‘Jewish Values’ on Parade? Israel Threatens Int’l Criminal Court

Tuesday, 10 November 2015

‘Jewish Values’ on Parade? Israel Threatens Int’l Criminal Court

Posted on November 8, 2015

Israel has been threatening the International Criminal Court with retribution should it continue with an investigation into alleged war crimes committed during its summer of 2014 onslaught on Gaza; plus a new poll has turned up some rather interesting attitudes in the Israeli Jewish public–with 53% supporting on-the-spot killing of alleged terrorists and 80% favoring the demolition of family homes of Palestinians who have murdered Jews. Ah, but what about Jewish terrorists who murder Palestinians? Should their family homes be demolished as well? The same poll found 53% of Israeli Jews answering “no” to that question.

Links to these and other stories are below. Perhaps you could kind of think of what follows as a “parade” of Jewish values…

Majority of Israelis Agree With Killing Alleged Terrorists on the Spot

Sputnik

A majority of Jewish Israelis said they support the statement that “any Palestinian who has perpetrated a terror attack against Jews should be killed on the spot, even if he has been apprehended and no longer poses a threat,” a recent Peace Index poll by the Israel Democracy Institute shows.

“The Jewish public is showing a very high and worrisome level of support for attacks on Arab perpetrators, and as we have already had occasion to realize, in moments of anxiety and confusion there is no great ability to distinguish between a perpetrator and a non-perpetrator,” the October 2015 Israel Peace Index reads.

Continued here

The poll results published by the Israeli Democracy Institute can be found here. The alleged Jewish inability to self-reflect, or to see themselves the way others see them, would seem to be borne out by the poll results. Here is a quote:

The attacks and Palestinian despair: Despite the statements by the chief of Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi, who recently pointed to the connection between Palestinian despair and the attacks, the Jewish public has a hard time understanding the present situation from the Palestinian standpoint. The overwhelming majority (74%) does not agree with the claim that the current wave of attacks stems from the Palestinians’ despair over the lack of progress in talks on a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

In other words land theft, illegal settlements, periodic attacks, bombings, murder of children, etc.–none of these things could possibly have anything to do with why Palestinians have launched a third intifada. This is the view of 74% of Israeli Jews, who apparently just can’t fathom why Palestinians would have any reason to be upset with them. It would seem to be a blind spot of rather staggering dimensions.

But wait, there’s more:

There is wide agreement in the Jewish public (80%) that the home of the family of a Palestinian who has murdered Jews on a nationalist background should be demolished. Regarding a Jew who has murdered Palestinians on a nationalist background, the pattern of responses is the opposite: the majority (53%) does not agree that his family’s home should be demolished, while 41% say otherwise. The Arab public shows greater consistency on this issue, though there is a certain tendency to favor the Palestinian side: the majority does not agree that the family home of a Palestinian perpetrator should be demolished (77%), but a large majority (67%) also opposes demolishing the family home of a Jewish perpetrator. Apparently demolishing a family home is an unacceptable act for the Arab public, without connection to who and what is involved.

The following story was published earlier this year, but it provides food for thought now as we watch Israeli forces mounting a response to the intifada that includes what appear to be acts of cold blooded murder, such as the shooting of 17-year-old Dania Arsheid at a checkpoint in Hebron (Al Khalil) on October 25.

Israel Threatens Int’l Criminal Court with Retribution if War Crimes Investigations Continue

By Sean Nevins

BEIRUT — Israel is pulling out all the stops to prevent an examination by the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague in the Netherlands into alleged war crimes committed during its offensive on Gaza last summer that left over 2,300 dead and over 500,000 people homeless.

In an interview with Israel Radio last month, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said, “We will demand of our friends in Canada, in Australia and in Germany simply to stop funding it [the court].”

Continued here

It would seem that even Jews who take a dim view of some of Israel’s policies still have a tender spot in their hearts for the “Jewish and democratic” homeland. And in some cases, even when they don’t live in that homeland, they still like to wax lyrical about it on occasion. One such Jew is Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union of Reform Judaism.

The Reform movement is the liberal wing of Judaism, and in a speech in Orlando, Florida last week Jacobs called on Jews not to remain silent when “price tag attacks kill innocent Palestinians.” Sounds like an admirable position to take, yet Jacobs also referenced what he termed as “our unconditional love for the Jewish state” and proclaimed that love to be “a badge of pride for us.”

Jacobs actually does lament Israel’s settlement policies in the West Bank, he says, yet he opposes the BDS movement and asserts that (a la tikkun olam) “it is incumbent upon us to repair our embattled and beloved Jewish state.” How that repair of the state is supposed to come about without boycott pressure he doesn’t explain.

You can read the full story on Jacobs here. All in all, he seems a very confused, conflicted individual, yet the Daily Beast has named him one of the “50 most influential rabbis” in America.

And finally it seems that Palestine solidarity activists on college campuses in America are now coming under Jewish threats and attacks as well. An article on that can be found here. A brief excerpt is below:

On Oct. 19, a few days after the SJP chapter at the University of Illinois at Chicago performed a die-in on the university quad for a day of action, a member received an email in his private inbox which threatened to make the symbolic act into the scene of an actual murder.

Sent from an email account whose name referenced Hamas and signed with the hashtag “#jewhater,” the anonymous writer warned:

“If there is one more demonstration from your petty organization, consider it to be your real bodies falling next time.

… Don’t underestimate the Jewish presence on campus.”

The abuse and threats come amid an atmosphere where college activists who promote peace and justice in Palestine and expose Israeli apartheid are increasingly under pressure. A website launched this year calledCanary Mission hosts profiles of pro-Palestinian activists (including this reporter) with the express purpose of ruining their careers. In September, Palestine Legal, an organization that offers support to student activists, jointly issued a report with the Center For Constitutional Rights that documented 140 incidents of threats or suppression on college campuses in the first six months of 2014.

And will close with this item…Jewish values are also on parade in Munich, Germany, where Israeli officials are attempting to shut down an “allegedly anti-Semitic” BDS event that is scheduled to be held in a city-owned building.

“We are in touch with the municipality of Munich in order to prevent this event from happening,” said Israeli Consul-General Dan Shaham. “We are awaiting their decision.”

Shaham also invoked the holocaust, referring to Munich as a city “in which National Socialism had its beginning,” and he went on to say that, “We are sorry that this anti-Semitic BDS group has been allowed to use a municipal room to call for a boycott against Israel, which is by law not allowed in Germany.”

But perhaps there is a limit to people’s patience. The report also notes that the mayor of Munich has “snubbed” the Israeli official’s request.