Murderous Jewish Religious Fanaticism, Part One

Last week was a horrible one in Israel. Contained within the horror was a frightening reminder of the divisions in the Jewish world; a community divided sharply between modern Jews and those who follow the path of religious fanaticism.

This first of two posts deals with that particular brand of Jewish religious fanaticism that is also ultra-nationalist.

The terrorist settler thugs who killed 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsheh and critically injured his parents and brother believe that the Torah awarded the Jews sole proprietorship of the land of Canaan / Israel / Palestine. So, when Israeli officials (finally) dismantled some illegal structures built on privately owned Palestinian land located in the settlement of Beit El, these religiously deluded zealots decided that Israel would pay the price for its betrayal of the Torah. This is why they call themselves the “price tag movement.” In their twisted maniacal logic they believe that killing Palestinian innocents punishes the Israeli government for coddling the Palestinians.

Of course their murderous actions do punish the Israeli government. But not in exactly the way that they intend.

They punish the Israeli government by reminding the world that it is, in so many ways, really responsible for the actions of these terrorists. Back in 2013 the government wouldn’t even grant its own security officials the tools to adequately deal with these monsters. After debating the issue of whether they were, indeed, worthy of the name “terrorist,” they actually refused to declare them as such! More to the point, the Israeli leadership is so completely and utterly in league with the interests of the settlers that it must, of course, bear ultimate responsibility for the actions of their most fanatical members.

So Netanyahu and his colleagues should spare us all the crocodile tears about these deaths. He does not give a rat’s patootie about the death of one more Palestinian kid. He cares only that the world is fooled into believing that he does.

Pretty much the minute that the buildings in Beit El went down he was on television promising to build 300 new homes in the same settlement. Keep in mind that there is no scenario in which a Palestinian state of any kind could bear the existence of an ultra-nationalist religious Jewish settlement in its very heart.

But Beit El is really important to Jews who use the Torah as a real estate guide. Because Jacob had a dream there.

My second post will deal with another murderous Jewish religious fanatic: the gay-obsessed kind.