Crimes and Punishments

(With respect to Dostoevsky)

Today, erev Shabbat, is especially one for extreme caution. It is expected that the imams in the mosques will preach sermons of hatred demanding incitement. All of us, not only in Jerusalem, need to be aware of our surroundings, to avoid crowds, and to become invisible in areas of heavy police and military actions.

Peaceful protests are lawful and permitted.  However, those  protests which lead to violence and/or injuries and death must be punished in the most severe manner. Palestinians who take to the streets in great numbers bent on attacking Jews must be treated as criminals. And the punishments must be extremely severe.

Dispersing crowds with water cannons or skunk water is not very effective. When grenades and bullets are thrown at us we must respond in kind. Our police and army must shoot to kill.  Show no mercy to would-be slayers of our people.

Additionally, those rioters who are arrested should be imprisoned and their homes demolished. We have not acted with sufficient extreme force in several previous riots and it has cost us loss of lives.  Hamas has called for a third intifada and it must be met by us with deadly force.

The United Nations Security Council has been called into session and the Palestinian delegation is demanding that President Trump reverse his decision regarding holy Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

In the president’s declaration, he made no mention of west or east Jerusalem. He hoped that a two-state solution could be found in which both sides could agree. He did not disclaim any Palestinian hope for their proposed capital in a future state. He stated clearly that the decisions must be made by the two parties alone.

The Palestinian President Abbas and his spokesman Saeb Erekat have proclaimed the death of peace negotiations. For them, peace talks may have died but no date for a funeral has as yet been set. Their mourning over president Trump’s decision is pre-mature.

The Palestinian Authority cannot exist for a day without the support of Israeli military and intelligence services. Abbas could have been assassinated were it not for Israeli warnings. The Palestinians need Israel far more than we need the Palestinians. They are, quite frankly, thorns in our sides.

We Israeli Jews recognize the Palestinian and Muslim attachment to their holy mosques on the Temple Mount, Har HaBayit, or Haram al-Sharif as the Arabs call it. We have never attacked their holy places and since 1967 we have granted them full authority over the golden mosque and Al-Aqsa. They are controlled by the Muslim Waqf appointed by the Custodian of Muslim holy places in Jerusalem, King Abdullah II of the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan. The agreement made by General Moshe Dayan with Jordan following Israel’s victorious re-unification of Jerusalem in 1967 has been kept unbroken.

If a third Intifada takes place, Arab streets will run with streams of red blood. Israeli forces must once and for all times maintain law and order and security in Jerusalem.

We hope that protests will be lawful but we must be prepared to take the strongest course of action if they become violent.  Imams who preach and encourage riots and incitement against Jews must be arrested and imprisoned. We cannot and must not allow religious leaders to inject poisonous hatred into their worshippers.

Live ammunition must be used to quell violence. Homes of those who injure us or take our lives must be bulldozed to the bare ground.  Inhabitants of the homes should be deprived of Israeli citizenship with all the benefits it offers.

Only when severe force is used will the riots cease. The one thing Arabs fear and yet respect most is force. And it is now time for us to use more extreme force.

For their crimes we must make the punishments as severe as possible. Let us hope that today will be for all the Jews of Israel a real Shabbat shalom… a Sabbath of peace and security.

Insh’Allah.  Ken yehi ratzon.