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Murdered Arab teen Mohammad Abu Khdeir. 'The best thing that could have happened to Hamas'
Ben-Dror Yemini

Jewish Jihad developing within us

Op-ed: Jewish majority hopes Arab teen was not murdered by Jews, but there is a fear that racist rightist individuals have created a murderous cell with the help of certain rabbis' evil spirit.

"Revenge is a natural, spontaneous reaction, and it is led by a feeling that until I find the power to hurt whoever has hurt me I will not experience revival." These despicable words were not written by one of the Hamas leaders. They were written by Rabbi Yitzhak Ginzburg, head of the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva.

 

 

The Jewish majority hopes, prays that the youth from Shuafat was not murdered by Jews, and that the "price tag" hooligans are a marginal minority, whose actions end mainly in graffiti.

 

But there is a fear, just a fear, that we are in denial. There is a fear that racist rightist cancer is nesting within us. There is a fear that individuals from this racist right have developed into a murderous cell that carried out the kidnapping and murder of Mohammad Abu Khdeir.

 

The evil spirit comes from certain rabbis. Ginzburg, who preaches revenge, who encourages it, is considered the spiritual leader of the Hilltop Youth and "price tag" hooligans.

 

He is not alone. He has followers. A Facebook page calling for revenge has thousands of supporters already. Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur wrote the book "The King's Torah," which discusses a halachic permit to kill non-Jews. Rabbi Dov Lior, together with Ginzburg, endorsed the book.

 

To prevent us from making any mistake about his location on the political spectrum, Ginzburg wrote: "The Zionist spirit must be uprooted… It emasculates and damages every spiritual growth or aspiration for real and complete salvation." He calls for the overthrow of every government, from the right and from the left, "until the establishment of a religious rule."

 

If we thought that a dark Islamic caliphate is beyond the darkness, we were wrong. There are those among us who wish to establish a dark Jewish caliphate right here.

 

As I write these words, it's still unclear whether the murder of the Shuafat youth was committed by Jews. But on the background of the evil spirit working through the margins of the anti-Zionist right, it's definitely possible.

 

Clearly, the best thing that could have happened to the Palestinian Hamas was a similar act from the Jewish side. We see Hamas, and rightfully so, as responsible for the teens' murder, because even if Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal did not initiate the action, they are the ones who created the atmosphere.

 

No, it's not the same thing. Here an absolute majority opposes the murder. In the Gaza Strip, Hamas is the government. We have no cries of joy. They have celebrations of joy, and the murderers' families hand out candy. Here, the state stopped funding the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva. There, the murderers continue to receive regular monthly funding from the Palestinian Authority.

 

And despite all that, we should remember that in the margins of the margins we have a Jewish jihad. It's neither Zionist nor national. It's anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist. We must act against the great Muslim jihad. We must also act against the small Jewish jihad.

 

All that is left is to express our complete solidarity with the comments published by Naftali Frenkel's family, which is mourning its son's murder: "If a young Arab man was indeed murdered in a nationalistically-motivated attack, it is a horrifying and shocking act. There is no difference between blood and blood. A murder is a murder, regardless of nationality and age. There is no justification, no forgiveness and no atonement for any murder."

 


פרסום ראשון: 07.04.14, 01:19
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