Anti-Semitic decision in Spain
Spanish judge's war crimes ruling undermines State of Israel's right to exist
The Spanish judge's decision to launch legal proceedings against, more or less, the entire top brass of Israel's security establishment at the time of Salah Shehade's assassination in July 2002 has left the official Israel wide-mouthed and helpless. As it turns out, the Dreyfus Affair is in fact ongoing history that repeats itself at various locations, times, and contexts, yet the ant-Semitic undertones are always present.
It is simply difficult to believe how much injustice, arbitrariness, Orwellian language and Israel-hatred can be found in a relatively brief ruling. Moreover, a system where any junior judge anywhere can easily indict the State of Israel's entire security cadre justifies some puzzled questions.
How many bombastic words had to be enlisted in order to draft such disturbing and baseless paragraph and ruling? After all, what are we talking about here? Our fundamental right to rise against those who seek to exterminate us.
Salah Shehade was a Palestinian arch-terrorist, the head of Hamas' military wing in Gaza, and the founder of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. He was a man who ceaselessly engaged in terror and in the murder of Jews – for 20 consecutive years, even when he was jailed in Israel.
Shehade planned and approved a very long series of terror attacks, including the murder of five yeshiva students in Atzmona and the killing of four IDF soldiers in an attack on an army post near Gaza.
Israel attempted to assassinate him for a long time. Eventually, Shehade was killed when his home was bombed, in a strike that also killed his aide and 14 others, including his wife and three of his children, as well as women and children who were his neighbors. Yet it is needless to say that it is the State of Israel's existential right and duty to assassinate people like Shehade.
Terrorists hope to paralyze Israel
As result of the combat norms adopted by Shehade and his organization – namely, always taking shelter behind helpless civilians or humanitarian facilities, based on the assumption that this will paralyze Israel and stir intolerable dilemmas to the point of operational impotence – innocent have been killed, regrettably, and they will continue to be killed.
Yet Israel cannot be paralyzed and refrain from taking action against its arch-enemies because of their despicable norms. In this context it is perhaps worthy to note the brutality displayed by Hamas men to their Fatah brethren in Gaza.
Israel did not wait for the Spaniards. The killing of innocents that accompanied Shehade stirred public outrage that culminated with a letter written by IDF pilots and the filing of irritating complaints in Britain over alleged war crimes against the army chief, Air Force chief, and Southern Command chief at the time.
Israel had been debating and suffering throughout its existence because of these dilemmas, which are not yet shared by its enemies. The struggle against terror is existential and essential, and as such, due to the terrorists' modus operandi (as clearly demonstrated during Operation Cast Lead,) it sometimes involves unavoidable harm to civilians.
In the face of the terrible and unjust decision in Spain, it is the official Israel's duty to sound all the alarms and make all the noise it can make. We are dealing with a decision that undermines our fundamental right for sovereignty and security. This is a decision that conceals deep de-legitimacy for the State of Israel's right to even exist. Indeed, it is an anti-Semitic decision.
