Anti-Israel Crowd Plays Racist Gotcha
The international media is salivating with what they're convinced is a Zionism is racism gotcha:
Families of Israeli Arabs shot dead on a bus in Galilee are not considered terrorism victims because their killer was Jewish, the defence ministry says. Under Israeli law, only attacks by "enemies of Israel" are considered terrorism, the ministry said.
The ruling means families of the four victims will not be entitled to the lifelong monthly payments given to Israeli victims of Palestinian attacks. The ministry says it has offered them an unspecified one-off payment.
We've been pretty clear that we think Natan Zada was a terrorist. But that doesn't mean that he was a terrorist that tried to undermine Israel - which is what the compensation fund was intended to combat. This isn't a "you've fallen on hard times let us help you" kind of thing - rather, it's designed as Israel's answer to the tens of thousands of smuggled international development aid dollars that go to "compensate" the Palestinian families of suicide bombers. Those bombers' families get reward money for every relative that tries to destroy Israel by blowing up a cafe or bus – so the families of their victims get money from the Israeli government to balance that out by keeping Israel strong. It's specific money set aside for a specific purpose.
Which also explains how the BBC lede is wildly misleading: this dispute has nothing to do with Natan Zada being Jewish and everything to do with the fact that the purpose of his action had nothing to do with trying to destroy the state of Israel by his actions (spare us the whole "well disengagement was good for Israel's security, so he really was undermining Israel" - there's a difference between trying to strengthen Israel and being wrong about the strategic-diplomatic situation and blowing up a bus because you don't like Jews who exist between the Jordan and the Mediterranean). Israel doesn't go around giving money out to every Jewish crime victim in Israel, any more than they do to Arab victims. In the specific case of this compensation fund, the fund was established to meet a specific purpose, a purpose that would in no way be met by compensating the Arab families victimized by Natan Zada.
Now the good answer to this argument is that all Israeli citizens - Jewish, Arab, or other - have equal civil rights. But this isn't a civil rights issue - again, not every victim of every crime in Israel is entitled to money from the state. And if anyone thinks that throwing money at the Israeli Arab community would promote pro-Israel patriotism, this should help clear that up:
Meanwhile, Israeli Arab leaders plan to present a 'blacklist' of grievances to the UN and the international community, which was drawn up after the attack by in Shfaram. The document details what they described as fascist and racist phenomena on the part of Israeli society and the establishment towards the country's minority Arab community.
The dominant voices of the sub-national Israeli Arab community are now calling for money (in fact, insisting that it's racist if they don't get any) from a country that they're actively trying to undermine by appealing to supranational actors. Why the rush of enthusiasm? Why the appeal to organizations objectively hostile to Israel?
When evaluating which communities are driven by what kind of racism, maybe the BBC could consider what it is about Israel that makes its Arab citizens want to undermine its security. Somehow we don't think it will turn out to be the substantial Buddhist majority in the country.
[Cross-posted at IsraPundit]
Families of Israeli Arabs shot dead on a bus in Galilee are not considered terrorism victims because their killer was Jewish, the defence ministry says. Under Israeli law, only attacks by "enemies of Israel" are considered terrorism, the ministry said.
The ruling means families of the four victims will not be entitled to the lifelong monthly payments given to Israeli victims of Palestinian attacks. The ministry says it has offered them an unspecified one-off payment.
We've been pretty clear that we think Natan Zada was a terrorist. But that doesn't mean that he was a terrorist that tried to undermine Israel - which is what the compensation fund was intended to combat. This isn't a "you've fallen on hard times let us help you" kind of thing - rather, it's designed as Israel's answer to the tens of thousands of smuggled international development aid dollars that go to "compensate" the Palestinian families of suicide bombers. Those bombers' families get reward money for every relative that tries to destroy Israel by blowing up a cafe or bus – so the families of their victims get money from the Israeli government to balance that out by keeping Israel strong. It's specific money set aside for a specific purpose.
Which also explains how the BBC lede is wildly misleading: this dispute has nothing to do with Natan Zada being Jewish and everything to do with the fact that the purpose of his action had nothing to do with trying to destroy the state of Israel by his actions (spare us the whole "well disengagement was good for Israel's security, so he really was undermining Israel" - there's a difference between trying to strengthen Israel and being wrong about the strategic-diplomatic situation and blowing up a bus because you don't like Jews who exist between the Jordan and the Mediterranean). Israel doesn't go around giving money out to every Jewish crime victim in Israel, any more than they do to Arab victims. In the specific case of this compensation fund, the fund was established to meet a specific purpose, a purpose that would in no way be met by compensating the Arab families victimized by Natan Zada.
Now the good answer to this argument is that all Israeli citizens - Jewish, Arab, or other - have equal civil rights. But this isn't a civil rights issue - again, not every victim of every crime in Israel is entitled to money from the state. And if anyone thinks that throwing money at the Israeli Arab community would promote pro-Israel patriotism, this should help clear that up:
Meanwhile, Israeli Arab leaders plan to present a 'blacklist' of grievances to the UN and the international community, which was drawn up after the attack by in Shfaram. The document details what they described as fascist and racist phenomena on the part of Israeli society and the establishment towards the country's minority Arab community.
The dominant voices of the sub-national Israeli Arab community are now calling for money (in fact, insisting that it's racist if they don't get any) from a country that they're actively trying to undermine by appealing to supranational actors. Why the rush of enthusiasm? Why the appeal to organizations objectively hostile to Israel?
When evaluating which communities are driven by what kind of racism, maybe the BBC could consider what it is about Israel that makes its Arab citizens want to undermine its security. Somehow we don't think it will turn out to be the substantial Buddhist majority in the country.
[Cross-posted at IsraPundit]
