first time (see his December 2011 piece) when he wrote

Foolish fanaticism, hallucinatory and murderous, also contributed to the spoiling of the vision of expanded settlements among broad groups of our nation. And this is exactly what is happening before our very eyes as we watch the “Price Tag” events, shaking our heads and shedding tears out of pity: It is a pity that you should waste your youth for no good reason in prison, and it is a pity that you corrupt the righteousness of our path.
And this explains why the cries that are heard from every corner are futile: “Where are the rabbis who can calm them down? Why don’t the rabbis stop them?” We are told that “those ruffians” from the Second Temple era “stabbed their own rabbi!” [Gittin ibid]. They will not be deterred by having us turn our backs on them. In any case, if for no other reason than to reject the claim that we do not scold them, I hereby object loudly and without any limit to their actions. The need to voice an objection is also clear from the quote at the beginning of this article, in the commentary on a verse in this week’s Torah portion – that we are all responsible for each other, especially those who “were able to protest and did not.”

He signed last January's petition critical of the acts together with some 100 other Rabbis.

Of course, these voices, and others, and more, for all that, mean almost nothing.  Well, they actually do but since the secular press ignores them or minimizes their impact by not providing the same coverage they do to the acts themselves, the media becomes the best ally these criminal acts could have.  The YESHA leadership has not been complacently silent for years.  I was asked about this issue, more as relating the the Pope's upcoming visit and attacks on churches during my time with the UK's Chief Rabbi's Mission last week although I had to point out that in years past, it was more the haredi section implicated in anti-Christian acts.

Yes, the burning of fields and the daubing of buildings must be covered but, if you then complain that these are "hate acts", "terrorism" or the such and then downplay the criticism within the camp, then all you are engaged in is sensationalism and you become a partner-in-crime.  And, in too many cases, simply because one is politically against the renewed presence of Jews throughout their national homeland, you are ignoring these voices and thereby provide assistance to persons who should long ago have been arrested to gain an empowered platform on the scene.  If only the police would merit one-third of the criticism directed at the youths supposed to be responsible.

The lack of highlighting desecrations of Jewish sites or the swastika grafitti and such is also a testimony to the lack of balance in the public discussion of the issue either by clergymen, politicians, reporters and government officials.

Some excerpts from his latest:

"I do not accept that these acts are Arab provocations, of Jewish left-wingers or the GSS or other dark recess elements.  I suspect that we are talking about youths-without-yoke, kids who are irresponsible who are sure that their hooliganism will win.

...they have assumed for themselves the role of the 'national irritant' of our enemies, rule of law and the security forces...

...these people of the break-out extremism I know do not pay attention to moral rebukes. They do not listen to Rabbis and certainly do not consider the benefit of their actions according to a scale of 'loss and gain'...the claims of 'where are the Rabbis?' are worthless since they do not listen...but, at the very least, to refute claims of non-denunciation, I hereby protest this pehonomenon loudly...

...[relating to the suggestion that these acts arecomparable to Torah sources favoring extremism] extremism is defined as spontaneous and perhaps could be excused under certain circumstances.  Extremism is always individualistic but all this banding together and taking advice one from another is not extremism but hooliganism...

הרב רוזן: מעשיהם של אנשי תג המחיר מובילים למעשים כמו טבח גולדשטיין 

אנשי הקנאות המתפרצת אינם שומעים תוכחות מוסר, אינם מצייתים לרבנים, ובודאי אינם שוקלים את תועלת מעשיהם באמת מידה של רווח והפסד. הם פועלים ´מתוך הבטן´ או מתוך מיסטיקה משיחית ו"שישרף העולם"  

הרב ישראל רוזן ט"ו אייר תשע"ד, 15/05/2014 12:21 

"וכשלו איש באחיו (כו,לז) בעוון אחיו, שכולן ערבים זה בזה  שהיה בידם למחות ולא מיחו" (סנהדרין כז,ב)

 "הנהו בריוני"

