Often in discussions over the different reactions to Israel few and far apart acts of lawlessness against the near constant acts of lawlessness and sheer brutality committed daily by the Arabs comes the accusation that Israel must accept different treatment because of the Chosen People and the claims to our being an ethical people. There are points made in those claims if only they were not used as an accusation, used as a club with which to berate Israel in an effort to force her to surrender to any aggression perpetrated against her without ever reacting or lashing out in an act of violence by one Jew despite the lack of support for such acts which so obviously follow and the fact that such acts are punished, not rewarded as with the Arabs who pay their terrorists in Israeli prisons an exorbitant salary and give large compensation and a stipend salary to those families of fallen terrorists. The Duma arson case was an example in full view of any who bothered to follow the case. Israel requested the Palestinian authority to look into the possibility that it was a feud or other Arab on Arab violence as such was within their autonomous region so they held complete security and civil jurisdiction and even before their response was returned claiming a clean investigation the Shin Bet was investigating the possibility this was as it appeared, an Israel crime. Where some questioned the depths and tactics used by the Shin Bet, they did unravel the case and found at least a pair of the culprits and will continue investigating mostly by monitoring the two suspects and other means to see who, if anybody, else may have had a hand in the perpetration of the heinous crime or the planning or subsequent cover-up trying to hide any knowledge or evidence from the authorities. While there will still be many recriminations against the Shin Bet and their techniques, especially the continuing to hold suspects they had completely cleared of any fore knowledge, subsequent potential cover-up or any accessorial guilt for additional weeks of questionable investigative intolerances. But the depth and severity of the investigation and the wide net thrown over not only the two suspects but every and anybody within their social network and beyond put on display the extents beyond the norm anywhere else including the detention of individuals who at best had even a remote possibility of having knowledge as to who dunnit and the use of bringing in family members of those most closely suspected to both glean any additional clues and to be a form of added pressure on the main suspects in attempts to have them crack. In the end it will be, unfortunately, for the political and other lawmakers and the Attorney General and Courts who approved the extraordinary tactics which bordered on torture to decide if things actually got out of hand and if perhaps they were a little too fervent in their efforts against an entire community for the deeds of two miscreants who will be facing serious time in prison should they be found guilty, the evidence will be presented in court and likely not before except through dribs and drabs leaked to the media even against gag orders being in place.
Place the events when an Israeli commits a crime, even a crime of passion where they were responding to overbearing personal turmoil reacting to the constant events of Arab stabbings, assaults, vehicular rammings into crowds, firebombings as well as what has been a daily occurrence for more years than we care to count of large rock and even cement blocks hurled at passing Israeli cars even on the two highways between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, spitting and cursing at Jews in religious garb, assaults on the same, periodic stones and rocks thrown down on Jews praying at the western Wall from above on the Temple Mount, heckling by organized and salaried throngs of women yelling at Jews chasing them on their entire trip to visit the Temple Mount, the recent further change in the status quo adding the latest change of forbidding Jews in particular and often also Christians from praying or even expressing emotion when finally being permitted a few brief moments visiting the Temple Mount before being brusquely hustled to the closest exit terminating what often is a once a year and even once in a lifetime visit to this holiest of sites, and other assaults and indignities which would never even occur in the Western world as such behavior is not a part of daily life because the occurrences are far too prevalent to incarcerate all of the offending miscreants. This is what will become of the daily stabbings as they continue apace since their onset months ago and already they have passed from the news and are being treated by the media as just a common event to be suffered by the Jews for living in Israel and daring to leave their homes. After all, why are we complaining as we should expect such treatment after all we are Jews, what did we expect?
