This past Sunday evening, someone torched a Bedouin Mosque in the Northern Israel town of "Tuba Zanghariya." Someone left behind some graffiti as well, indicating the arson attack was a "price tag" retaliation for the murder of the Palmers by Palestinian terrorists on Erev Rosh HaShana.
“What I can’t understand is why us? Why of all places would they come here?” asked resident Dr. Muhammad al-Haib, in a plaza outside the scorched entryway of the al-Noor mosque.The official Muqata response is as follows:
In a common sentiment expressed Tuesday, al-Haib said the people of the village are “completely Israeli” and see themselves as having a shared fate with their Jewish neighbors in the surrounding towns.
Al-Haib said the villagers celebrate Independence Day and do not identify with the “Nakba,” the Palestinian day that mourns the founding of the State of Israel.
Like others, al-Haib also expressed a sense of bewilderment and surprise at the suspected arson, rather than a desire for revenge.
“When this happened, people were very angry and asked: ‘Why us?’ We’re together, we’re not fighting one another here. We serve together [in the IDF], we live together, we’re very close. Somebody wrote ‘revenge’ on the wall, but why do you want revenge on me?”
Al-Haib, who serves as the Education Ministry’s national director for education in the Beduin sector, described the village as completely cut off from the greater Arab sector in Israel, with the closest Arab villages over half an hour away, much farther than Rosh Pina, only a couple kilometers away. (JPost)
1. Torching a Mosque, or any house of worship is wrong. Burning down a mosque makes you no different that the Nazis who burned down synagogues on Krystalnacht and during the Holocaust, and no different than the Palestinian mobs who burned down the synagogues in Gush Katif after the Disengagement. No difference than the Palestinian barbarians who spray pained swastikas on Kever Yosef-Jospeh's Tomb yesterday. It's wrong.
2. Revenge by individuals cannot be tolerated. The State of Israel via the IDF and Security forces is responsible for deterrence, retaliation and revenge. They need to hunt down terrorists, and scare our enemies to the point that they won't dare attack a single Jew.
3. This statement is not apologetic, nor the result of leftwing pressure. The Muqata Blog receives zero funding or advertising from left-wing organizations or the New Israel Fund. This statement is being made because its wrong to burn down Mosques.
Now, having made the above statement, I would like address some of the surrounding issues.
Israeli politicians have been using the above attack as an excuse to attack the right wing in Israel and wax poetic about how the attack directly goes to the heart of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni commented on the incident, saying that if it was indeed a "price tag" act, then it must be condemned.
"Burning mosques contradicts Israel's values as a Jewish state," she said. "Such serious incidents obligate us to conduct a national self-examination." (Haaretz)
Unlike Tzippi Livni, we at the Muqata don't say that "if it were indeed a "price tag" act, then it must be condemned" -- we say clearly, that regardless of WHO did this act, it must be condemned, not only if it was a "price tag" action.
Unlike Tzipi Livni, who runs to mention the Mosque arson attack, she has no condemnation or even a comment about the murder of Asher Palmer and infant son Yehonatan a week earlier -- remember, the arson attack said it was retaliation for the Palmer murder. (Livni's official website and facebook feed have zero mention of it at all).
The Muqata condemns the murder of Jews and publicizes the issue because its important for people to know that Palestinian terrorism is continuing...and the murder of Jews should always be publicized. Livni only finds the time to quasi condemn the Mosque arson attack.
The same goes for Israel's president, Shimon Peres. Our outspoken President also neglected to even mention the murder of the Palmers, and while he's full of shame at the mosque arson attack, there is not one word of mention of the murder of the Palmers -- not on the entire Presidential web-site.
It goes without saying that the 972mag website condemns the mosque arson (Larry Derfner writing about "settler violence" -- surprised?), yet its perfectly abhorent that 972mag totally ignores murder of Jews by Palestinians...and the name "Asher Palmer" doesn't appear anywhere on their website.
That's the difference between the Muqata and 972mag. We condemn and publicize the murder of Jews by Palestinian terrorists, and make sure you read about it. We also condemn the arson of mosques.
And mosque arson is wrong, regardless if carried out by Jewish Israelis...or by 3 Arabs from Hebron.
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