Anti-Israel Crowd Chortles Over Israeli Kids’ Kidnapping

Anti-Israel Crowd Chortles Over Israeli Kids’ Kidnapping

I suppose that it’s to be expected but the usual suspects are not exactly heartbroken over the kidnapping of the three Israeli kids. To be honest, the only anti-Israel sites I go to check out the temperature are Mondoweiss (the blog) and two twitter accounts, the Palestinian activist Ali Abunimah (@aliabunimah) and his Jewish sidekick Max Blumenthal (@maxblumenthal).

Usually the writers at all three are pretty much the same: venomous on Israel and often Jews in general (otherwise known as “Zionists”).

In this case, Mondoweiss (in particular its writer/editor Annie Robbins) and twitter guy Ali Abunimah basically take the approach that the kids are just “settlers” (the term they use rather than say “kids” or “teens”).  And, given the way Israel treats Palestinians, the kidnapping (Annie Robbins doubts it even is that) is just a case of chickens coming home to roost.

Max Blumenthal, a Jewish teen not long ago, clearly has some sympathy for his fellow…humans. Not the others.  (I am not going to quote from any of these miscreants. If you want to see what I am referring to, check out Mondoweiss, always the best source to see what the supposed anti-Zionists are writing about Jews.

In my opinion, the very best indicator of the humanity (or lack thereof) of anyone is their attitude toward violence against children. Jews who justify the killing of kids in Gaza (“it’s all Hamas’s fault”) or try to prove that some child, obviously killed by the IDF, was killed by Palestinians,  make me sick. Almost literally sick.

And I have written it over and over again. There is no justification for harming kids no matter what the cause. Never.

Extreme right-wing Jews often don’t feel that way. Even when the IDF killed three little girls sleeping in their beds in Gaza, the rightists came up with excuses and certainly no tears. But that is the far right. It doesn’t even pretend to value human life over, depending where they live, occupation or the right to bring a gun to McDonald’s.

Mondoweiss and those of that ilk claim to be progressive, anti-war, lovers of children and all living things–only not when it comes to Israeli kids who are just “settlers” or, in Abunimah’s term, “Zionist invaders.” Just as Jewish right-wingers refuse to see Palestinian kids as innocent (as if they chose to live in an area administered by Hamas or even to have parents affiliated with it), the Mondoleft refuses to view teenagers as innocent even though they obviously did not choose to live in Hebron or anywhere else.

This is what the haters don’t get: children do not have agency. They live where their parents put them. (One Mondoweiss writer is interested in the curriculum the kids were studying at yeshiva, as if a hateful curriculum would mean the kids aren’t innocent at all, just like Palestinian kids with their hateful textbooks.)

Here is the thing, the only thing that matters. Anyone who reacts to the harming of any child with anything other than sorrow, pain, and empathy is lost.

The Jewish right, the “anti-Zionist” left, no matter. The test of your humanity is whether you can condemn the harming of children without caveats and quasi-justifications. If not, just shut up. Your silence will say enough.

By | 2014-06-16T16:36:00-04:00 June 16th, 2014|Blog|9 Comments

9 Comments

  1. Ray Hanania June 16, 2014 at 7:49 pm - Reply

    Great column MJ …kidnapping children is despicable. You can’t condemn Israel’s violence if you are silent on your own. It’s a two-way street. People can’t demand principle when they don’t apply it. Mondo-unwise, and Ali”BooHoo”nimeh and the rest are the loudmouthed extremists. I’ve spoken with many Palestinians who are disgusted by Hamas and what they represent. RAY HANANIA

  2. chet380 June 16, 2014 at 8:05 pm - Reply

    Mr. Rosenberg –

    Taking into account Netanyahoo’s monumental ability to lie and deceive, are you open to the possibility of an Israeli false flag operation?

  3. MJ Rosenberg June 17, 2014 at 12:12 am - Reply

    No, I don’t see a false flag op as a possibility. Even for Netanyahu, that would be inconceivable.

  4. Unknown June 17, 2014 at 2:28 am - Reply

    MJ Rosenberg takes the pious and moral high road to the Mondoweis blog because some dare express their satisfaction with kidnapping of the young hikers. The fact of the matter is the reaction of people that have suffered under the occupation from the likes of the families of the three teens is a natural reaction to years of suppression, abuse and humiliation and not some aberration of human nation, it’s like the same anger you express Mr. Rosenberg, but without your hypocrisy.

  5. Anonymous June 17, 2014 at 3:37 pm - Reply

    MJ criticism of Mondoweiss and Ali Abunimah has attracted Ray Hanania to MJ’s noble cause!

    Who will be the next commenters? Hussein Ibish and Ziad Asalai? Partners old friend Rafi Dajani (if he’s out of jail). Perhaps Ahmed Chalabi?

    And who will be Partners’ and MJ’s next targets after Mondoweiss, Tikkun and Ali A?

    Exciting, inquiring minds are looking forward to finding out! Maybe this will finally perk up the Partners’ blog’s web traffic.

    Ted

  6. kenwaltzer June 17, 2014 at 6:37 pm - Reply

    Disturbing that after such a good column that should be affirmed by anyone, regardless of their politics on Israel/Palestine, you get comments accusing Netanyahu of a possible false flag operation and others rationalizing any violence on the part of the Palestinian sufferers of oppression. Abuse and humiliation are a free ticket to kidnapping, suicide bombing, and murder….

  7. Anonymous June 17, 2014 at 7:17 pm - Reply

    What is the”natural reaction” to people who gleefully hand out candy when children are kidnapped?

  8. Anonymous June 17, 2014 at 8:40 pm - Reply

    Which MJ Rosenberg did you bring on to represent your organization? The one who said J Street sold its soul and is an “epic fail”, or the one who wrote about the good work J Street does? The one who worked for Israel Policy Forum or the one who called Israel Policy Forum indistinguishable from AIPAC? The one who says that BDS aims to destroy Israel? Or the one who supports Jewish Voice for Peace, which is part of the BDS movement? The one who attacks Mondoweiss, or the one who blogged for Mondoweiss for over a year?

  9. MJ Rosenberg June 18, 2014 at 12:59 pm - Reply

    Anonymous, you need to understand that intelligent people learn new facts and act on them. As for Ali A, you need to follow my work more closely. I believe and have written that he is a raving anti-semite.

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