The global disregard to Israel’s victims of terrorism is epic

A few months ago, on the heels of the triple murder of Maia, Rina, and Leah Dee, I expressed my outrage at the lack of vocal uproar and protest against a backdrop of incessant terrorism attacks in Israel. Since then, the barometer of any global condemnation didn’t budge an inch. On the contrary, some left-wing media outlets and publications blamed the Israeli “occupation” and “apartheid” for the killings. A sordid testimonial to what we used to call “journalism”. Sinking this low in justifying the murders of husbands, mothers, wives, sisters, brothers, and young children, lends itself to the current anti-Israel propaganda that inadvertently leads to a global rise in antisemitism. Being a Jew in Israel has sadly become hazardous to your health.

“Israelis were hit by 5,000 Palestinian terror attacks in 2022. The State has to defend itself.” (Orly Goldschmidt, spokesperson, Embassy of Israel to the UK, February 24, 2023). A February 24, 2023, article by Mr. Goldschmidt in The Guardian broke down the systematic attempts at destroying Israel and its civilian population. Since January 2023, 28 civilians have been murdered by car ramming, shootings, stabbings, and bombings. Six other victims were members of the IDF and border patrol. The youngest Israeli civilian victim was 6 and the oldest 80. No Sunday protests, no foreign condemnation. Israelis die and the majority of the world remains relatively silent.

A reality check: I’ve had to modify this writing because since I started it, a terrorist took the life of another Israeli civilian, 40-year-old Batsheva Nagari while traveling in Hebron. She was a schoolteacher and a mother of three. Her 12-year-old daughter who was with her miraculously escaped injury. The driver of the vehicle they were in (unknown as of this writing) was seriously injured and taken to the hospital. Batsheva was killed barely three days after Shay Silas Nigreker 60, and his son 28-year-old son Aviad Nir were gunned down execution style in Huwara.

Shay was originally from India and often went to Huwara, for mundane errands. His family said that he never felt threatened because he had friends. On this day, Shay and his son Aviad were out and about getting a haircut, fixing their car, and going to a car wash. Daily normal chores that in a normal world, normal people accomplish with little or no fear of being singled out and killed. While at the car wash, a Palestinian gunman shot them point blank execution style and quickly escaped. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, congratulated the murdering thug but according to mainstream media “fell short of taking responsibility” for the atrocity. How magnanimous of them! How comforting for the victims’ families!

The US State Department condemned the killings of Shay Silas and Aviad in subdued indignation. The UN could care less. The EU’s irrelevancy is only surpassed by its inability to control the rise of antisemitism in its state members. So not a peep was heard from that direction either. The only media source that used the word “murdered” in its headline was The Foreign Desk. “Israeli Father and Son Murdered by Terrorist in Huwara” (August 21, 2023). Why should I make a big deal about the choice of words in a headline?

(Difference between killing and murdering explained) A killing refers to the death of anything or anyone, intentionally or otherwise. We kill animals and often decide to end our own lives. Killing can be accidental and unintentional. Murder on the other hand is the predetermined act to end a human’s life. Point in fact: the killers in Huwara and Hebron didn’t accidentally pull the trigger at point blank. They planned their executions. Semantics one might argue, not for the victims, their families, and Israel. The systematic murder of Israelis is well planned and well-funded generally by various terrorist groups in the region. It’s an economy of its own. Terrorists are recruited because they are well paid when the killing is pulled off, and their families are well reimbursed perpetually if the thugs happen to be caught or killed. Money is the incentive. Ideology is bait.

Quoting a very irate and angry Israeli (Meir David Gutlib): “In what world does it seem logical to you that Jews are murdered because they are Jews, and more so in their own country!” Indeed. However, logic has hardly ever been the reason behind inbred hatred. Fueled by an international community like the UN that continuously censors Israel for its “occupation” and “crimes” but gives a free pass to the terrorists, makes logic as redundant as chewing on water.

Millions are “donated” to alleged Palestinian humanitarian causes that are instead diverted to terrorist support. The mainstream media concentrates on Jewish “settlers” retaliating against the increased assaults on their farms, properties, and families, while the escalation in violence against Jews is downplayed against an excused “retaliation” narrative, thus fueling brazen violence and murder in broad daylight. “What interests the media more are the mounting acts of retribution by local Jews fed up with the lack of security.” (Israel Today, August 21, 2023)

The continual cry of “occupation” has been propagated by a global community that seems determined to prove Israel’s guilt despite profound proof to the contrary. In a 2016 study entitled The Oslo Disaster, (Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies), Efraim Karsch discussed fact versus humanist ideology. In May 1994, Israel withdrew completely from Gaza, followed by another complete withdrawal of IDF troops from the West Bank. Palestinians went to the polls for the Palestinian National Council, and the Israeli Civil Administration rule came to a complete end. By January 1996, 90% of Palestinians were not occupied by anyone except their own “government”. In 2005, a complete withdrawal from Gush Qatif gave the Palestinians more autonomy, yet presently, the UN and the rest of the world still refers to Gaza and the West Bank as “occupied”. Deliberate ignorance?

