If coexistence is impossible, then what?

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Victor Rosenthal
Palestinian society shows us what is truly in its heart

Palestinian society shows us what is truly in its heart

Today we found out that the three boys, Eyal, Gilad and Naftali, were murdered shortly after their abduction. I’m sure we’ll hear the full story, in horrifying detail, at some point.

I can’t imagine how the families must feel. Or rather, I can imagine it but I am certain that their actual experience must be far worse than what I can imagine.

There have been so many terrorist murders, so many murders of children. The Ma’alot massacre, The bus of blood, the Haran family, the Sbarro bombing, the Dolphinarium, the Fogel family. The Palestinians and their supporters tell you it is “resistance to occupation” but in fact it is pure evil, hate made substance. Hate made flesh.

The Left says that it is our fault that they are doing these things because we are not giving them what they want. But what if what they want is to kill us?

Societies protect themselves against murderous criminals by killing or imprisoning them in order to separate them from normal society.

“If a man comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first.” Good advice, but how do we follow it when a whole culture has been created out of the idea that they should kill us?

The Palestinian people have demonstrated by the whole-hearted support shown for the kidnappers, the murderers, that they are satisfied with the path they have taken, the path of hate.

The problem is not a few extremists or criminals or terrorists who need to be killed or captured. The problem is a culture whose essence is to negate ours. These acts will not stop until the culture changes or dies out, or we completely separate ourselves from it. I don’t think our society can tolerate living as a target of terrorism forever.

First we have to decide that yes, we want our society, the Jewish people, to survive, and to continue to do so in its historic homeland. It’s not such a forgone conclusion — many, especially the intellectual elite among us are not so sure. But let’s suppose that we do. Since the nature of the Palestinian Arab culture is not under our control, since we can’t educate them or change them, our survival depends on separation and deterrence.

Then we need to look at geography and military realities. What territories do we need to control as a necessary condition for our survival? Authorities agree that the Jordan Valley and the high ground of Judea and Samaria must remain under our control. This isn’t a political issue, and we don’t need to bring in the spiritual dimension to decide this. It is simply a fact that follows from the topography of the region.

But some of the area that is essential is heavily populated by Arabs, many of whom belong to terror organizations and most of whom wouldn’t accept Jewish sovereignty.

Caroline Glick is probably correct that annexation of all of Judea and Samaria wouldn’t create an Arab majority. She estimates that the Arab population of Israel would go from about 20% to about 30%. She believes that the same relationship that has been established with the Israeli Arabs could be extended to the Arabs of the territories.

The lesson I have drawn from these murders is that she is not correct. It won’t work. This marriage cannot be saved. The educational enterprise of Yasser Arafat and his followers, aided by the West, has succeeded — perhaps beyond expectations. There is no going back. The Palestinian Arabs will not, cannot, coexist with the Jewish people.

The Left wants to trade territories for peace. That isn’t possible. The Right (at least, the moderate Right represented by Ms Glick) wants to keep the territories and coexist with the Arabs. That isn’t possible either.

The logic is inexorable, unfortunately. We commit suicide as a society or we keep the territories — without the Arabs. The Arabs of Judea and Samaria must be encouraged to emigrate. Maybe it can be peaceful and even profitable for them, maybe not. That will depend on them and on the “international community.”

I expect to hear that I’m crazy, a racist, an extremist, a Kahane-ist, and worse. But I don’t hate Arabs. The problem is that the Palestinian culture hates me, and worse, hates my children and grandchildren. I can’t change this, but I need to protect those children and grandchildren.

So if I am crazy, here is a suggestion: explain to me how you would deal with the situation. Do you want the Jewish people to survive? If so, do you agree that we can’t give up control of the territories? If so, do you think we can coexist with the Arabs? Can Israel become a 30% Arab state when most of those Arabs hate our Jewish guts?

If you want to refute my argument, show me where I’m wrong. Nothing would make me happier.

