Jew Hatred and Pragmatics: Jews and Murder
I herein continue what I have started two posts ago – analyzing one of many anti-Semitic signs containing the eight “accusations” that put the State of Israel, at least according to BDS’s activists, at the top of the international criminal list. The only existing Jewish state, one of the smallest states in the world, at the top of the world’s concern? At the top of the international criminal list? Yes. Anti-Semitism has never disappeared, it has only changed form.
If we read this list of “accusations” carefully, we will not find it difficult to discern that one of the most prominent elements therein is repetition. In fact, there are not eight “accusations;” there is a reuse of the same “accusations,” but under different names, to create the illusion of multiple crimes. This apparently gives further legitimacy to the exclusion of the Jewish state and its citizens from the international community, by that – isolating it, and as a result – eliminating it. In this post I will focus on the articles designed to portray the Israelis as no less than monstrous murderers.
The word “murder” has several synonyms. The differences between those synonyms depend on the circumstances of the murders, in terms of their juridical definition, the number of people involved, their contents, and some more. Three of them are used in the attached sign: execution, mass murder, assassination (photographer: Michael Jacobs).
The term “mass murder” is apparently aimed at the Israeli air force sometimes bombing Gaza. “Only” three details were (deliberately) omitted from this “essential” information, which is nothing more than a distortion of reality, and its sole purpose is to sow hatred towards Israel and exclude it from the international community: (1) IDF’s bombing on Gaza never precedes, but rather always follows intended firing of rockets from Gaza towards civilian populations in Israel – “mass murder” in and of itself; (2) Prior to each such bombing, the Israeli Air Force informs the local population in the intended target location of its intention to bomb, suggesting that it be evacuated, and even allows it the time required for it; this is in contrast to rocket attacks from Gaza on civilian populated centers in Israel, without warning, and around the clock. As a Southern Israel citizen, I cannot remember when Gazans ever informed me prior to firing rockets on my house. Not ever. And (3) An Israeli Air Force bombing of Gazan civilian centers will always take place only when it is known that the rockets on Israeli civilian population were fired from these centers. In all three cases, mass murder is directed at Israel and towards Israelis, not vice versa. But the facts have been deliberately distorted in favor of international politics.
The other two terms – execution and assassination – are almost complete synonyms of one another, and are apparently aimed at the same phenomenon: targeted killings. Targeted killings are military operations, in which the IDF hits a specific, pre-known, and identity-verified terrorist, before or after holding a terrorist attack against Israelis. Obviously, this important detail has been deliberately omitted in order to raise emotions among the international community, by that creating international empathy for the “miserable” terrorist that was hurt, and in parallel – encouraging international hatred towards Israel and its army, representing the Jewish people. In fact, targeted killings are preventive actions for self-defense, after it has been proven beyond any doubt that the hands of that “poor” activist are stained with blood.
This sign, like many other Israel haters’ signs, constitutes psychological warfare per se. Beyond the quantitative use of duplication and triangulation of elements, and beyond the verbal accusation of Israel / IDF as its representative in various types of murder, there is a linguistic abuse of the word “murder.” Also, the roles between the terror groups (the initiators of murders), and the State of Israel (the “recipient”) – are switched: the terror groups turn themselves into a weak victim, whereas the State of Israel becomes the strong attacker. Necessarily, this switch turns the world’s attention from the core to the adjunct: terrorist organizations attack the Israeli civilian population in all kinds of ways; Israel responds; then, the terrorist initiators begin a “crying” process to attract the world’s attention to Israel’s “aggressiveness,” cynically using their own terror activists and homemade murderers.
And the world? As I mentioned in another previous post, hatred of Jews is so deeply entrenched that it is easy for the world to accept these accusations, when accompanied by several pictures of dead children from Syria, without looking into them too much.
We are witnessing a political process here, in which terror groups turn their own violent self-conduct, and self-frustration, into a general problem of the people of Gaza, of a “Palestinian people” that has never existed, and of an even greater “problem” of an ostensibly “abusive” state – Israel. At the same time, these “peaceful” terror groups use the support funds they have received from all over the world, to arm themselves more and more to attack and destroy the Jewish state.
Will these offensive wars, campaigns, and acts of terror against Israel lead to peace? Obviously not; nor are they intended to. Hatred towards Jews, in all its forms and expressions, contributes nothing to improve anybody’s quality of life, hence, it must be condemned and banned.
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I thank Michael Jacobs for his excellent insights and comments.