‘They were murdered because they were Jews’

Every time innocent Israeli civilians get killed my social media feed is flooded by comments that they were murdered simply because they were Jews.

This is not true. Palestinian terrorists target anyone who supports or is part of the Zionist enterprise. Had the terrorists known in advance, for example, that the intended targets was a family of off-duty Druze IDF soldiers they also would have attacked them.

But the biggest problem I have with this statement is not that it’s not true. My problem is that this statement short-circuits any meaningful discussion or thorough awareness of the real causes for Palestinian terrorism.

Claiming Palestinian terrorism is simply age-old antisemitism precludes the need for Israelis to look any deeper. Palestinians, in other words, are simply lowlife anti-Semites.

Chalking Palestinian terrorism up to anti-Semitism implies that Palestinian terrorism has nothing to do with the fight over this land.

It implies that Palestinian terrorism has nothing to do with the Palestinians refusal to accept any Jewish historical connection to this land and the Jews must go.

It implies that Palestinian terrorism has nothing to do with the Palestinians refusal to admit that they share any blame for the current situation, from rejecting the partition plan 75 years ago to rejecting all subsequent imperfect offers of a Palestinian state.

It implies that Palestinian terrorism has nothing to do with Palestinian intransigence and stubbornness to accept any compromise all the while demanding complete and perfect justice… for them.

It implies that Palestinian terrorism has nothing to do with the Palestinian belief that they are the only people in this land has a right to political independence.

It implies that Palestinian terrorism has nothing to with Palestinian suffering, such as abuse and disrespect by IDF soldiers and lack of freedom of movement. (Imagine for a moment that every time you left your house in Woodmere to get pizza on Central Avenue in Cedarhurst, you had to pass by a road block of soldiers where your life was in danger and you were delayed, humiliated and disrespected.)

It implies that Palestinian terrorism has nothing to do with innocent Palestinians being (non-systematically and often accidentally) killed by the IDF. A phenomenon that is happening more and more often.

It implies that Palestinian terrorism has nothing to with Palestinians being terrorized and sometimes killed by (some of the) Israeli settlers. A phenomenon that is happening more and more often.

It implies that Palestinian terrorism has nothing to with Palestinians having their land stolen. (And I don’t even mean the occupation of the West Bank in general. I’m referring to cases where Palestinians hold physical legal deeds to their land and nonetheless have it confiscated by the IDF for supposed IDF use and then the IDF turns the land over to Israeli settlers.)

I don’t condone violence against either side buts let’s not pretend there are no legitimate grievances that the Palestinians and the Jews have against each other that has nothing to do with religion or nationality.

The recent attacks by Palestinians are despicable (as are those of settlers), immoral and counterproductive in achieving their goals. And the civilians tragically murdered in the past few months were indeed 100% innocent victims. But let’s not delude ourselves in thinking the motives of these attacks was Jew hatred.

I’m not denying the existence of antisemitism in the world. But to assume that antisemitism is the motive for all Palestinian attacks is simply sticking your head in the sand and avoiding the hard work that needs to be done on both sides.