Posted in Israel and Palestinian Arabs, Jew Hatred, Terrorism | 6 Comments

A world gone mad — about Jews

Posted on June 29, 2014 by Victor Rosenthal

There are numerous international conflicts in play all the time. There are struggles over borders and resources, ethnic and religious intolerance, persecuted minorities and ones that are not persecuted but would like to be persecutors. There are conflicts pursued by military means, by terrorism, by diplomacy and propaganda, and by a combination of all of these. Some of these have been simmering for hundreds of years.

But if we consider the number of players, the different arenas in which it is played out, the absolutely enormous amount of resources dedicated to it, its worldwide scope, the way generations have had their lives entirely circumscribed and defined by it, the fact that it has permeated every aspect of international relations and affected virtually every human on the planet — and if we compare this to the remarkably tiny sliver of land and people at its center — then it’s impossible to see the Muslim/Arab/European war against the Jewish state as anything but completely sui generis (one of a kind). To borrow a phrase from Victor Davis Hanson, it is a war like no other.

Am I exaggerating? Several destructive regional wars have already taken place, another is brewing, and unless Israel is overrun, there will be more after that. Terrorist organizations like the PLO, Hizballah and others which were created as part and parcel of the conflict have defined and developed international terrorism, legitimized it and served as paradigms for conflict by proxy. They have destabilized regimes and caused untold misery for the civilians unlucky enough to reside where they base themselves.

The United Nations, an institution whose charter is to prevent war and help improve the condition of humanity has been infiltrated by the cancer of this conflict, with unnatural organs created at huge expense just for the purpose of assisting one side in the struggle. Institutions of international law and organizations intended to improve health, protect human rights, preserve culture, advance science, provide educational opportunities — all have been grotesquely perverted and twisted in the service of it.

Educational institutions, labor unions, charities, religious groups in every part of the globe have become obsessed with it.

An entire nation has been created — the ‘Palestinians’ — from a disparate group of Arabs that happened to live in the British Mandate of Palestine in 1948, to oppose the Jewish nation’s sovereignty in the tiny state now called Israel. Some Palestinians and their descendents have been kept in the limbo of a unique refugee status for 66 years. Most of them have been systematically indoctrinated into an unprecedented culture of hate, desiring only revenge and to shed the blood of their enemies. A detailed historical narrative has been fabricated to justify this.

The rest of the world has financed and fed into it for multiple reasons. The oil monarchies of the Gulf invested large amounts of money and commercial influence to turn governments, institutions (especially universities), and whole populations against Israel, while arming and paying terrorists. Leftist political groups and individuals, especially psychologically dysfunctional individuals of Jewish extraction, compete to prove themselves more radical in the struggle against the Jewish state. Academics and writers create careers for themselves out of increasingly ingenious expressions of hate, since there is always a market for it.

And then there are the Europeans, presently pumping money into anti-state NGOs, nationalist Arab groups, etc., while repeating over and over again the big lie that “settlements are illegal under international law” and threatening boycotts and sanctions unless Israel agrees to curl up into a fetal position and ask the Arabs or Iran to please slaughter her.

I used to think that this was all about currying favor with Arab oil powers, but it is becoming more and more clear that their behavior is an honest expression of how they feel. It is not only Muslims who are outraged when Jews deign to rise above their appointed station. How dare the Jews — the same Jews that were kicked out of so many European countries, subjected to pogroms and discrimination — how dare they build a country (“that shitty little country,” in the words of the French ambassador) with a thriving economy and a birthrate far above the replacement rate, when the economies and cultures of Europe are crashing around them!

But really… all this Sturm und Drang  over a country the size of New Jersey and about 7 million Jews?

Imagine if the energy that went into hating and trying to destroy Israel could be used for productive purposes. It’s crazy, obsessive, psychotic behavior, and it drains the material and spiritual resources of a world which needs them badly.

