Jewish terrorists rolled flaming tires into a West Bank mosque (Hebrew) in an attempt to burn it down. It was the second such price tag attack on a Palestinian mosque. They attacked the village of Burkina (or “Brukin”) near Ariel and also scrawled graffiti on its walls mocking the director of the Shin Bet’s Jewish anti-terror unit, Avigdor (Avi) Arieli (see accompanying image). In Israeli media, the name has been blurred as intelligence officials may not be publicly identified. Several Palestinian vehicles were incinerated in the latest arson assault.
It appears either intentionally or coincidentally, the settler arsonists were doing the work of the IDF itself as Josh Breiner reports in Walla that the army has told villagers it intends to destroy the mosque because it was allegedly built, as is all new Palestinian construction inside Israel and in the West Bank, without a permit (Israel routinely refuses to issue them).
In separate incidents, several IDF soldiers were arrested under suspicion that they were involved in price tag attacks against military vehicles and a West Bank base. The Occupation army in the region is in many cases deeply entwined with the local settler population.
As vengeance for an earlier mosque arson in a different village, local Palestinian residents stoned Israeli cars traveling on a nearby road, accidentally killing an Israeli driver and his baby. Clearly, these price tag attacks are intended to foment religious hatred and lead to a final confrontation between Jews and Muslims, Israelis and Palestinians. Settlers seem to hope for a final holy war in which Jews will emerge triumphant and in sole possession of the land.
Though there have been some detentions for the latest series of price tag settler attacks, no one so far has been arrested and implicated in any specific crime except the Peace Now death threats. The identity of that suspect, Dor Oved, is under gag order because his father is a Shin Bet officer. Shahar Oved’s job reportedly involves working in the West Bank Arab terror unit.
Israel obviously cant ever proclaim, under likud-settler-supproting-regime, to be a state where the minorities are protected like in western democracies.
One often hear from rabiate likudniks zionists that “In Israel we dont torch churches like those arab states”. No you dont, you burn mosques.
These terrorists and the weak attempt to contain them by the likud regime (which have legitimized the settlers for decades) and the constant rise of right-wing politics in Israel wont benefit Israel one bit. In fact it is these kind of attacks that just once again remind us of a solution must be reached.
Also, when will US, EU put these settler groups on terror-lists? Of course that would never happen, that would have exposed ties between settlers and the group that feeds and legitmize them – israeli government.
The price tags goons should be hanged from the highest tree top around, in their action they disrespect the State of Israel and the Jewish religion.
The correlation you are making between the arson of a mosque and the stone thrown at a car of a settler is a bit unjustified and unfair. Goons on both sides are just that,goons. There is no excuse for those actions and by reasoning it you are justifying it and showing support (i guess you are not doing so deliberately)
and besides I never heard such a claim by the ones who preformed the action killing the settler and the baby. Just FYI who ever throw stones on moving cars intends to kill.
Exactly. Bullies are bullies.
They will always have excuses – and they will always label themselves helpless victims.
The simplest analogy is the bully at school, who would pick on people for no reason whatsoever other than his own insecurities or lust for violence. Trying to reason with a bully is a waste of time – the only way to handle one is using a language of force (incarceration or other means).
Yes, many of us feel the same way about Israel. As a bully it too perhaps needs to hear the language of force & perhaps even feel its physical lash. What’s good for the goose (Iran) is good for the gander (Iran).
I am genuinely confused.
How can a so-called supporter of Israel support the notion of it being a “bully” state that needs to feel the “physical lash” of force, all the while ignoring the role of Iran in the financing and destabilization of the region?
The fact that you allow borderline anti-semites (Anonymous, PersianAdvocate, etc’) comment on your blog freely, while banning advocates of Israel – is quite telling.
You’ve never heard of someone supporting a country & being criticial of its policies, even calling it a bully? My what a life of confinement you’ve lead. As for financing & destabilizing the region, if you don’t include Israel as a chief example of this you’re lying to yrself & truth.
Gimme a break. If you have specific complaints about specific comments note them & I will address them. And stop whining. It’s just not becoming. And I have banned commenters from the far-left who’ve published anti-Semitic or propagandistic comments.
I never justified the killing of the settler or defended the person who threw the rock. I said that settlers aim to start a holy war/jihad & that burning mosques is one way to do that. BTW, Josh Breiner is one of Israel’s best West Bank reporters & if he said the rock throwers were motivated by a mosque burning he knows what he’s talking about & you can trust him. At least I do. He & I confer frequently & we don’t even see eye to eye politically. So I trust him.
I don’t know who Josh Breiner is. To me it seems that when you say the terrorists “accidentally killing an Israeli driver and his baby” you are making excuses for thugs that took lives with their actions instead of condemning the act.
Rock throwing on a car, specifically the rock sizes that are being thrown, is no accident. Neither is the outcome.
It is probably a discussion about semantics, that’ sentence just sounds bad.
You don’t know who is Walla’s West Bank correspondent & president of the professional journalists association for West Bank journalists. Walla only being the most popular news portal in Israel. Yet you are Israeli? And further, Josh doesn’t share my politics & has no axe to grind for or against settlers. You’d do well to educate yrself on these subjects & trust what he’s telling you.
Thugs always have excuses, that doesn’t absolve them from the ultimate responsibility for their actions.
If someone hit me in the face, I wouldn’t go around stoning little babies, that response just doesn’t make sense.
So the settler who attacked the mosques are barbaric bastards, but so are the Palestinians who stoned that car.
SInce you’re not a Palesitnian & haven’t a clue what their lives are like or what they face, suggesting what you’d do in their shoes or what you think it reasonable for them to do is ludicrous.
I am not a believer in moral relativism. Killing a baby is sick, regardless of what you’ve been through.
They didn’t intend to kill anyone just as hundreds of IDF soldiers who may not have intended to kill Palestinian civilians did so nonetheless. Get down off your moral high horse. You don’t own the high ground on this one.
Clearly, these price tag attacks are intended to foment religious hatred and lead to a final confrontation between Jews and Muslims, Israelis and Palestinians.
But the confrontation won’t be final, that’s what they don’t understand, even if one side manages to kill every one of their opponents, the battle will be over but the war will continue.
The settlers build a false sense of security around themselves.
anonymous
The EU has put some settler groups on their terror lists (Kahane, Kach) and a few other extremist organisations are under watch, and visa regulation, like the Moshe Feiglin character. Go to his site and read his deluded ramblings..it gives you an insight into their otherworld minds. They think the world owes them a living!
If you mean generally, there probably are a lot of rank and file settlers who are not affiliated to any group, but happily join in the hooliganism. The attacks by Palestinian extremists get a fair bit of media coverage, and are condemned but some of these settlers literally get away with murder, not least because there are higher ups, prepared to lie and cover up, to keep up the ‘Israel is a democracy’ myth.
Israel is not a democracy. In fact it’s headed towards a theocracy the way things are going, though at the moment it’s midway, between the two.