Terrorists who murder Israeli Jews do not act alone

The most basic of all basics is that no Arab terrorist acts alone;  he or she is incited to genocidal murder by the entire structure of Palestinian Arab society. 

By Howard Rotberg, INN

Neve Yaakov terror victims

“License to Kill” (Bob Dylan)“Now, they take him, and they teach him, and they groom him for life

And they set him, on a path where he’s bound to get ill

Then they bury him with stars

Sell his body like they do used cars

Now, there’s a woman on my block

She just sit there facin’ the hill

She say who gonna take away his license to kill?

Now he’s hell-bent for destruction, he’s afraid and confused

And his brain has been mismanaged with great skill

And all he believes are his eyes

And his eyes, they just tell him lies

But there’s a woman on my block

Sitting there in a cold chill

She say who gonna take away his license to kill?”

Palestinian Arab terrorism against the Jews of Israel is constant and mostly targets civilians, whether it is in restaurants, old age homes, synagogues, discos or schools. In Canada it is seldom reported unless there are multiple deaths. And so we read in the Associated Press article carried by many newspapers, how seven Jews attending Sabbath services in Jerusalem were murdered outside the synagogue, but also that the terrorist apparently acted alone.

The idea that he acted alone is preposterous. Unless one understands the basics, there can be no useful reporting. The most basic of all basics is that no Arab terrorist acts alone; he or she is incited to genocidal murder by the entire structure of Palestinian Arab society, including its media, education system, its Islamist imams, and its financial rewards to terrorists and their families.

The lack of understanding, and the immorality that flows from it, is especially acute when the terrorist attack happens on the same day as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, it is clear that the murder of Jews worldwide, such as in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Mumbai, India, Toulouse, France, Paris, France Brussels, Belgium, Copenhagen, Denmark, etc. has assumed genocidal proportions. In the United States, anti-semitic terrorist attacks by Islamists or far right extremists have occurred in Monsey, New York, Poway California, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Seattle, Washington, Los Angeles, California, New York City, and St. Louis, Missouri.

The lessons of the Holocaust, which I have discussed in various essays, is not that we should be more tolerant, or more progressive, or provide more social justice but rather to be mindful that Jewish people have been targeted in the name of religion, justice, envy, paranoia, and hated for being good, for thousands of years, and, judging from the increase of antisemitism, especially at the universities, it is not stopping anytime soon.

So here are the basic facts, which I hope will provide the necessary context the next time that Associated Press attempts to write on this topic:

1. Terrorists are glorified and celebrated with posters of them hung on many streets and their heinous acts are marked with joyful singing and dancing and fireworks and the giving of candy to children.

2. Palestinian Authority bschools or city squares in Palestinian Arab towns have been named for terrorists who murdered Israelis. For example, in 2010, a public square in El Bireh, West Bank, was named for Dalal Mughrabi, a 19-year-old leader of a Palestinian squad that in 1978 killed an American photojournalist and murdered 38 Israeli civilians, 13 of them children.

3. Palestinian Authority officials often visit the mourning tents of families of the terrorists to show how political elites value deceased terrorists.

4. Increasingly, terrorist attacks are not by members of the various terrorist organizations, but by non-members who are incited to terrorism.

5. The financial benefits given to terrorists and their families – the “pay-to-slay” system, in a failed society, are among the largest inducements to impoverished but radical individuals. The Palestinian Authority provides cash incentives to murder Jews. The more people a terrorist murders, the more money he and his family receives from the government.

On the 2022 anniversary of Israel’s independence, PA President Mahmoud Abbas renewed that commitment. “Pay-to-slay,” disburses large sums which could be used to better the lives of the people. The Washington Post reports: “In the Palestinian Authority’s budget, one can find $350 million in annual payments to Palestinian prisoners, ‘martyrs’ and injured.” This sum is approximately half the amount of U.S. aid to the Palestinian Arabs.

6. The spread of social media is often thought to assist the free flow of information and the spread of the values of freedom. But it seems that Palestinian social media is used more to incite young people A technique used by leaders is to falsely claim that Israel is attacking a mosque or cutting off access to the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem when in fact hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs worshiped freely during Ramadan, with the support and protection from Israeli police. Any Israeli counter-terrorism actions are portrayed as evil acts requiring further terrorism in revenge.

7. Palestinian Arab leadership not only encourages violence but feels it must maintain radical positions to keep up with their base’s increasing support for the most radical terrorist organizations. Israel gave the Palestinians all of Gaza, which then elected Hamas terrorists; Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon which then saw a takeover by Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists, and Israel’s peacemaking in the Oslo Accords was met with increasing power of the Fatah terrorist organization.

Abbas, the PA leader, now is in the 13th year of what was supposed to be a four-year term. He abolished all elections ever since, knowing that the incitement he has enabled will result in his overthrow in favour of more radical elements should he ever agree to another election. This demonstrated the danger of inciting your masses because it is easy to lose control.

8. Perhaps the most egregious mischief done to future prospects of peace is that the textbooks in the Palestinian Arab school system contribute to a culture of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate – including outright antisemitism, justifications for violent jihad and condemnation of Israel’s right to exist.

In May a 17-year-old Palestinian armed with a knife was shot dead after attempting to invade a home in Judea and Samaria. Significantly, he attended a school that taught students “gruesome content, directly instructing pupils to kill Israelis”. This followed a string of attacks that killed 19 Israelis.

In my mind, the most tragic aspect of inciting Arab Muslims to violence and genocide comes from the fact that is tolerated, even encouraged, by anti-Israel and antisemitic people in Western nations that should know better. While Western elites go through the motions of Holocaust remembrance, their actions – supporting the genocidal Palestinian Arabs with money and advocacy seem to amount to me – a son of a survivor of Auschwitz, who lost his parents and then 8-year-old sister to the gas chambers – to amount to a type of Second Holocaust of the Jews.

I wrote about this issue in my novel, The Second Catastrophe: A Novel About a Book and its Author (Mantua Books, 2003). I make this unpopular allegation because those who sit silently during a genocide, even one where Jews now have our homeland back, are morally culpable for assisting the perpetrators.

From the anti-Israel obsession of the United Nations and its so-called Human Rights Council whose members comprise some of the worst abusers of human rights to our universities where Jews who are proud of our homeland, or who are identifiably Jewish by their dress, are now clearly unwelcome on campuses. Palestinian Arabs know that their incitement to genocide is backed by so much of academia, media, progressive NGOs and some Churches, and are thus encouraged

Every time you hear someone say that a Palestinian Arab terrorist acted alone, please remember who the co-conspirators are, and how support is given to their evil project.

Howard Rotberg is the author of four books on ideologies and values – The Second Catastrophe: A Novel About a Book and its Author, Exploring Vancouverism: The Political Culture of Canada’s Lotus Land, Tolerism: The Ideology Revealed, and The Ideological Path to Submission… and what we can do about it. A retired lawyer and developer of affordable rental residential units in renovated heritage buildings, he writes for Frontpage Magazine, New English Review and Israel National News. His essays can be seen on his author’s page for each of these magazines. He lives in Hamilton, Canada.

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