The Terrorist is being Treated in the Hospital

                                                                                              photo  by Sebastian Schiener

                                                                                                                   published at Times of Israel

There is something jarring about this sentence in the news. “The terrorist is being treated in [the] hospital.”

Wounded by security personnel too late, the terrorist had already murdered 26-year-old, Dahlia Lemkus, whose neighbors knew her as “the kind, giving, loving young woman” who was studying to be an occupational therapist. He had already stabbed two other people and sent a third into shock.

Islamic Jihad has taken responsibility for this attack. By responsibility it is meant that Islamic Jihad has congratulated itself for supporting and accomplishing the bizarrely un-brave act of jumping out of a car and stabbing random people with a knife.

Meanwhile, Israel mourns Dahlia, and the others killed by Palestinian terrorists this month: on the same day as Dahlia, 20 year-old Almog Shiloni from Modi’in who died after being stabbed in Tel Aviv as he was on his way back to his base; Chief Inspector Jadan Assad, the Druze border patrol officer who was killed by a terrorist ramming his vehicle into people in Jerusalem, and teenager, Shalom Baadani, who had been riding his bicycle and was killed by the same terrorist at another location nearby. The week before, American-Israeli 3-month-old baby, Haya Zissel Braun and 22 year-old Karen Yemima Mosquera from Ecuador were killed by another “car terrorist” at a Jerusalem light rail stop. While all these funerals have been going on and over a hundred Israelis this month have been dealing with injuries from terrorism, “the terrorist is being treated in the hospital.”

And, rightfully so. Because, as in America, perpetrators in Israel who survive their own acts of terror get quality medical treatment and the benefit of Western law.

Fatah and Hamas leaders have stated that stabbing people with knives or running into them with cars is a “natural response.” If this is the case then treating, in an Israeli hospital, someone who has set out to murder any Israelis he happens to see must be an unnatural response.

But both are learned responses.

It does not come naturally to decide to stab passersby with knives or to intentionally run over a baby with a car. Nor is it simply natural to try to treat humanely even those who commit such actions. These are learned behaviors.

At Dahlia’s funeral, her sister, Michal, implored Israelis to go on, emphatically, with every day life.

Treating the terrorist in the hospital; going on with life in Israel; not letting hate take over: some things to stand one’s ground for.

                                                                                                      comments welcomed at Times of Israel

UPDATE:  And now there are four more murders.  Four people killed and others injured while praying in their Jerusalem synagogue. 

Values, Murders, and Condemnations

                                             

Just at the end of the shiva period for her son, Naftali, Rachel Fraenkel offered condolences to the parents of Muhammed Abu Khdeir’s parents and condemned the killing. Every government official from the Prime Minister to local mayors, from politicians on the far right to those on the far left, along with Israel’s chief rabbis and the Israeli news sources have condemned the teen’s murder.

Adding my name to a long list of Jewish and Israeli bloggers’ condemnations felt at least like something tangible to do with the disbelief and shame that the killing evoked across the Jewish world and throughout Israel.

Objections have been leveled against those who point out that in Palestinian towns, people react with celebration, rather than with shame, to the murders of Neftali, Eyal, and Gilad; that unlike Israel’s government, the Hamas government praises kidnappings, advocates for continued such “operations,” and in this case increased their rocket firing at Israeli cities once the three boys were kidnapped. The killers of the Jewish boys are hailed as heroes, while the perpetrators of the murder of the Arab Israeli boy have shamed their whole country and will be shunned as well as jailed.

These differences represent contrasting values but not so for some, like Anshel Pfeffer who writes in Haaretz “We are all to blame...” for Muhammed’s death. And yet, certainly all Palestinians are not to blame for the terrible murders of Gilad, Eyal, and Naftali.

Isn’t acknowledging Israel’s basic humane values especially important when those values are betrayed?

Hebron Locals "Want Quiet Already"

                                                                                                                  Roman Lozovsky photo

Activists arrived in Hebron last week bringing Palestinian flags, cameras, and apparently, the intention of creating news of a confrontational demonstration. Their focus was the Israeli Supreme Court ruling that the “Peace House” building in Hebron does, in fact, legally belong to the Jewish owners who purchased it years ago.  

But, shortly after the protesters showed up, they were confronted by a number of Palestinian Arabs who, unlike the activists, actually live in Hebron.  Said one of the Palestinian residents of Hebron:

 "For a relatively long period there's been quiet and co-existence here between the Jewish and Palestinian residents, and this protest only damages the neighbors living nearby who want quiet already…"

 

“We want quiet already” is not yet the brilliant slogan of a new moderate coalition; one can hope it will be. Meanwhile, these Palestinian locals not only prevented the protesters from making news, they “kicked them out of the city.”

Seems newsworthy to me. And it’s not hard to imagine the plentitude of headlines had the outsiders been escorted from the city by Jewish residents.

Will mainstream media pick up this story?

Israeli Natural Gas First Customer: Palestinian Power Company

Back in the everyday world, the "intractable" sides of an elusive peace settlement are engaged in mutually beneficial business agreements; Israel's first natural gas contract goes to the Palestinian Authority. 

Leviathan, Israel's largest natural gas offshore reserve, will supply the Palestinian Power Generation Company with fuel for a new power plant near Jenin. And not just in the short term; the agreement assures natural gas from Leviathan to the Jenin site for the next 20 years.

Also in the works is a plan to fill Jordan's energy needs. Of course, Jordan does have a peace agreement with Israel, but the advantages of Israeli supplied natural gas are notable: According to Bloomberg news, "For Jordan, which has seen fuel imports from Egypt disrupted by pipeline bombings in Sinai, deliveries from Israel would help to boost security of supply." 

It is also notable that business reporting, because it cheers for business and not for conflict news, often does not frame Israel negatively. Here, the International Business Times even includes, as an aside, the fact that the PA rather than Israel has governmental authority in the West Bank: 

Currently, the Palestinian Authority, which governs most of the Palestinian population of the West Bank, accounts for around 8 percent of Israel’s total electricity demand – and the Palestinian portion of that demand is increasing by approximately 6 percent annually, reported the Jerusalem Post.
Not only will the construction of the $300 million power plant help spur the local economy in Jenin, the new energy resource will help continue the recent economic growth in the West Bank.

The headline does have spin:  "Forget John Kerry's Shuttle Diplomacy: Israel and Palestinians Sign Historic Energy Deal."  

Jerusalem of Snow

It's the biggest storm in decades; the roads are closed in and out of Jerusalem and there is snow or rain falling over most of the country. There are power outages and there are many people who had to be rescued from their cars. It's also beautiful and magical.

Meanwhile,  John Kerry is here again this time thanking his Israeli and Palestinian hosts for the warm welcome and for (literally) clearing his pathway traveling the (literally) treacherous road between Ramallah and Jerusalem. The NYTimes reported on the snow's snarling of diplomacy.

Snow is nice the way it quiets everything. Time to sit back and watch the bigger-than-words forces of nature.