 בית המקדש השני חרב, בין השאר, 'בזכות' "הנהו בריוני" - הבריונים הללו - שענדו את תג יחידת הסיקריקין (עפ"י גיטין נו). הללו נטלו את החרב לידם, תוך שכנוע עצמי שהם נוטלים את החוק והצדק בידם, והטילו מוראם וחיתתם על כל סביבותיהם, אויבים ואחים כאחת. כלפי מה הדברים אמורים? בודאי כבר נחשתם מן הכותרת; בריוני 'תג מחיר' ה'נלחמים' בפלשתינים ובמפקדי צה"ל, במסגדים ובצמיגי הג'יפים – באש, בדוקרן ובגרפיטי (בעיקר). בריונים אלו נוטלים לעצמם את תפקיד 'המתגרה הלאומי' באויבינו, בממשלת החוק וברשויות הבטחון (בעיקר). אינני מקבל את הטיעון כאילו מדובר בפרובקציה של פלסטינים, של יהודי-שמאל, של השב"כ או של גורמי אופל חסויים. חוששני כי מדובר בבני-בלי-עול, בנערים חסרי אחריות הבטוחים כי בבריונות ננצח! מכיר אנכי היטב את סיפור קנאות הפיגוע של שמעון ולוי בשכם, אך בנדוננו אני מזדהה לחלוטין עם גערתו הנוקבת של יעקב אבינו-אביהם: "עכרתם אותי להבאישני ביושב הארץ... ואני מתי מספר, ונאספו עלי והכוני ונשמדתי אני וביתי" (בראשית לד,ל). גערת יעקב איננה רק אי-שביעות רצון ("עכרתם אותי") אלא היא הופכת לקללה של ממש - "ארור אפם" - המלווה בענישת הגלייה, פירוד והרחקה זה מזה - "אחלקם ביעקב ואפיצם בישראל" (בראשית מט,ז). הקנאים – פיזור נאה להם ולעולם!  

"רבם דקרו" עוד זאת ידעתי כי אנשי הקנאות המתפרצת אינם שומעים תוכחות מוסר, אינם מצייתים לרבנים, ובודאי אינם שוקלים את תועלת מעשיהם באמת מידה של 'רווח כנגד הפסד'. הם פועלים 'מתוך הבטן' או מתוך מיסטיקה משיחית ו"שישרף העולם"! את ההוכחה עד כמה גדול הנזק במעשים פרטיזניים כאלו סיפק לנו קנאי נשכח במקצת, שהיה אדם בעל רקורד אישי נאצל ולא 'נער גבעות' אלמוני, הלא הוא ד"ר ברוך גולדשטיין מקרית ארבע, אשר הרג עשרות פלסטינים במערת המכפלה בפורים תשנ"ד (94), וגרם נזק עצום "להבאישני", במתן חרב-מתהפכת נגדנו בידי אויבינו המוסלמים ואומות העולם. קנאות אווילית, הזויה ורצחנית, זו תרמה לא מעט להמאסת חזון ההתנחלות בקרב שדרות נרחבות בעם, וכך בדיוק מתרחש לנגד עינינו הצופות ב'תג מחיר' במנוד ראש ובדמע של רחמים: חבל על עלומיכם שיסתאבו בכלא לריק, וחבל על טינוף צידקת הדרך. לפיכך הטענות המושמעות מעל כל בימה: "איפה הרבנים שירסנו אותם", "איפה הרבנים שיוציאו להם כרטיס צהוב" - אלו טענות סרק-סרק באין שומע. יתר על כן, על "הנהו בריוני" של חורבן בית שני נאמר "רבם דקרו!" (מסכת גיטין שם); הם לא יירתעו גם מלהפנות להם עורף. מכל מקום, ולו רק כדי להזים טענת אי-מחאה, הריני מוחה בזאת מחאה רבתי ללא סייג. חובת המחאה שאני מקיים בזאת עולה גם מתוך הציטוט בראש המדור, בדרש על פסוק בפרשתנו, על הערבות ההדדית של כולנו ובפרט של "מי שהיה בידו למחות ואינו מוחה".

