Haters Of Hebron

The immorality and hypocrisy of the left knows no bounds as they continue to justify the slaughter of Jews in the holy city of Hebron.

(Jerusalem Post) The Jewish community of Hebron last week found itself the target of two brutal assaults one a lethal attack by Palestinian terrorists from without, and the other an unsightly broadside by Israel's extreme left from within.

For the second year in a row, Palestinian terrorists sought to disrupt what has become an annual Succot tradition, as tens of thousands of Israelis from across the country visit the city, which boasts a range of ancient and modern attractions. Last year, two Israeli women were shot and wounded by a Palestinian gunman during a visit to Hebron, while this year, Shlomo Shapira, 50, the father of seven from Jerusalem, was killed, and three of his young children wounded, when a Palestinian terrorist attacked a Jewish tour group. Courageously, Israelis remained undeterred, and they continued to flock to the city in droves......

Under normal circumstances, when an Israeli community comes under attack by terrorists, the response one would expect on the part of other Israelis would be solidarity and understanding. After all, in the past 24 months, the Palestinian terror campaign has made no distinction between Haifa or Hebron, Netanya or Netzarim. Why, then, should we?

But such sentiments were sadly in short supply last week, as Israel's extreme left used the murder of Shlomo Shapira as a pretext not for berating the murderers, but for lashing out at their victims. In an editorial last Wednesday, Ha'aretz went so far as to intimate that Shapira himself was to blame for the fact that he was murdered: "It is hard to fathom the mind-set of the thousands of visitors who flock to Hebron. A father who takes his children to Hebron and is tempted into roaming with them on the edge of its open market area puts at risk his own life and those of his children." These words, which were published less than 36 hours after Shapira was gunned down in cold blood, betray a strange sense of morality, one in which the perpetrator's responsibility is effectively minimized because, as far as Ha'aretz's editorial writers are concerned, Jews have no business being in Hebron in the first place.

Quick to join the fray was opposition leader Yossi Sarid of Meretz, who on Wednesday revealed a secret civil administration report documenting alleged acts of vandalism by certain members of the Hebron Jewish community. Speaking to reporters, Sarid saw no problem in generalizing about the many based on the actions of a few, asserting that Hebron is "the ugliest stain on the face of the Zionist enterprise," and that its Jewish residents are all characterized by "fanaticism, lunacy, and hooliganism."
Whatever one's views about the Jewish community of Hebron, no good can come from demonizing or delegitimizing them, particularly when they are under attack. Jews are living in Hebron with the approval and permission of successive Israeli governments and, like Israeli citizens everywhere, they are entitled to its protection and deserving of our support.