By Rabbi Dow Marmur
JERUSALEM — The best way to enjoy Israel– and there’s, indeed, very much to enjoy – is (if it were possible) not to read newspapers or watch TV, because the media are likely to spoil both our favourable image of the country and our sense of security and well-being here.
As usual, the real enemies are within. Of late some of them have attacked mosques and army bases as tit-for-tat for the Israeli government’s feeble attempts to pull down one or two illegal outposts on the West Bank. Since the army was charged with the task, some Jewish settler extremists saw it a legitimate “price tag” (as they called their action) to attack soldiers in a society where the armed forces are virtually sacrosanct. But when settlements are threatened apparently nothing is sacred. That is their warning to us.
Why deface mosques? Perhaps because thugs learn from each other: Jews remember that when Gentiles in the East European shtetl were frustrated or angry or drunk they’d wreck the local synagogue. As the Palestinians are Muslims, their places of worship become similar targets. Jews are thus imitating their former tormentors. Sick!
Responsible spokespersons across the entire spectrum of Israeli society have expressed their outrage. It’s obvious that neither Jewish Orthodoxy nor the settler community should be held collectively responsible; both have, in fact, condemned the rioters. But how is the country to deal with them beyond pious pronouncements and moving demonstrations? (I hope to attend one on the first night of Hanukkah.)
The obvious answer is to deal with them the way the army in the West Bankdeals with all terrorists, most of whom have so far been Palestinians. Israeli police has no jurisdiction over the territories and therefore its due process doesn’t apply there. The army is supposed to deal with all crime in the West Bank. That’s, according to Defense Minister Barak and several other cabinet members, how the Jews should be treated, too.
But that’s too much for the settler community, because it sees itself as an integral part of the State of Israel and, therefore, expects the police to deal with them in the same way as it deals with all Israeli citizens. And the settlers have too many supporters in the cabinet; some members (e.g., Avigdor Lieberman) even live in settlements.
The Prime Minister seems to be more concerned with appeasing them than pleasing Barak who has no else to go in politics than stick with Netanyahu. Therefore, the Prime Minister has decided that these Jewish terrorists aren’t terrorists but anarchists. (!) (How Jews committed to Halacha, as these thugs are, can be anarchists – defying laws -defies common sense and rational discourse.) But anarchists may be treated more gently.
Netanyahu’s distinction is aimed at making it possible to exclude the Jewish terrorists from the jurisdiction of the occupying army and to refer them to the police – with access to legal due process and probably much more lenient treatment.
This, then, is yet another example of what happens when natural justice and common sense yield to political expediency. It gives de facto undeserved advantages, even a nod and a wink, to Jewish terrorists over Palestinian terrorists.
Is this a further sign of the erosion of Israeli democracy? If democracy goes, it’ll be impossible to find much justification for the legitimacy of the State of Israel. Its citizens still seem to know how to defend themselves against external enemies. It’s those within and their political patrons that should give us real concern.
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Rabbi Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blosssom Temple in Toronto. He divides his year between Canada and Israel. He may be contacted at dow.marmur@sdjewishworld.com