Posted in Jew Hatred | 4 Comments

Bring this up at the iftar dinner

Posted on June 28, 2014 by Victor Rosenthal
Every year since 1996, the US President has hosted an iftar dinner in observance of Ramadan. This one was in 2012.

Every year since 1996, the US President has hosted an iftar dinner in observance of Ramadan. This one was in 2012.

Statement by President Obama on the Occasion of Ramadan, June 27, 2014

On behalf of the American people, Michelle and I extend our best wishes to Muslim communities here in the United States and around the world on the beginning of the blessed month of Ramadan.
…
Ramadan also reminds us of our shared responsibility to treat others as we wish to be treated ourselves and the basic principles that bind people of different faiths together:  a yearning for peace, justice, and equality.  At a moment when too many people around the world continue to suffer from senseless conflict and violence, this sacred time reminds us of our common obligations to pursue justice and peace and to uphold the dignity of every human being.

It’s been 15 days since the kidnapping of three Jewish boys on their way home from school. They are, if alive, being held by terrorists under conditions that one tries not to imagine. You, President Obama, who have said that there are “unbreakable bonds” between the US and Israel, have not seen fit to mention this in public, despite requests from Jewish organizations and individuals.

I suppose you want to remain above the fray. If you condemn the kidnapping, then Palestinian supporters will demand that you also condemn a whole litany of ‘crimes’ alleged to have been committed by Israel. Best just keep your mouth shut, say your advisers.

The problem with this policy is that it implies a) a moral equivalence between the terrorism that’s an integral part of the Palestinian/Arab/Muslim war against Israel, and Israel’s efforts to defend herself; and b) an assumption that accusations made by pro-Palestinian sources are equally reliable as statements of the government of Israel.

Both of these equivalences do not hold, and your acting as though they do is not an indication of fairness — rather, it demonstrates your bias in favor of the Arab side.

Further, it is both an insult to the Jewish people and their state, and contrary to the wishes of the majority of Americans who — despite the efforts of your administration and its media Pravdas — still support Israel.

You and your advisers are smart enough to make the distinction between terrorism and self-defense, truth and lies. When you don’t do so, the only conclusion left to draw is that your ‘support’ for Israel is only lip service.

If you believe that even Palestinians have “obligations to pursue justice and peace and to uphold the dignity of every human being,” as you said in your Ramadan message, then why don’t you demand of the Palestinian Authority that it nullify its agreement with the perpetrators of this ugly crime, Hamas, and ensure — as Congress clearly instructed you to do — that not one penny of US aid gets into the hands of Hamas or is paid to convicted terrorists, including murderers, in Israeli custody.

Bring it up at the iftar dinner. I’m sure all of the guests will agree that kidnapping teenagers is a despicable tactic.

Posted in Terrorism, US-Israel Relations | Comments Off on Bring this up at the iftar dinner

Just shut it down

Posted on June 26, 2014 by Victor Rosenthal
A scene from a British production of "The Death of Klinghoffer"

A scene from a British production of “The Death of Klinghoffer”

Many of the challenges facing the Jewish people in today’s world don’t have simple solutions. Should Israel insist on realizing its full rights under international law to all the land of Israel, or should it sacrifice part of its historic homeland for a promise of peace? If it chooses to annex all or part of Judea and Samaria, could it absorb the Arab residents without destabilizing the country? Should Israel invade Gaza and crush Hamas? If you are a Jewish resident of France, how long should you wait before making aliyah? These are hard questions without easy answers.

I think about these things often. But sometimes an issue arises for which the response demanded is clear.

Like this one:

The Metropolitan Opera in New York is scheduled to present the John Adams opera “The Death of Klinghoffer” in November. Myron Kaplan of CAMERA wrote to the Met’s manager, Peter Gelb (the whole letter is worth reading):

This story line can be characterized fairly as “Understandably aggrieved Palestinian Arabs wreak vengeance on disabled Jew standing in for all his perfidious co-religionists.” This is an obscene inversion of the reality that was the Achille Lauro cruise ship hijacking and subsequent terrorist murder of passenger Leon Klinghoffer. In this regard, it must be noted that the librettist, Alice Goodman, during the writing of the opera rejected her American Jewish heritage by joining the Anglican Church, the leadership of which is known for its hostility toward Israel. Goodman is now a parish priest in England.

