Two extremes.
First, the bad news.
Jordan’s parliament, as reported in the IJN (Nov. 28), held a moment of silence for the two murderers — not the five victims — in the pogrom in a Jerusalem synagogue, Nov. 18. Four Jews were murdered by butcher cleavers and one Druze by gunshot.
Jordan’s Prime Ministser Abdullah Ensour sent a letter of condolence to the families of the murderers.
A member of Jordan’s parliament, Khalil Attieh, said on TV: “Yes, I hate the Jews. I hate the Jews. I hate the Jews.”
All these are expressions of state-sponsored anti-Semitism, not the rantings of individuals — not that that is a small thing either, as Hitler was initially just a hate-filled individual. In any event, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the soothing tones of its King Hussein notwithstanding, is obviously filled with leaders who hate.
Now, the good news.
A Palestinian youth rushed to help Jews wounded in a terrorist attack in a West Bank supermarket. The helper was the cousin of an innocent Palestinian teen whom Jews burned to death in retaliation for the kidnapping and murder of three Jewish teens last June.
JTA reports that Majloud Abu Khdeir, whose cousin Mohammed Abu Khdeir was killed last summer, helped stop the bleeding on a man’s head and got him upstairs to an office for further treatment, reports JTA. Khdeir was working in the storeroom of the Rami Levy discount supermarket in the Mishor Adumim industrial zone near Maale Adumim.
Cousin Khdeir didn’t say, “I hate, I hate, I hate.” He said:
“That’s how I was taught to behave by my family. When someone is wounded, you help them. It doesn’t matter where they’re from. I was raised in a good family.
“I’m not at war. At work, when I see something like this, I have to help. It’s a matter of education: I believe that tomorrow the wounded man will see someone else and go help him. I hope that one day the situation will change and we will no longer have incidents such as this. But force brings more force, and peace brings peace.”
Copyright © 2014 by the Intermountain Jewish News
