We don’t do things like that
“WE DON’T DO THINGS LIKE THAT”
More than a month ago when a “few” young very right-wing Jews, wearing masks, attacked the houses of a few Arabs in a small village in the West Bank, or the “Shtachim”, or Judea and Samaria. My first reaction when I saw this on television, was “We don’t do things like that!”
WE do not terrorize innocent people and WE do not behave as our enemies-It is that simple!
(Yes, I know about the “genocide” accusations in Gaza which started even before 7 October, but what we did in Gaza after 7 October was a reaction to a massive terrorist attack by thousands of terrorists and the urban war after that attack, was a result of the barbaric attack on 7 October, and the message that still has not been learned by many throughout the world is that “you cannot kill Jews anymore and expect that nothing will happen to you!)
What has been happening in the West Bank has been the use of violence by “our” people to terrorize civilians and now members of the international media and now one step further, members of the international diplomatic corp.
There was no reason to terrorize Arab families, and no reason other than to incite fear, to beat up on a female photographer and no reason to attack diplomats even if they are not friendly. There are methods, not involving violence, to deal with all these problems, unless violence is the message.
And as I wrote earlier “We do not do things like this”-Maybe the word “we” is no longer the correct word even though I believe that even most of the Israeli settlers also believe that “We do not do things like this!”
And what bothers me most is that our government, my government, has literally done nothing to stop this behaviour. The word “we” does not include my government!
The results of the actions of a few hundred extreme right wing has had a damaging effect not only on our moral stance to ourselves but has had a damaging effect on our international relations especially with our best friends, including the many officials in the American government and amongst the American people, including the Ambassador to Israel, who are true friends and do not understand the behaviour of young extremists, as well as our government, and its leaders!
Maybe the word “We” does not mean all of us and maybe the real separation in our country is not between the different groups which make up the population of Israel. but the real separation is between those of us for whom the word “WE” in the title literally means We” as opposed to that part of our population which does not believe the word “We” means them!