…

As alluded to above, the opera is based on the 1985 murder of a helpless 69-year-old American Jewish man, Leon Klinghoffer, confined to a wheelchair—shot in the head while vacationing with his wife on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea. He was murdered by Palestinian Arab hijackers belonging to the Palestine Liberation Front, a component of Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization, and his body dumped into the water. The choice of the title, “The Death of Klinghoffer” and not “The Murder of Klinghoffer,” signals the work’s moral evasion and misrepresentation. In a sense, it is consistent with the PLO’s initial comments on the murder, that either Klinghoffer had died of natural causes or his wife pushed him overboard to be able to claim life insurance. The title’s sanitizing of murder is, however, also consistent with the opera’s anti-Jewish tone. Instead of properly characterizing the Palestinian hijackers of the cruise ship as permanent prisoners of their own rage originating from cultural indoctrination, Adams/Goodman impart idealism to them.

…

Repeatedly, the Palestinians are portrayed as humane idealists. Hijacker Molqi sings: “We are—Soldiers fighting a war—We are not criminals—And we are not vandals—But men of ideals.”

The lies and distortions inherent in the opera constitute an attack by our enemies in the ongoing information war to delegitimize Israel and demonize the Jewish people. It is a work of propaganda, and another step in the mainstreaming of what was previously considered extreme and unacceptable. So what to do? Steven Plaut puts it into perspective:

Friends I need your help. I have written a new Opera and I need you to help demand that the Metropolitan Opera in New York stage it. It is an opera about the lynching of black people in Alabama and Mississippi by the Ku Klux Klan. The opera presents the moral ambiguity of the struggle for self-determination of the Klan members against the harsh and cruel behavior of the pickaninnies. The opera is careful not to pick sides and it presents both sides with musical delight. After the Klansters lynch the darkies, they take off their hoods and paint themselves as minstrel singers to show their common humanity with the dead. I am sure you agree that this is a must performance that the Metropolitan Opera needs to stage! Write the Opera chairman today!

Ask yourselves “What would Al Sharpton do?” The answer is obvious.

There are about 1.5 million Jews living in the New York metropolitan area. If one out of a hundred of them joined a demonstration at the Met, there would be no performance. Surely New York’s Jewish community could manage this.

I repeat: there are hard problems, but this is an easy one. Just shut it down.

Posted in American Jews, Jew Hatred, Terrorism | 2 Comments

Is it enough yet?

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Victor Rosenthal

Just a few moments ago, a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza landed in southern Israel, as far north as Ashkelon. This has been a regular phenomenon lately, like the weather. Most often the rockets strike uninhabited areas or are intercepted by the Iron Dome system. There is a warning system and there are shelters, so it is a rare occasion that someone is hurt or killed. But the intent is there.

Just the other day, a 14-year old Israeli boy went to work with his father, who was driving a water truck near the Syrian border. He was murdered when an antitank missile fired from the Syrian side struck the truck.

If you live in Israel, you know all this. Here in the US, you most likely won’t hear about it on the news; and if it appears in the newspaper, it will be a small item on an inside page. If it is in the New York Times it will have a headline like this:

Israel Strikes Syria After Youth Is Killed

as if the story is about Israel’s reaction rather than the cold-blooded murder of a child.

