by Lee Bender
The first, most basic responsibility of a nation is to protect and secure its citizens. The time has long come for Israel– the government, that is, not the brave Israeli people– to get much tougher on Palestinian Arab terrorists, and for American taxpayers to demand further accountability from the U.S Government about financial support it provides directly and indirectly to the to the Palestinian Authority.
The recent rape, mutilation and murder of an innocent 19-year old Israeli girl, Ori Ansbacher, by a Palestinian Arab terrorist known to Israeli security authorities because of prior arrests– who even once declared he would return as a “martyr”— and who proudly confessed and re-enacted the horrific attack upon his arrest, should finally shock Israel out of its slumber. The frequency of these type of attacks has become relentless with little sign they are diminishing in quantity and intensity. Jewish lives must not continually be allowed to be placed in danger with one eye on world – or Jewish — opinion. Jewish lives are sacred and matter, especially in the face of an Arab culture indoctrinated in hatred, incitement and death toward Jews. This is the stock and trade of the Palestinian Authority which has incentivized and pays “salaries” for the killers and pensions to their families. If this is too politically correct for the international community to comprehend, well, tough.
Israel must get much tougher on the terrorist killers and their enablers including the following:
-full unencumbered use of its police powers by declaring “war” and treating Palestinian Arab terrorists and killers like enemy combatants;
-with regard to any terrorist involved in knifing, stabbing, shooting, stoning or car-ramming attacks that mutilate or kill Israelis: if they are not shot dead at the scene but instead are captured alive, then their home and/or their family’s house should be destroyed, they and their family should be expelled to Gaza, and their residence or citizenship status revoked;
-all those guilty of incitement against Israel should be expelled to Gaza and their citizenship revoked;
-imposition of the death penalty on captured killers in Israeli military court;
-imposition of tough restrictions on the movement of these Arabs from Jerusalem and the territories into Israel, whether for jobs or travel, including the erection of road closures and checkpoints;
-all media, including print, radio, online sites that are involved with incitement should be shuttered;
-the rules of engagement should be relaxed and the default mindset position must be suspicion of terroristic intent;
-Israeli citizens should be encouraged to carry firearms on their persons for protection outside their homes and gun laws liberalized for purchase and protection relaxed;
-all illegal Arab construction in Jerusalem and the territories should be razed and prevented;
-Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas should be severely restricted in his movements to his residence in Ramallah, much as Israel curtailed Arafat in his last years– at least until he unequivocably renounces and ends the incitement to violence against Jews and Israelis
In addition, American taxpayers must demand that the U.S. Government immediately do the following:
-state that this conduct is completely and utterly unacceptable, uncivilized, barbaric, and the incitement must end in all forms by the P.A. in their media, mosques, schools and textbooks;
-cut off all funding for the P.A. until it at lease ceases its “Pay to Slay” program;
-prosecute Palestinian Arab terrorists who maim and murder Americans, as mandated by the Koby Mandell Act of 2005 (note, to date, not one Palestinian Arab terrorist since has been indicted for the killing of the dozens of Americans, though their locations are known);
-pass federal anti-BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) legislation
In point of fact, the Palestinian Arabs are the luckiest Arabs in the world to live amongst Jews and Israel, with more rights and privileges and opportunities for advancement and a better life than Arabs in all 21 Arab countries. Yet for more than a hundred years, it has been abundantly clear that the only language Arabs understand is superior force. Enough of “benefit of the doubt” of their peaceful intentions.
The Bible states that Ishmael would become the progenitor of a great nation- the Arabs. But he is also described as a “wild-ass of a man,” a man whose hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him (Gen:16-12). The ‘Palestinians’ – with their invented nationality—are, in fact, acting like the descendants of the biblical tribe of Amalek, an enemy feared and hated by the people of Israel because of their proclivity for attacking from the rear, killing the weakest and the slowest of the Israelites. Until they start acting like respectable human beings with appreciation for the sacredness of human life, including non-Arabs and non-Muslims, there is no chance for peaceful co-existence. Pending then, they must be treated accordingly.
Lee Bender is the co-author of Pressing Israel: Media Bias Exposed From A-Z (Pavilion Press, 2012) and co-developer of the website and mobile app, www.factsonIsrael.com. He is co-president of the Zionist Organization of America- Philadelphia.