I know how hard the complex tragedy of Gaza, Israel and Lebanon is to truly understand, but one thing I do know, in my heart of hearts: What’s happening in the West Bank is shameful, and the Israeli government must entirely bear the blame. I simply cannot understand how Israel, a country of people who have been subjected to so much bias and egregious treatment over so many centuries, can possibly justify allowing individual Israeli settlers on the West Bank to murder Palestinians and Arabs living in the West Bank with the intent of emptying the West Bank of anyone but Israeli citizens. Where are the police or the Israeli Army to maintain the peace and security for the people of the West Bank?
The Israeli settlers are murdering with impunity, with no consequence and with no attempt by the Israeli government to solve any of the murders.
No historical context can justify this behavior and these immoral acts. It is a blight on Israel and the world that this behavior goes unpunished and barely recognized. Regardless of the horror of the Hamas attack and the threats from other Arab nations against the State of Israel, at this point,t the behavior of the settlers on the West Bank shows that in their hearts, they are no different from the men of the armies of other surrounding terrorist nations and organizations.
Am I wrong to hold the Israeli settlers and the current leaders of the Israeli government to a higher moral plane because of what I had hoped they might/should have learned as Jews from the horrors of their past struggles and trauma? I am grappling with an answer to that question.
— Randall Burns
Anchorage
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