When wedding revelers are imitating and glorifying the real-life murder of an Arab family, Israel has a problem.
Terrorism is not an easily defined term. If a terrorist murders someone, how does that, for example, differ from a felony crime? The distinction, most social scientists agree, is in the aim: Terrorism is violence perpetrated against civilian targets in order to achieve a political aim. A key component is fear, instilling in innocent civilians the fear that at any moment, without any warning, their lives could be snatched away. In other words, terrorism is an act of war, but not against military targets.
Yet, one is still left with quandaries. Is wanton violence against innocent civilians without an aim not terrorism? Is calculated assassinations of high level political targets not terrorism?
We raise these questions because Israel, a country for which terrorism has always been part of the harsh reality, is now facing a new variant: terrorism from within.
Three Jewish youths are being held in custody for firebombing the home of a Palestinian family, and killing three members of the family who were inside. A fourth was severly injured. Is this terrorism? Or a felony crime?
For most in Israel and indeed in Israel’s security establishment, the perpetrators of this deadly attack are terrorists. They are right-wing haters who attacked an innocent Palestinian family in order to make a political statement. Whether they felt justified in attacking these targets is immaterial, as every terrorist feels justified. That’s the whole point of terrorism.
The suspects in custody claim they have been brutally tortured by Israeli police. They claim they have been denied access to their attornys. Both of these are more clear cut than trying to define terrorism. A suspect’s civil rights are outlined in Israeli lawbooks, as are regulations on treatment of prisoners.
In light of these allegations, support has broken out for these suspects. If indeed these rights have been violated, the Israeli government and its police force must answer. But in a nasty turn of events, some supporters of these suspects were caught on video not merely supporting these suspects in their pursuit of fair treatment, but celebrating the heinous multiple murders for which the suspects were arrested.
Clearly, for these celebrants, Jewish terrorists are in a separate category, in which violent criminals are to be lauded, not denounced.
These revelers, caught on tape waving weaponry and stabbing at a photo of the murdered Dawabshe family, deserve every bit of censure that is raining down on them, from every corner of the Jewish world.
On the video, the partygoers (guests at a wedding) are singing a song that includes a variation of a verse from Judges 16:28, in which Samson says, “Let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” In the video, the word “Palestinians” is substituted for “Philistines.”
The revelers seem to have forgotten a different Biblical adage: “Do not rejoice in the downfall of your enemy” (Proverbs 24:17). Even if, in their twisted minds, they are at war and as such anyone is a fair target, why are they taking pleasure in the death of innocents?
That is terrorism: There is no moral center; it is wanton murder, where anything and everything is justified in order to fulfill some “higher” purpose. It is a pervasive evil that, if not stopped at its foundation, takes root and has the power to infect anyone it reaches.
The murder of the Dawabshe family was a wake-up call to the Israeli establishment that extremism in its society exists and must be combatted.
The ensuing celebration at this wedding was a traumatic reminder that the problem is potent, and not going away anytime soon.
Copyright © 2016 by the Intermountain Jewish News