 אין קנאות מתוכננת

 הזכרנו את שמעון ולוי, קנאי-שכם, כמעוררי השראה לקנאות תג-מחיר. כאן מקום לומר מספר משפטים רלבנטיים 'מן המקורות' אודות היחס לקנאות. "שמעון ולוי קנאו קנאה גדולה על הזנות ולקחו איש חרבו והרגו" (פרדר"א לח), וספגו קיתונות של חמה מיעקב. "לקחו איש חרבו" בספונטניות, ללא תכנון מוקדם, מבלי לייסד ארגון קנאי וללא תג יחידה והכרזה על מדיניות. כך הדגישו חז"ל: "שלא נטלו עצה מיעקב... ולא נטלו עצה זה מזה" (בר"ר פ,ט). שני אחים אלו נפגשים שוב בזירה קנאות אך הפעם הם ניצבים זה מול זה: פינחס הכהן (בן לוי) הרג את זמרי הנשיא (בן שמעון) בעוון פריצות עם בת מואב; "פנחס שלא ברצון חכמים. א"ר יודה: בקשו לנדותו, אלולי שקפצה עליו רוח הקדש ואמרה (במדבר כח, יב) הנני נותן לו את בריתי שלום תחת אשר קינא" (ירושלמי סנהדרין ט,יא). הסלחנות כלפי פינחס היתה בשל הספונטניות, ולא התכנון. בהלכות קנאים שנינו: "הבועל ארמית קנאים פוגעים בו" (סנהדרין פא,ב), ובנשימה אחת נאמר שם: "הבא לימלך אין מורין לו". הוי אומר, קנאות מוגדרת בספונטניות, ולעתים היא נסלחת לפי הנסיבות. הקנאות לעולם היא יחידאית, וכל התארגנות ו'נטילת עצה זה מזה' אינה קנאות אלא בריונות.

^

Briefly on "Price Tag" Activity

I have been informed by Honenu that

There are 80 investigators busy looking for "price tag" criminals

That's a lot of manpower.

And manpower hours.

And expenses for manpower.

And, if my guess is right, that would be a 1:1 relation between the amount of "price tag" offenders and their investigators.  Not to mention the eventual prosecutors and judges.

I sure hope they find the guilty soon.

That's a lot of waste, otherwise.

^ 

Soars? Or Falls Flat?

An AP story is headlined so:

There is no balance in the story for three reasons.

One, almost all objective reporting on "West Bank violence", which would deal with both sides, is missing.

This is the only reference to the daily rock-throwing and the more than occasional violent damage done by Arabs to Jewish agricultural property, bot to mention the official Palestinian Authority incitement campaign:

More than 1,700 Palestinians were injured by settlers or by troops in clashes, while 324 settlers and 37 soldiers were hurt by Palestinians in confrontations.
Palestinians also initiate violence, including throwing stones at Israeli motorists. In 2011, Palestinians stabbed to death five members of a family, including three small children, in their settlement home as they slept.

The motorist - and his infant son - in one incident was killed, murdered. 

Jews are not even statistics or numbers in that section.

Second, Arabs are mentioned by name (Qusra resident Abdel Hakim Odeh. its Mayor Abdel Azim Wadi)

Not so the Jewish residents or their representatives:

The Yesha Council, an umbrella for more than 550,000 Israeli settlers, said it opposes violence and has distanced itself from price tag.Settler leaders portray the vandals as hotheads...

The IDF gets a name as does the police.  The Haaretz correspondent is named. A critical former IDF "West Bank" commander is named.  The Jewish residents are nameless.
  
Third, there is the UN's OCHA and Yesh Din is included in the story as references but no Israel/Jewish NGO.

I call that media bias.

Soaring bias.

^

A Comment on Al-Haq's "Settler Violence" Report

Al-Haq has a new report out:

 

Institutionalised Impunity: Israel’s Failure to Combat Settler Violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

 

 

and one point I wish to that

 

Attacks by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank against members of the Palestinian population and their property are an extensive, long-term, and worsening phenomenon. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the number of settler attacks resulting in Palestinian casualties and property damage increased...

 

I would just like to point out, since I inquired, that the OCHR does not really investigate reported acts in any independent manner and rarely, if ever, sends an on-site team to review and take evidence and challenge the claims made.

 

I am not saying that there is no violence and I surely condemn all such violence.  Nevertheless, what I think happens is that groups like Al-Haq report an act of violence to the OCHR and the OCHR reports it and then Al-Haq, etc. quote as an authoritative source from ... OCHR. 

 

Clever those Arabs.

^

Price Tag Too Costly

The "Price Tag" activity is too costly.

Criminal.  Immoral.  Wrong.  Dangerous.  I have condemned it previously.

The outpost of Geulat Tzion was dismantled today:-

Arabs did not do it.  The Army, the Border Police and the Civil Administration did it.

Yes, those security forces have nothing better to do than to engage in this activity and it should be protested.

