…about a 19 year-old Israeli firing on Arabs inside a bus after going AWOL because he didn’t want to be involved in the forcible removal of Israeli settlers from the Gaza strip week after next and then being lynched. Let’s be clear about this.
This kid was a monster, and got himself some seriously rough justice for his despicable act of terrorism. I hope, but don’t expect, that this event will cause some of those opposing the “disengagement” to start toning down the undifferentiated hysteria of their rhetoric, according to which Sharon is a Nazi tyrant who has chosen this policy “undemocratically” — by which, I guess, they mean that the fact that he has managed to get his program through the Knesset and supported by the Israeli Supreme Court is undemocratic — and comparing the forced evacuation of 1,800 families to the Kristallnacht and the Holocaust. And some seem to think that any action that might prevent the disengagement from happening will be justified on Biblical grounds.
Disengagement is a controversial policy, and those who oppose it have used every means at their disposal to prevent it from happening. Their efforts, political and judicial, have not prevailed in a democratic country dominated by Jews. They are not at fault because of the actions of a single foul monster, and do not deserve to be tarred with the brush of collective guilt. But they do owe it to the good order and good working of their own nation not to exacerbate the tension. (And you have no idea what manner of angry e-mails I’m going to get from people who once considered me a great ally of theirs.)