But the terrorist kidnapping of three boys on their way home from school has shaken Israelis, who by now have seen almost everything.  Maybe you’ve seen some of the pictures of Palestinian children making the “three finger salute” or other examples of Palestinian glee at the success of their ‘operation’, like this:

Candy wrapper with faces of kidnapped boys produced by Palestinians (courtesy Tom Gross Media)

Candy wrapper with faces of kidnapped boys produced by Palestinians (courtesy Tom Gross Media)

The Presbyterian Church (USA) and others would like you to think that Zionism is the cause of all of this: that is, if the Jewish people would only give up their strange idea that they, too, are allowed to live in peace in their state, then all the violence would disappear. Of course, what would disappear would be the Jewish people. We know that, and those of them who aren’t totally ignorant know it too.

And we know that the cause of it all is not Zionism, but the rejection of it: the fact that Arabs and Muslims can’t abide an enclave of Jewish sovereignty in ‘their’ region.

Israelis live normal lives with normal concerns. They don’t obsess about being targets, nor about the way much of the outside world seems to feel that they deserve to be. They live with the undercurrent of stress that this generates.

I think, though, that the kidnapping in particular, combined with the gleeful expressions from Palestinians and their supporters in social media, has begun to create a new consciousness among Israelis. Even more so than during the Second Intifada when suicide bombers were exploding themselves almost daily, Israelis are saying: enough.

The terrorists understand how Israelis feel about their children — and please don’t tell me that Palestinians feel the same way, because they place their kids in harm’s way for the sake of the struggle on a regular basis — and they know that Israelis will make enormous sacrifices to protect them. So naturally they target them, they kidnap them, they use them for leverage. And then they do their best to twist the knife.

When you apply extreme pressure to a person or a group, they can react in different ways. Sometimes the result can be unexpected. Anger can rise exponentially. People and societies have breaking points.

Israeli decision-makers almost always choose restraint, and respond in carefully calibrated and highly rational ways. In my opinion, this isn’t the best way to behave when your opponents have a Middle-Eastern culture in which honor is particularly important; but I’m not a member of Israel’s cabinet.

But don’t forget that the decision-makers are human too. They feel the same collective frustration and anger. My guess is that the Palestinians — yes, I am speaking in general and I think I am justified in doing so — will find that this time, just possibly, they have gone too far.

Posted in Israel and Palestinian Arabs, Terrorism | 1 Comment

Shut the revolving door for terrorist murderers

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Victor Rosenthal

News item:

Israel Police have arrested Ziad Awad, one of the 1,027 terrorists released two-and-a-half years ago in exchange for IDF hostage Gilad Shalit, on suspicion that Awad was responsible for the murder of Baruch Mizrahi  on Passover eve near Hebron.

Mizrahi, a senior police officer, was on his way to a holiday Seder meal when he was ambushed and murdered, reportedly by Awad, a resident of Idna, an Arab village near Hebron.

Mizrahi’s wife was also wounded in the attack.

The IDF blog reports that Awad, a member of Hamas, was indicted today and will stand trial for the murder.

I wrote about Mizrachi’s murder here:

It still isn’t clear whether Baruch Mizrachi, a man who had devoted his life to protecting the Jewish people in their land, was targeted because of his job, or simply murdered because he was a Jew. It doesn’t matter. The question is, when is enough enough? When does the State of Israel decide that the Palestinian Arabs are a hostile enemy and start treating them as such (my guess is that the people of Israel already understand this)?

It’s not surprising that some of those released as ransom for Shalit continued on the path of murder. They were treated like heroes on their return:

Ziad Awad receives a hero's welcome after his release in the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange in 2011

Ziad Awad receives a hero’s welcome after his release in the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange in 2011 (courtesy Jewish Press)

Last week, I argued that the tactic of kidnapping Israelis and holding them as bargaining chips to force the release of prisoners has removed all of the deterrent effect of imprisonment as a penalty for terrorism. Further, I said, it encourages terrorists to kidnap Israelis, especially children.

The solution to both problems is the application of the death penalty for murder committed as an act of terrorism. Israel does not have a death penalty for ordinary murder (if there can be such a thing), but I believe that the genocide statute that was used to hang Adolf Eichmann also fits Palestinian terrorism perfectly.