But this following is plain stupid as well as all of the above:

(Ma'an) -- Dozens of settlers set fire to agricultural land in in the district of Nablus on Wednesday and attacked students at a local school, a Palestinian Authority official said.  Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma'an that settlers from Shilo set fire to agricultural land in an area known as Mount Jalud.  Dozens of settlers then raided a school in the nearby village of Qaryut and vandalized five cars. The group also set fire to land in the village, destroying dozens of olive trees...Settlers tried to enter the village but were confronted by local residents, Daghlas added.  An Israeli army spokeswoman said the military is looking into the incident.

And here is the AP report:

Residents of a Palestinian village in the West Bank say masked Jewish settlers burst into a school, vandalized cars and torched olive trees during a rampage that forced schoolchildren to remain locked in classrooms to keep safe.  Fawzi Ali, a teacher at the school in Jaloud, says the settlers entered on Wednesday and began throwing stones. He says teachers locked classroom doors to protect the school's 175 students as the doors were pelted.  The settlers smashed the windshields of several cars outside, and then lit a fire that burned through a nearby olive grove.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/09/3679353/settler-rampage-forces-palestinian.html#storylink=cpy

Repeated by Fox.

Channel One TV announced that 6 suspects were arrested.

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Was This Another Price-Tag Act?

Is this another price-tag act of vandalism by young extreme vigilante Jewish youngsters who hate Arabs?

At least 15 Toyota Priuses have their tires slashed

I guess not.

In happened in Arlington County, USA.

Police said the vandalism was discovered Monday morning. They said the incidents had occurred across the county, but it appeared that the Cherrydale and Waverly Hills neighborhoods of North Arlington were the sites of the greatest number of the incidents. The Prius is a popular hybrid vehicle.

No motive was disclosed in the vandalism, and it was not clear how many people carried it out. Police said they had no suspects.

Can't be too careful in apportioning blame.

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Shiloh Deals with a 'Price Tag' Incident

Some observers think we do not care at all about perpetrators of "price tag" attacks or even cover up for them.

My neighbor caught one in the act and alerted the police:

Son of government employee suspected of price-tag attacks

The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court decided on Tuesday to allow police to continue holding Dor Oved (22) in custody over suspicions that the Mevasseret Zion resident vandalized and damaged Palestinian vehicles parked at an industrial park in Judea and Samaria.

The suspect, who has been arrested for price-tag attacks before, allegedly vandalized a number of vehicles belonging to Palestinians on Monday, puncturing tires and spray-painting slogans like "death to Arabs" and "price-tag" in the Shiloh settlement's industrial area.

...Police officers caught Oved in the act on Tuesday, chased after him and managed to arrest him. Police said they found evidence that pointed to the suspect's involvement in the crime near the site where they caught him. Among the evidence, police recovered two knives, one of which was allegedly the device the suspect used to puncture the tires.

The suspect told investigators that he was in the area at the time of his arrest because he works at a nearby vineyard. His attorney, Itamar Ben-Gvir, denied all charges against his client and said that police were harassing the suspect because he is a known right-wing activist.

Note this from a previous incident:

Palestinian 'price tag' victim recounts attack

Construction worker beaten by masked settlers in Shiloh suffers from bruises, deep laceration to back of head

"I was walking to work as usual when eight young, masked settlers armed with clubs began hitting me in the head and legs," Palestinian construction worker Sami Snobar recalled from his hospital bed Thursday.

Snobar was one of two Palestinians who were attacked in the West Bank settlement of Shiloh Thursday morning, in what police suspect was a "price tag" act carried out to avenge the massacre in Itamar.

"They sprayed my face with pepper spray – it burned and my face turned red," he said. "Then one of them picked up a brick and struck (my head) with it."

The other Palestinian sustained light injuries, as did a Jewish security guard who tried to protect the construction workers. Magen David Adom paramedics treated the three at the scene...Shiloh residents were quick to condemn the attack, and said that as far as they know the perpetrators were not from the settlement.

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Thank You, EU

What can I say but "thank you, EU".

First, for again proving its malicious bias.

Second, for giving Israel the idea and, better, the rationale, to come down harder on the internationalists that block our roads, etc.

That's from reading this:

The European Union is recommending a blacklist of "known violent settlers" who will be blocked from entering EU member states, a Western diplomat told Haaretz...[after] the consuls general of the EU countries in East Jerusalem and Ramallah wrote a report dealing with settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, especially the incidents the settlers refer to as "price tag" revenge attacks.The report recommended that EU headquarters in Brussels draw up a blacklist of settlers who would be forbidden entry into the 27 EU states.