Right there is the crux of the problem, we are Jews, what did we expect. Well, we expected the common courtesy expected by any other human being but apparently there are far too many in the world who still believe that Jews are lesser beings deserving of shaming and degradations one would not even commit to a feral dog, but for Jews we must expect such treatments as it has always been and always should continue to be our lot in life and to expect different is all so typical of the Jews demanding better treatment. We are not demanding better treatment as in above others; there we are but demanding equal treatment. The better treatment we might be demanding is better treatment than we currently receive in places beyond Israel throughout the globe where Jews are often made to feel denied acceptance and often intimidations and belittlement at the hands of others often when the Jew is alone and comes upon by a group of his so-called peers. Not having the typical expected appearance that such individuals would believe a Jew would appear, having blond hair in my youth with blue eyes, I was too often discomforted to witness such events which would always spur me to act which for reasons which escape me (though I have been told by friends I have this uncanny ability to scare people) would always bring such actions to an abrupt end, much to my satisfaction. I had at times been accused as being a Jew lover, an accusation I happily and proudly would wear as a sign of enlightened pride. Even when I told people I was Jewish they would not believe me, too bad.
That is where the problem continues to exist and the recent actions of the European Union and those governmental agencies and NGOs and companies, unions, organizations, boards, musicians and Stephen Hawkins and he claims to be of higher intellect (though I suspect the falling to the BDS pressure was a decision made by his handlers and he was never informed but that might be granting him more credit than he is due as it could have been his decision) who have caved to pressure or peer demands and joined the BDS movement or refused to visit or perform in Israel should be ashamed of themselves for caving to such bullying unless they secretly or not so secretly do hold Jews in disdain and believe them not to be quite as human as they and the rest of mankind. There is a part of the BDS movement as does all anti-Israel or anti-Zionist and definitely anti-Semitic, which the first two are but variations of the last, want to convince everyone to hate Israel but Heaven forbid ever visit Israel even if it is to witness where their religion also began. Ever stop to think why the BDS movement is so adamant against allowing anyone to even visit Israel? Well, let me clue you in on this, they so not want you to see the truth with your own eyes as doing so will guarantee the average person that the BDS movement is empty of any validity and is simply the product of bile and hatred. Any visit to Israel and inquisitive inspection will give the average person a clue, namely except for those wearing obvious attire which denotes their religion, there is no visible difference in the actions of Jews and Arabs no matter the attire. Further inspection will reveal that even those wearing their religion on their sleeves are treated exactly the same. There is no social divide between the average Jew or Arab in Israeli life, culture, law, treatment or social acceptance and standing. This is the dirty little secret that those who hold a deep and personal hatred of the Jewish State, and all too often of Jews in general, is that the entirety of their movement is about hatred of the Jews and has no bearing or truth behind it beyond their desire to discredit the Jewish State because it is Jewish and they must prevent any visitors as just spending a two week vacation traveling around Israel to Jerusalem, Haifa, Netanya (really nice beaches), Tzfat (very nice artwork as many artists reside here), Tiberius (Roman Ruins and other ancient sites and on the Kinneret, Sea of Galilee), Beer Sheva (dessert area and close proximity to Masada and building from the time of Herod the Great, or as I prefer, Herod the not all that great as he was not that nice to those he was supposed to rule and represent) and if you can take a helicopter ride to see Israel from the air you will realize exactly how small Israel is as the helicopter will be constantly banking and anyplace else you will see people going about their daily lives with much more important things to get done than treat anybody with anything other than general acceptance and humanity.
Israeli Defense Forces
Seeking Far Horizons
Pursuing Lasting Peace
Through Eveready Force
So, should Israel accept a double standard? Well, not one any more severe than the one we hold ourselves to and that we do hold ourselves to such high standards, it would be nice for an occasional recognition of the fact. We hold the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) as it holds itself to the highest and most professional of standards. These standards are so high that Chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff General Dempsey stated about their practices in the Gaza War:
or an Interview with British officer Colonel Richard Kemp on the Israeli operation in Gaza he stated:
or if you have the time there is the full UN Testimony of Col. Richard Kemp on Gaza Inquiry where he witnessed and stated under considerable pressure to mar the IDF as others had attempted, he told the inquiry:
or listen to a European Union Lawmaker and former reporter who stated despite interruption:
or lastly Lt. Colonel Geoffrey Corn, former United States Army Law of War Expert and Professor of Law at South Texas College of Law witness testimony before the UN Gaza Inquiry where he stated under oath:
All of these experts cannot be simple pawns of the Israeli and part of the mythical Jewish Control the World Conspiracy, can they? Lt. Colonel Geoffrey Corn was witnessing on evidentiary review he carried out into the Gaza War and the criminal charges presumably leveled against the IDF in a trial attempted to be carried out not in a court of law, or even international of United Nations panel for the purpose of holding a public flaying of the only Jewish State by the ‘most ethical dictatorships in the world’ who could be depended on to have made their judgment in the womb but as standing as an impartial judgement of facts over propaganda and was witness before the United Nations on at least two occasions (the other video can be found in our article A Law Whose Time Has Come.