Unfortunately, deliberate or not, such ignorance is leading to a rise in anti-Israel rhetoric as justification for violence through a disingenuous cause without merit. I would let it slide if the correlation between the “apartheid” and “occupation” narrative and terrorism wasn’t so pronounced. Point in fact, after the murder of Shay and Aviad, I listened to the BBC World Service reporting the killing as a result of Palestinian “frustration” from the “occupation”.  A moment in time when my urge to reach through the phone and slap someone stupid reached unprecedented proportions.

Maj. Gen. (Res), Gershon Hacohen, a senior fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, compares the world’s distorted view on Israel’s “occupation” to other instances in history, where nationalistic ideology fails to recognize the truth. He described it as a conflict between “political realism” and “humanist idealism”.  100 years after the fall of the Ottoman Empire some Turks still perceive certain lands theirs. Hence the “crazy” policies of the current President Erdogan. Wroclaw and Gdansk in Poland were formally Breslau and Danzig in Germany. To some Germans, these are still German cities regardless of what they are called today or where they are located in reality.

Gershon Hacohen explains the political realism and humanist idealism of a “liberal outlook world”, where everything should be in a “moral equilibrium” regardless of reality. A state of enlightenment that demands positive outcomes to situations without a good dose of truth and realism but rather unfounded idealism. In recent years that fine line between realism and idealism has been ignored, prompting world organizations like the UN and EU to delve into the world of dubious assertions that have created and maintained a global anti-Israel sentiment through a disingenuous idealistic narrative. This narrative inadvertently justifies murder by raising the flag of “occupation”. Add this to the flavor of the month “apartheid” and you have a recipe for increased violence in an already volatile region. How have we permitted and left unchallenged such unmitigated global ignorance?

According to Townhall.com and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), Nagari’s murder brings the toll to 34 Israelis (included in the number are two tourists) that have been killed by terrorism since January 2023, which makes this year (and it’s not over yet) the deadliest since the second intifada in the 2000s. FDD CEO Mark Dubowitz remarked that although Israelis remain defiant in the face of terrorism, the rest of the world ignores the habitual killing of innocent civilians in Israel, and that had it been anywhere else in the world but Israel, “…it would be deemed unacceptable”. As he so aptly put it: “No country would tolerate terrorists regularly gunning down its civilians.” Dubowitz condemned the international community that gives a free pass to Palestinian terrorists without accountability and without responsibility for the countless terrorist attacks. He laments that maybe if Palestinians and their leadership embraced peaceful coexistence with their neighbor, they would be “celebrating decades long anniversaries of an independent state” rather than violence. (Dubowitz, Townhall.com. August 21, 2023).

The biased reporting by the mainstream media on Israeli deaths remains beyond the pale. The terrorists are excused while the victims are given a mention or ignored. My pent-up anger is against a world community that pretends to champion tolerance and equity but disregards the premeditated murder of civilians in Israel. In what world is the gunning down of a father and son at a carwash, or a 40-year-old mother traveling with her daughter okay? In what world does the ramming of a father and son at a bus stop becomes acceptable? Can the UN, the EU, the White House, anyone with any sense of decency answer these basic moral and ethical questions? How many more Israelis have to die to get a rise out of anyone?

The global disregard to Israel’s victims of terrorism is epic. Maybe if we put a name to the headline, we give the victims a voice the rest of the world cannot ignore. Here are names of all the 34 victims of terrorism in 2023 by month.

January: Eli Mizrahi, Natalie Mizrahi, Rafel Ben-Eliyahu, Shaul Chai, Ilya Sosonsky, Irina Korolova, Asher Natan (14)

February: Shlome Liderman, Yaakov Yisrael (6), Asher Menahem Paley (8), Asil Suaed, Hillel Yaniv, Yaacov Yaniv, Elan Ganeles

March: Or Eshkar

April: Rina Dee (15), Maia Dee (20), Lucy Dee, Alessandro Parini

May: Meir Tamari

June: Lia Ben-Nun, Uri Itzhak Ilouz, Ohad Dahan, Elisha Anteman, Harel Masoud, Ofer Feirman, Nachman Shmuel Mordoff

July: David Yehuda Yitzhak, Shilo Yosef Amir

August: Chen Amir, Silas Shai Nigerker, Aviad Nir, Batsheva Nigri

May their memories forever be, and always remain a blessing.

Orly Goldschmidt. February 24, 2023. Israelis were hit by 5,000 Palestinian terror attacks in 2022. The state has to defend itself | Israel | The Guardian

Foreign Desk News. August 21, 2023 Israeli Father and Son Murdered by Terrorist in Huwara – The Foreign Desk | by Lisa Daftari (foreigndesknews.com)

(2016) Difference Between Killing and Murdering Explained – (anydifferencebetween.com)

Israel Today Sraff. August 21, 2023. Palestinian terrorists kill Israeli woman, wound second victim in Judea (israeltoday.co.il)

Gershon  Hacohen (Maj. Gen. (Res). Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies . 2018 The Trump Peace Plan (jstor.org)

Spencer Brown. August 21, 2023. 2023 Becomes Deadliest Year for Terrorism in Israel Since Second Intifada (townhall.com)