...This document, which was obtained by Haaretz, says most of the violent incidents perpetrated by settlers "appear to be part of a pattern of coercion aimed at forcing Palestinian communities in Area C to leave with a view to expanding settlements or outposts." The document also states that the "political strength of the settler movement has grown" and "the Israeli authorities have generally not taken firm action against outposts [that are] also illegal under Israeli law." Given that, it states, a "culture of impunity is which the violence continues" has developed.

...The United Nations "considers settler violence as the biggest security threat to its personnel in the West Bank," the document states. 

 And there's this:-

Several of the committee experts visited the West Bank and Israel last week. A Foreign Ministry source said the visit "was totally unbalanced. Unfortunately, this is typical of some of the European clerical staff."
According to the source, the European diplomats devoted most of their time to visiting the Palestinian Authority areas, and made several tours of the region accompanied solely by Palestinian officials. The Foreign Ministry was infuriated when told of the document's contents, with officials saying that Israel had had no inkling that EU institutions were preparing any such blacklist. "It's hard to respond to a paper we haven't seen," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor. "As for the inflammatory proposal to refuse to admit what they call 'known violent settlers' because Israel hasn't put them on trial, there's an internal contradiction there. How will a person be defined as a 'violent settler' if he hasn't been convicted? And if he's been convicted, then Israel has brought him to justice. It seems as if in their eagerness to suggest tough measures, these esteemed experts neglected simple logic."

Of course, if the EU reps would spend more time with people in the communities of Yesha, acting just a bit more objectively, maybe they would learn something.

^

Exactly Who Is Extreme?

Today, the NYTimes allowed this piece (fuller version here)  to be published at its site:

Stopping Extremist Settlers

Daniel Byman and Natan Sachs are the authors.  Heavyweights, a bit.  Byman is professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University and director of research at the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution. Sachs is a fellow at the Saban Center.  He even has a video summary of the article.

To be truthful, much of the analysis could have be said by me, although with different emphases and, of course, with a bit more nuanced language.

But it's a statement like this:

Late this past June, a group of Israeli settlers in the West Bank defaced and burned a mosque in the small West Bank village of Jabaa....The torching of the mosque was part of a wider trend of routine violence committed by radical settlers against innocent Palestinians, Israeli security personnel, and even mainstream settler leaders — all aimed at intimidating perceived enemies of the settlement project. 

that bothers me.

There have been no arrests, no charge sheets, no trials, not judgment, no sentencing.

Sure, I can guess and suppose just like them but at least write "suspected"? 

Or expressing this sort of logic:-

Whenever extremist settlers destroy Palestinian property or deface a mosque, they strengthen Palestinian radicals at the expense of moderates, undermining support for an agreement and delaying a possible accord. 

is also problematic.  After all, there was radical or even extremist or terrorist "Palestinians" active way before the "hilltop youth" phenomenon or the "price tag" policy.  I am not, to be clear, lending any support in any way to the Jewish violence that there is and have condemned it.  As have all Yesha Council leaders.

So how is this true?

Meanwhile, each time the Israeli leadership caves in to the demands of radical settlers it vindicates their tactics and encourages ever more brazen behavior, deepening the government’s paralysis.

The police may be incompetent, perhaps, but their claim is simply not true.  "Caving in"?  Oh, puhleese.

And as if this hasn't or isn't happening:-

Israeli leaders must denounce extremists and shun their representatives, placing particular pressure on religious leaders who incite violent extremism. 

As for this ending:-

Extremist violence tarnishes Israel’s name and imperils its future. Friends of Israel, the Israeli government, and even those who support the settlements in the West Bank should fight back against this dangerous phenomenon.

I agree.  And we are.  But article such as these, which fudge truth and tarnish, are of no help but rather are expressions of ideological opposition and not honest concerned involvement.

________________

UPDATE

PM Netanyahu Condemns the Throwing of a Molotov Cocktail Near Bat Ayin
(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this evening (Thursday, 16 August 2012), sharply condemns the throwing of a Molotov cocktail near Bat Ayin. He has instructed the ISA to act determinedly to apprehend those who perpetrated the attack.  "This is a very serious incident. We will do everything to catch those responsible and bring them to justice," the Prime Minister said.


