Is the relatively muted response due to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan that dominated the international news at the time? Or because we expect Palestinians to act in inhuman ways in expressing their hatred of Jews? Or maybe it was because the brutality element of the Israeli story was soon eclipsed by the political and diplomatic angle, with Jerusalem announcing that in response to the murders it would increase settlement building in the West Bank.Yes, they are. Even today, there is tragic hostility to the pioneers within leftists in Tel Aviv and of course, the MSM in Israel.
All of the above may be true, but I fear that a significant factor in the relative inattention to this shocking and heartbreaking story was that the Fogel family members who were killed were religious Israelis living in a small West Bank community. Had the victims been secular Jews living inside the Green Line, I believe the outrage would have been far greater.
The sad reality is that, as small as our people are in numbers, we are all-too guilty of thinking of certain segments as second-class Jews.
And in today’s political climate, when the West Bank settlements are seen by Washington as the central cause of the breakdown in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, “the settlers” are viewed widely – including among many Jews here and in Israel – as operating outside the norm of Israeli society, an embarrassment to those in Tel Aviv cafes, a few miles away, prepared to displace tens of thousands of their countrymen for the prospect of peace with the Palestinians.
Once admired as brave pioneers embodying the spirit of the early Zionists in working the land, those Jews living beyond the Green Line are portrayed in the media as, for the most part, radical fundamentalists whose actions and very existence are jeopardizing the future of a Jewish democratic state living peacefully alongside a Palestinian state.
The facts are more complicated, though.
Then, there's Caroline Glick's op-ed, where she reveals that no one has taken credit for the bombing near the central bus station in Jerusalem:
What are we to make of the fact that no one has taken credit for Wednesday's bombing in Jerusalem?It shouldn't be that surprising if now, no terrorist gang wants to identify themselves as the culprit, if they see that as a strategy.
Wednesday bombing was not a stand-alone event. It was part and parcel of the new Palestinian terror war that is just coming into view. As Israel considers how to contend with the emerging onslaught, it is important to notice how it differs from its predecessors. On a military level, the tactics the Palestinians have so far adopted are an interesting blend of state-of-the-art missile attacks with old fashioned knife and bomb-in-the- briefcase attacks. The diverse tactics demonstrate that this war is a combination of Iranian-proxy war and local terror pick-up cells. The attacks are also notable for their geographic dispersion and for the absence thus far of suicide attacks.
For the public, the new tactics are not interesting and the message they send is nothing new. With our without suicide bombers, Israelis understand that we are entering a new period of unremitting fear, where we understand that we are in danger no matter where we are. Whether we're in bed asleep, or our way to work or school, or sitting down on a park bench or at a restaurant, whether we're in Rishon Lezion, Sderot, Jerusalem, Itamar or Beersheba, we are in the Palestinians' crosshairs. All of us are "settlers." All of us are in danger.
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