The seeming world-wide efforts to witness Israel into a shame both imagined and underserved which many of these so-called ‘witnesses’ of the ‘known facts’ which are ‘obvious and evident’ to even the ‘most discriminating observer’ after ‘considering the mountains of factual evidence and factual’ commentary, and we left commentary outside of quotes as they are real and exactly that, commentaries often from some of the most blatantly biased and coming from the most dependable of witnesses such as Richard Faulk, Saab Erekat (PA Spokesman and official), Khaled Mashal (Hamas spokesman and officer), and even Justice Richard Goldstone who was hand-picked chairman of the U.N. Gaza Inquiry with the usual wink and a nod as his position was known well ahead of his being selected and even with such a bias he eventually relented that his entire efforts and that of his entire inquiry were decided before their first sitting and could have written the report before hearing the initial first witness and saved the world a two or three thousand trees wasted on the daily coverage in European and American leftist newspapers such as the New York Times castigating Israel and IDF as the most evil and vicious collection of rogues and daemon possessed individuals who were capable of such acts which could not be discussed in polite company. The reason they could not be discussed before polite company was that in such a setting the lies would be exposed, but then these were not polite company and lies were the coin of expressions in the Howled (as in feral dogs over a juicy bone) Halls of the United Nations and all the actions one could expect from such depths of human depravity. The one truth is that the IDF and the UN should seldom be used in similar vein despite too often forced into close proximity but fortunately only in news print and editorials. This is as it should be as they are opposite reputations amongst polite company, otherwise known as those who speak to the truth of their witness because their name and honor are too important to them to sell them to the besmirchers of the world.
The reality is that Israel and the IDF are held to a different and higher set of expectations compared to their peers and gladly accepts this difference and commit each to achieve and surpass even the most lofty of expectations, even if they are often self-imposed. In the IDF any mere hint of impropriety is thoroughly investigated and it has been known and expected for soldiers in the same unit, platoon, squad or weapons system to report even the slightest crossing of the strict rules of war and deportment expected of every member of the IDF. When such bad apples are discovered they are removed from service and more often than not incarcerated for their ill-conceived efforts. Israelis in general and Jews in particular, especially those amongst what is known as the religious Zionists, are expected to live and act morally and aim for the highest heights of moral rectitude and to admit their shortfalls not for shame but as the first step of improvement as no one amongst us is incapable on self-improvement. The highest of expectations are accepted as a challenge we deserve as we aim to be a moral society to which others can look for inspiration and motivation to act morally as Israel is moral and still manages to function and make contributions to the world in virtually every field. The unethical and unequal judgement is another matter, especially as it is so often wielded as a weapon of mass destruction aimed to destroy Israel just for the sake of destruction of the Jewish State. That is unacceptable as Israel sits in a high enough judgements over their actions and moral rectitude and deploring every shortfall where ever found that such is sufficient and outside judgments which are used to defame and not to seek out truth, that is when the unequal treatment, expectations and misuse of the truth simply for the sake of destruction and spite to the Jew, even if that Jew is a multicultural nation where equal treatment of all citizens is the law and fulfilled in all venues and areas of Israeli life. As for the Arab Palestinians, they are citizens of an autonomous region under self-rule and the lack of elections, the most often leveled accusation is Israel will not allow them to vote, is due to Mahmoud Abbas refusal to risk losing his position of power which also provides him with the ability to order the flow of funds, much to his own family and that of his cohorts in despotism.
Beyond the Cusp
Beyond the Cusp 