This is no time for mercy

Terrorist’s entire extended family should be punished harshly to deter more attacks

Hanoch Daum
Published: 07.04.08, 00:16 / Israel Opinion

When it comes to some issues, decisions must be taken precisely when we are infuriated and while blood is flowing through the streets. One such decision has to do with the price that a terrorist’s family must pay.

We must not wait. We must not let time pass. We must not find ourselves facing moral and legal confusion and showing mercy to the cruel. Every moment that passes where the terrorist’s home is still intact is a dangerous moment; a moment of moral nadir for the State of Israel, which is a captive to its own laws.

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Every moment that passes where the residency rights of relatives of the despicable murderer are not revoked is a lost and frustrating moment, a moment of confusion and blatant injustice.

The blood of the victims is screaming out at us; the blood of the innocent is calling on all of us to wake up; to make the Arabs of east Jerusalem realize that terrorism comes with a price. A painful price. A price paid by the terrorist’s family, his relatives, brothers, and brothers-in-law.

Had we not hesitated in the wake of the terror attack on the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, had the entire extended family of the terrorist paid a painful price, seeing its homes razed and its rights completely revoked, perhaps the terrorist who killed innocents on Wednesday would have reconsidered his steps before embarking on the shocking killing rampage through Jerusalem’s streets.

We must not let the tears dry up. We must not put off this decision. There is no room for judgment here. We must adopt a firm hand and resort to collective punishment, with no mercy.

It has to be the kind of punishment that has a revenge component, a punishment that has a deterrence component; the kind of punishment that disregards everything. We can keep our morality and decency to other days; quieter days.

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