Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

Sayles Werbner ambulance-chasing terror victim Google ad

I just noticed this Google ad at the NYTimes.com site. Talk about ambulance chasers! The Dallas-based law firm, Sayles Werbner is trolling the internet looking for Israeli victims of terror. How low can you go?? Can you imagine a law firm after 9/11 doing the same looking for victims’ families willing to sue on behalf of their loved ones?

I should make clear that I don’t deny anyone the right to their day in court if they think they deserve one. But doing so in this way strikes me as beneath contempt.

I reviewed the firm’s case and evidence and it is dubious at best. They claim that Arab Bank funneled money to support Palestinian victims of the Israeli Occupation and families of dead militants. Of course, they gussy it up by adding lots of incendiary rhetoric about the Bank supporting terrorist organizations in order to make it appear that it actually provides financing to actual terrorist acts which it doesn’t. But that’s far too much nuance for the Google ad-ambulance chasers at Sayles Werbner.

I ask you to put the shoe on the other foot: if this were 1948 and the Haganah and Irgun were resisting the British Mandate and defending Israeli territory against Arab attack would you denounce an Israeli bank for providing financial support to Israeli victims of British or Arab military attack or the families of Israeli Jews who died engaging in attacks against Israel’s enemies?

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t support Palestinian terror. I wouldn’t give a dime to support a shahid or a shahid’s family. The way I support Israeli and Palestinian victims of terror is through Parent’s Circle. But to deny a Palestinian the right to support their own seems hypocritical at best.