Ziad Awad was originally imprisoned for murdering Palestinians that he suspected of “collaborating” with Israel. Had he received the death penalty for those crimes, Baruch Mizrachi would be alive today. Unfortunately, this is likely only part of the ultimate price of the Shalit deal.

This is a perfect case in which to establish a precedent. If Awad is convicted, he should become the first terrorist murderer to be executed for his crime.

Perhaps his example will finally shut the revolving door for these despicable criminals.

Posted in Israel and Palestinian Arabs, Terrorism | 2 Comments

Where is the President on this?

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Victor Rosenthal
The "three-finger salute" as it appears on Facebook

The “three-finger salute” as it appears on Facebook

Statement by John Kerry, June 15:

The United States strongly condemns the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers and calls for their immediate release. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families. We hope for their quick and safe return home.  We continue to offer our full support for Israel in its search for the missing teens, and we have encouraged full cooperation between the Israeli and Palestinian security services.  We understand that cooperation is ongoing.

We are still seeking details on the parties responsible for this despicable terrorist act, although many indications point to Hamas’ involvement.  As we gather this information, we reiterate our position that Hamas is a terrorist organization known for its attacks on innocent civilians and which has used kidnapping in the past.

State Department briefing, yesterday:

QUESTION: … As the search for the three teenagers goes into its sixth day, the Israelis are arresting hundreds of Palestinians, rounding up some or re-arresting in some cases many of the ones that were released. They’re having a clampdown, a lockdown. It’s really causing a very difficult humanitarian condition. Are you talking with the Israelis to sort of lighten – but I asked you this yesterday. Are you asking them to lighten up their heavy hand in their search?

MS. PSAKI: Well, Said, we’ve been in touch with both the Israelis and the Palestinians throughout the course of the last several days since these teenagers were kidnapped. We know this is a difficult time obviously on the ground. We’ve urged continued security cooperation between the Israelis and the Palestinians in the search for the kidnapped teenagers. We were encouraged by President Abbas’s strong statement to the Arab and Islamic foreign ministers today in Saudi Arabia. But – and certainly as the search continues and in our conversations, we urge both sides to exercise restraint and avoid the types of steps that could destabilize the situation. And that’s a message that we are conveying in all of our conversations as well.

Are we weakening just a bit? Now are we offering a smidgen less than “full support” for Israel in its attempt to rescue the boys? Full support, but use restraint, don’t destabilize anything. Don’t create a humanitarian crisis here.

I can agree with reporter ‘Said’ that it might be a little difficult for Palestinians now, although I don’t have too much sympathy for them given the support they offer the kidnappers in social media. Too bad — you want us to leave you alone, give them up.

I want to ask: what does it take for the administration to blame the Palestinians for anything? What would they have to do for US officials to say “it’s not ‘both sides’, the Palestinians are committing acts of terrorism and that is despicable?”

Now here is something else:

Where is President Obama on this? John Kerry condemned the kidnapping (a little late, but unequivocally). The White House (that is, a social media staffer) posted a tweet that “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families.” But as far as I can see, the President has not personally made a statement, as both he and his wife did in the case of the kidnapped Nigerian girls.

Let me be clear: I’m not accusing the President of prejudice. I am not saying that he cares more about Nigerians, or girls for that matter, than Israeli boys.

I am saying that he carefully calibrates the statements he makes and doesn’t make for the effect that they will have on various constituencies, both inside and outside of the US. And I think that he believes that a personal statement condemning the kidnappers would offend some of these constituencies, damage his channels of communication with them, etc.

Think about that. Who is he worried about? Hamas? The Muslim Brotherhood? Or just the Muslim world as a whole, which he has been obsequiously but unsuccessfully courting since 2009?

