Israeli security forces at the scene of a terror attack by Arab terrorists
The Israeli General Security Service better known by the Hebrew acronym Shin Beit has been rolling up in the past few weeks a Jewish terror group in Judea and Samaria. Today, a fourth youth was arrested after a previous arrest of three Yeshiva students. The phenomenon of Jewish terror groups that seek to take the law into their own hands and perpetrate terror activities against the Arab population of Judea and Samaria has been an ongoing threat to Israel’s public image, legal system, and security since the early 1990’s when the Oslo Agreements that gave Arabs civilian and later limited military control over large portions of Judea and Samaria were enacted into law on razor thin margins in the Knesset. These groups are engaged in the destruction of Arab property and more rarely in attacks on individual Arabs that result in injury and even death.
Sadly, this Jewish terror, though vastly inferior in scope to the Arab one, is more dangerous to the well-being and the very existence of Israel as a Jewish state. While the grief that is felt by all Israelis over the loss of life caused by Arab terror cannot be described in words, the damage it inflicts on Israel’s capacity to grow and thrive is nearly nonexistent. On the other hand, the public relations fiasco and the diversion of scarce resources that is caused by Jewish terror groupings pose an existential threat to Israel because they cannot be reconciled with its existence as a modern, democratic and Jewish state. Judaism does not condone the murder of any human being and revenge belongs to God and him alone. Israel has acted in revenge for terror acts only when it was lawfully determined that such actions would deter future terror activities. While no military operations can be free of error, only those Arabs who are directly responsible for acts of terror against peaceful populations are targeted.
Messianic groupings that believed in reckless actions to force God’s hand and bring about the coming of the Messiah are the diametric opposite of the practical and lawful traditions of the Zionist movement. It is well recognized by today’s secular and religious historians alike that the disastrous uprisings against the Roman occupiers of Judea in the first and second centuries AD, uprisings which decimated the civilian Jewish population of the country, brought about the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, and caused the remnants of the Jewish population to flee into exile, were initiated by the ideological predecessors of the modern Jewish terrorists. It was because of their reckless behavior that Rome renamed Judea “Syria Palestina”, a name that became the nemesis of the Zionist movement. Just like then, today’s criminal acts are perpetrated by youth brainwashed by rabbis who preach suicidal messianism behind the veil of rabbinical authority. Just like then, today’s acts are justified by the very real threats to Jewish life, both individual and national, posed by the targets of Jewish terror be they Romans or Arabs. Israelis today are united against this appalling and dangerous behavior; they will not allow it succeed in its suicidal mission.