^

There Went A 'War'

Yesterday's news reported today:

The New York Times
My Alerts: Palestine
June 20, 2012 12:38 AM
--------------------------------------
West Bank Mosque Is Set Ablaze and Vandalized
By JODI RUDOREN and KHALED ABU AKER
A West Bank mosque was burned and vandalized early on Tuesday, with graffiti warning in Hebrew of a "war" over the impending evacuation of the Jewish settlement of Ulpana.
Full Story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/20/world/europe/west-bank-mosque-is-set-ablaze-and-vandalized.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

Today's news today:

Ulpana residents agree to voluntary evacuation
By TOVAH LAZAROFF
06/20/2012
Outpost residents say agreement preventing forced evacuation comes after PMO pledges to build 300 homes in Beit El settlement.

and

Ulpana residents consent to eviction
Itamar Fleishman
Residents of contested Beit El neighborhood agree to government plan; settlement to get 300 new housing units

Not quite the paper of record.

Operative conclusion: the 'price tag' people were outside agitators and/or provocateurs.

^

My Response To David Makovsky Is Up at Sh'ma

Here, at Sh'ma, entitled

Guest Blog Post: In response to David Makovsky’s “A History of Hatred”

It starts off:

David Makovsky suggests (“A History of Hatred”, Sh’ma 42/689, April 2012) that the small group of “Price Tag” hooligans are “the closest inheritor of the Sicarii mantle” that “it is possible they are enjoying the tacit support of a wider group” and they must be stood up to “just as [is done] with Palestinian terrorism.” Makovsky is not only misleading his readers but is engaging in the very sinat chinim he rails against...

Read it all.

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Another Spray-On Story But Whose Price-Tag?

Remember my doubts, based on handwriting, about the identity of those who scrawled "price-tag" on the wall of a mosque in the Beduin village of Tuba Zangria?  And the follow-up story and this one noted by EoZ?  Here, too.

Well, I saw this item in Hebrew in Israel Hayom and Ynet and found it at this site, Israeli Uncensored News, in English:

Young Arabs arrested over Nazi graffiti


Two fifteen-year-old Arabs from Beit Zarzir village were confined to house arrest after spraying swastikas on a school.

The Ynet adds that they also sprayed grafitti "Death to Arabs".

Well, we do not know, as yet, who was violent in Tuba but from now on, we cannot be sure exactly who is doing what.  It could be a Jew, it could be an Arab.

Just saying, you know.

^

Hilltop Youth Worse Than 'Militants' (aka Terrorists)?

Edmund Sanders reporting from Givat Assaf outpost for the LATimes: Settlement outposts at root of Jewish violence in West Bank thinks that this is a neutral statement of observation from "Israeli pundits":

"hilltop youths...are a bigger security threat in the West Bank than Palestinian militants."

He explains:

...After years of legal wrangling, Givat Assaf, a collection of trailers and sheds that house 25 Jewish families, was slated for demolition this month...a fringe group of young extremists, fueled by the ideological belief that the entire Holy Land belongs to the Jewish people, have embarked on a campaign of incitement, destruction and intimidation in a last-ditch effort to save their communities...The recent militant attacks appear aimed at making the prospect of dismantling even one outpost so unappealing and politically costly that the Netanyahu government will search for a way to back off...The militants think "the only way to prevent it from becoming a slippery slope toward wholesale evacuation is to put up a fight for every house or even a chicken coop,"...

...Some Israeli pundits now say the gangs, also known as hilltop youths after the sites commonly chosen for outposts, are a bigger security threat in the West Bank than Palestinian militants...

...the recent flare-up has thrust outposts to the forefront of the Mideast conflict...some lawmakers are now searching for ways to retroactively legalize the outposts. "They're trying to pressure the government and it's working," said Hagit Ofran, a spokeswoman for Peace Now, an Israeli group that opposes settlements. "The government is afraid."...

And news assistant Batsheva Sobelman in The Times' Jerusalem bureau contributed to this report.

A 'militant', Mr. Sanders, is a terrorist.

A terrorist indiscriminately and actually preferrably targets citizens in order to kill or maim them. They seek to destroy. And so far, the hilltop youth have acted no worse than the demonstrators for peace at the Bil'in Fence location vis a vis the IDF, and that in no way excuses or forgives their activities which are wrong, especially as regards their 'price tag' operations.

Next time, identify your pundit so we all know who is this stupid and spiteful person.

