Something Is Missing
Thoughts after the Bibas funeral
Hundreds of innocents are massacred; others are abducted, tortured, executed. The military response is measured, restrained, civilized. The army announces its attacks in advance to minimize civilian casualties. It provides humanitarian aid to its enemies. It disciplines its own soldiers for mistreating terrorists, as if these monsters were actually human. Something is missing.
An entire nation stands in solidarity with one brutalized family—a mother and her two babies, abducted, tortured, murdered, their bodies returned only through extortion. A solemn funeral service offers silent prayer and sober reflection. Something is missing.
Jews have always been the victims of persecution, of humiliation, of an inconceivable Holocaust—always unable to protect themselves or to respond, always and utterly powerless. Today, in their own sovereign state, they are strong, impressively powerful. And they respond mightily. Yet something is missing.
Where is the rage? WHERE IS THE RAGE?
Palestinian terrorists and their useful-idiot supporters rage all the time. They rage against inconvenient check points by shooting up restaurants. They rage against an unsightly security wall by blowing up buses. They rage against a self-imposed refugee status by beheading and burning babies. Their rage, they explain, is legitimate, justified, necessary.
Where are the Israelis' riots? Surely they would be legitimate. Where is the Israelis' vengeance? Surely it would be justified. Where is the Israelis' rage? Why is it not necessary?
Do the Israelis score public-relations points with their moderation? Do they win international support with their humanitarian aid? Does the United Nations, the symbol of civility and restraint, applaud the Israelis' civility and restraint?
What kind of nation is this that does not rage? What kind of people are these?