Unless his plan is to paralyze his enemies (and friends) with uncertainty about his intentions, his policy of combining dissimulation (OK, lying) with empty threats, the occasional drone strike, and fulsome concern for the feelings of barbarians is remarkably inept.

I wish Obama would just come out and say what he thinks, even though I believe it would horrify supporters of Israel — not to mention the rest of Western civilization.

Posted in Israel and Palestinian Arabs, Terrorism, US-Israel Relations | 2 Comments

The death penalty for terrorists is both appropriate and legal

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Victor Rosenthal
Facebook page calling for the execution of one Palestinian terrorist every hour until the three kidnapped Israeli teens are released

Facebook page calling for the execution of one Palestinian terrorist every hour until the three kidnapped Israeli teens are released

Following the kidnapping of three Jewish teenagers, probably to be traded for thousands of Arab prisoners in Israeli jails, a Facebook page was created calling for a terrorist to be shot every hour until the three are returned. As of now, it has received more than 19,000 ‘likes.’

Although this is both illegal — there is a rule of law, and you can’t simply take someone who has been sentenced to imprisonment and shoot him — and impractical for multiple reasons, it is easy to understand why this solution is embraced by many.

This kidnapping has, I hope, finally made it clear that the attempt to deter terrorism by arresting and imprisoning terrorists has failed. The system has broken down as a result of several high-profile prisoner releases, which have included numerous murderers. Prisoners have been released in return for Israelis kidnapped while trying to do a drug deal, dead bodies, kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, and most recently for absolutely nothing (thank you, Barack Obama).

It is imperative that Israel re-institute the death penalty for murder committed as part of acts of terrorism.

In an attempt to be an enlightened, progressive state, Israel has carried out the death penalty only once, in the case of Adolf Eichmann, who was hanged in 1962. Israel also has a death penalty for treason or aiding the enemy in time of war, but it has never been imposed. In 1954, capital punishment for ordinary (other than genocidal) murder or other crimes was abolished.

There are several reasons that this must change:

1. The present system no longer deters the most horrible crimes. No sentence of imprisonment can be a deterrent if a prisoner knows that he could be released tomorrow if there is a “prisoner exchange.”

2. Worse, the terrorists know that Israel will pay any price for the release of kidnapped citizens, particularly children. This is an incentive for more kidnappings. Israel’s security services have foiled no less than 64 attempted abductions since the beginning of 2013! It was only a matter of time before one succeeded.

3. Honor is important. When we allow them to kill us with impunity, we lose honor and invite more killing. Westerners have trouble understanding this, but it is extremely relevant in the Middle East. We can’t make the Arabs stop hating us, but maybe we can get them to show more respect. Our self-respect matters as well.

4. With all the lip service paid to liberal and progressive values, even in Europe they respect a person, or a people, that fights back.

The laws under which Eichmann was executed were passed in 1950, and intended for the punishment of Nazi war criminals. They have not been repealed. Israel is today facing an enemy no less dedicated to its destruction than Nazi Germany — indeed, its roots are deeply entwined with Naziism — and laws originally intended for Nazi war criminals are no less applicable to Arab ones.

Although it has been argued that the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty (1992) prohibits the death penalty, I think section 8 explicitly allows for circumstances like today’s, while section 10 applies to the existing anti-genocide law:

1. The purpose of this Basic Law is to protect human dignity and liberty, in order to establish in a Basic Law the values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

2. There shall be no violation of the life, body or dignity of any person as such.

…

8. There shall be no violation of rights under this Basic Law except by a law befitting the values of the State of Israel, enacted for a proper purpose, and to an extent no greater than is required.

…

10. This Basic Law shall not affect the validity of any law (din) in force prior to the commencement of the Basic Law.

It would be wonderful to live in a world where a death penalty was not needed. Unfortunately, we don’t. As in other cases, substituting wishful thinking for honest analysis can be enormously destructive.

Posted in Israel and Palestinian Arabs, Terrorism | Comments Off on The death penalty for terrorists is both appropriate and legal