^

Are Arabs "Price Taggers"? Or The Real Terrorists?

There was a bit of the usual internal Israel bickering whether the "price tag" phenomenon is "terror".

But, as usual, the answer is provided by Arabs, this via Haaretz:

Shots fired at Israeli vehicle in suspected West Bank terror attack attempt


Around noon on Saturday Shabbat, shots were fired at an Israeli vehicle near the Ma'ale Shomron settlement in the West Bank Samaria.  No one was injured in the incident but the vehicle was damaged and there were clear signs that the vehicle had been struck by bullets...

The Arab version:

Israeli forces storm Azzun, say response to gunfire


Israeli forces on Saturday morning closed all the entrances to the northern West Bank village of Azzun east of Qalqiliya preventing all residents from going in or out.  Locals told Ma’an a large number of troops stormed the village in the morning.  The soldiers completely shut down the northern and the western entrances before they ascended to the roof of a local resident’s home and started ransacking houses for inspection.

Onlookers said the soldiers claimed to have come under fire.

That was Ma'an.  Here's Wafa.  And the Arutz 7 adds:

...Police and security forces, including Ephraim Brigade deputy commander Tzur Harpaz, responded to the scene of the attack. Soldiers entering the village reportedly shut down the northern and the western entrances before they ascended to the roof of a local resident’s home and started going house for house in search of the terrorist...It is currently unknown whether IDF forces found the terrorist during the search.

Maaleh Shomron is the home of Yesha Council Chairman Dani Dayan and he informs that he passed the spot but 10 minutes earlier.

^

Denounce 'Price Tag' Violence: House of Worship Desecration

Oops.

That was not a mosque that was desecrated.  It was a synagogue (Google Translate version):

Ramle Arab price tag: a synagogue and a car set ablaze

The Algriva synagogue in Ramle Old City near a school of the Islamic movement was set on fire and suffered heavy damage was caused to a car

A synagogue and a car of a member of the Ramla Torah garin were torched probably by Arabs in what seemed the same action as the price tag of the Jews in Judea and Samaria.

The two-story building and its second floor burned out including the supplies which were there. The electrical system of the synagogue was burned and only because of the actions of fire fighters shutdown avoided burning first-floor prayer area of the building.

The synagogue is located near the homes of Arabs, and is bordered in the book "Do not admitted" of the Islamic movement. The owner of the building, the rabbi known in Ramle, threatened many times - by Arabs who were interested in the environment that would sell them the building.

This event joins a car-burning of a member of Torah garin group two days ago.

And if you thought that, well, this is only a revenge reaction, this is the 7th time this has occurred on the past 2-3 years.

Where is the EU when you need them?

^

And The Arrested Are Released

The arrests last week of youngsters suspected of "price tag" activity was prominently reported.

Well, the developments are:

Again – Price Tag Suspects Released

The Israel Police's National Unit for Investigation of Serious and International Crime (known by its Hebrew acronym Yachbal) has failed once again in substantiating charges against people it suspects of carrying out so-called "price tag" actions.

On Sunday, the Tel Aviv Magistrates' Court released unconditionally two girls suspected of vandalizing IDF vehicles in the Binyamin Brigade base in Bet El. The Honenu NGO, which assists Jews suspected of nationalist crimes, reported that Yachbal investigators asked Judge Oded Shacham to extend the girls' remand by eight days but he refused to do so.  The girls were represented by Honenu lawyer Ariel Atari.

Meanwhile, Judge Shacham extended the remand of a soldier who is also suspected of "price tag" actions. Police asked to extend his incarceration for 8 days, but the judge only granted 4 days' remand.  The soldier told the court that the investigators have been denying him meals, and abusing him physically and mentally.

Now, the question is 'why were they arrested'?

After all, the girls were all arrested and interrogated previously. Was there new information? Did they decide to use harsher methods of investogation?

Or, faced with criticism for lack of results, and to cover their inability to act professionally, they decided to simply redo what they did before for the press and the public?

I am not sure who is guilty - and anyone may be guilty - but the point is that everyone is sure than a certain element must be guilty and they are to be pursued so that the entire camp may be stained. The police are puppets of the media instead of the correct job according to procedures that we expect they do. They should perform as police and not as servants of the critics of the nationalist-right.

^

Impeccable Source Confirms: Price Tag Arrestee NOT A "Settler"

It's here.

^