From 'price tag' to 'Torah tag'
Op-ed: State's failure to fight Jewish terror perpetuates absurd situation in which Arab, Jewish extremists have upper hand
That same week, unknown vandals set fire to two vehicles in the village of Nein, near Afula.
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch and Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein decided, at a very late stage, that it was time to place the different "price tag" acts under the banner of "terrorist activity."
With all due understanding of the huge anger over the murder of innocent Jews, we cannot accept the possibility that Jewish citizens will take the law into their own hands and hurt the feelings or target the symbols or property of Palestinians, regardless of whether they are citizens of the State or residents of the territories. Of course we cannot accept any physical injury against them.
The different types of "price tag" actions add fuel to the fire the State of Israel is walking on the edge of these days and for many years now. These actions weaken the power of the large Arab public which seeks coexistence and reauthorize the Arab zealots and instigators.
The fact that the official State of Israel does not fight the "price tag" actions with all its might perpetuates an absurd situation, in which the Arab extremists and Jewish extremists have the upper hand. In this horrible equation, the radical people of both nations have a huge influence in determining the security-related and civil agenda – and both groups have no interest in lowering the flames.
Government must fulfill its duty
The leadership of the right-wing public in Israel should have a multifold interest to prevent these acts, as they blacken the image of Israel in its own eyes, in the eyes of the Arab population, in the eyes of its Arab neighbors and in the eyes of the world in general. Whoever believes that the Judea and Samaria territories can be controlled enduringly, must show double the responsibility in their attitude towards the Palestinian population and be sensitive to any form of offense against the Arab public.
The greatest sadness is over the silence accompanying these criminal acts, which are aimed at deepening our hold of the land, but actually lead to the complete opposite. The silence of the national leadership in light of these crimes; the silence of the settler leadership in light of these crimes; they all show that we are a society without a clear path and without a formulated value system. A society whose leadership believes that if we don't deal with the problems, they might just go away; a society whose extremists believe that if the Judea and Samaria settlement enterprise is in danger, the force they will use against innocent Arabs or against the IDF is what will tilt the balance in favor of their idea.
Someone must tell these guys that they are wrong and that their behavior may prove disastrous for everything they and we care about. But the main thing is that the government must act to stop their activity completely. The fact that these actions continue serves as evidence of the weakness and forgiveness with which they are received by those who are supposed to prevent them. Jewish terror must cease to exist.
Sovereignty means that the government is exclusively responsible for the national policy. It has no partners in determining the policy. We can protest, write and demonstrate against it – we cannot raise our hand on it; and we most definitely cannot accept a situation in which the government fails to fulfill its duty in regards to this critical matter.
And in order to understand the price of lack of action, we learned this week of a "Torah tag" against the Women of the Wall. There is no vacuum. Whoever fails to deal with "price tags," will receive additional tags.
