A Time to Fight

The time has come -Caroline Glick

While Israelis were united as never before in worry and prayer for the missing boys, Palestinian society was united in its expressed delight at the abduction and murder of the boys. The vast majority of Israelis recognizes that maintaining faith with the mordant peace process can no longer be justified. Fatah and Hamas are equally dedicated to our destruction.

By continuing to empower and legitimize the PA, Israel is facilitating its debilitation and victimization. By legitimizing the PA, Israel has enabled the PA to conduct a massive campaign throughout the world to destroy Israel's moral, legal and diplomatic standing.

The international community's indifferent response to the Palestinian abduction of the boys demonstrated how far the Palestinian campaign to deny the legitimacy of Israel and to dehumanize Israelis has advanced. Obama waited for the boys' bodies to be found before ever mentioning them. And when he finally spoke, he made no distinction between Israel, the victim of this war crime, and the Palestinians who facilitated, perpetrated and celebrated this war crime.

[T]he Obama administration ha[s] repeatedly claimed that PA security forces assisted Israel in locating the teenagers. But if such assistance was provided, it was not helpful. The bodies were found by Israelis, based on intelligence gleaned by Israeli forces in Israeli operations.

Standing legislation prohibits the US government from funding foreign terror organizations. Hamas is an officially designated foreign terror organization. If Fatah were ever treated on the basis of its actions, it would also be labeled a foreign terror organization because according to US law, it meets all the criteria for such a designation. And at any rate, Hamas's participation in the Palestinian government makes it illegal for the US to transfer any funds or grant any political recognition to the Palestinian government.

Every year the US gives the PA up to $500 million in aid. At this point, it is impossible to rationally argue that aid to the PA advances the cause of peace, which is supposed to be the point of the aid. [E]very dollar the US gives the PA advances the goal of destroying Israel. By continuing to support the PA despite its actions, the US is making a singular contribution to the dehumanization of Jews and the destruction of our state.

Obama's silence during the 18 days the teens were missing, and his hostile and duplicitous statement after their mutilated bodies were found makes clear that he remains committed to continuing this contribution. In acting in this way, Obama stands in opposition to the will of the American people, who do not wish to contribute to the destruction of Israel. Consequently, the time has come for the people's representatives in Congress to take action to remedy this unacceptable state of affairs.

[O]nly Congress can take action that has a chance of ending US support for the destruction of Israel. The cold-blooded murder of Fraenkel, Shaer and Yifrah requires Israel to stop playing a sucker's game. The PA is not our partner. It is our enemy. The American people are our friends. The time has come for our friends to also take action and stop funding and supporting our enemy and his efforts to destroy us.
[Jewish World Review]
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Congress Moves to Halt Palestinian Funding - Barbara Opall-Rome

Moves by both houses of Congress to terminate two decades of economic and security assistance to the PA come in response to the June 2 establishment of a new Palestinian government backed by Hamas, a U.S.-declared terrorist organization.

Unlike previous years, this year's language targets any type of power-sharing government "that results from an agreement with Hamas." It also imposes strict conditions under which Obama can waive the funding ban. "Funding for the Palestinians is off the table until it is clear that the unity government is committed to peace and security," said Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), chairwoman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations.
(Defense News)
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IDF Razes Home of Hamas Terrorist - Yaakov Lappin
 
The IDF destroyed the home of Hamas terrorist Ziad Awad in the West Bank. Awad - released in the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal - opened fire with an automatic weapon on the car driven by police officer Baruch Mizrahi on Passover eve, killing him and wounding two children. Awad stood by the side of the road, near Tarkumia checkpoint, shooting at passing Israeli vehicles. After the killing, Awad told his son that he carried out the shooting because, "according to Islam, anyone who kills a Jew goes to heaven."
    
"The destruction of the homes of terrorists is a message of deterrence to terrorists and their partners," the army said. "There is a price they will pay if they choose to continue with terrorist activities and harming innocent civilians." 
(Jerusalem Post)


Israel's High Court Approves House Demolitions - Yonah Jeremy Bob
 
Israel's High Court of Justice approved a return to the house-demolition policy for terrorists that had ceased in 2005, starting with the house of the family of Ziad Awad, who has been indicted for murdering Baruch Mizrahi.
(Jerusalem Post)
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There Is No Moral Equivalent - Thane Rosenbaum
 
There is no moral equivalence between the purposeful kidnapping of teenagers hitching a ride and the inadvertent killing of teenagers who are hurling grenades at armed soldiers searching for the boys.
    
Everyone has an opinion on what Israel can't do to defend itself, but those very same people remarkably find themselves tongue-tied when asked what Israel can and should do.

Palestinians must be held accountable for their love affair with terror. No one would have excused the murder of white teenagers by African-Americans as justified retribution for years of racism and slavery. Neither the Kurds, Tibetans, nor Sudanese have responded with acts of terror against their far worse persecutors. Why are Palestinians granted a license of bloodlust?
    
Palestinian mothers who push their children toward jihad and martyrdom are not the same as the three grieving Israeli mothers whose boys never made it back home.
The writer is a law professor at New York University.
(Daily Beast)
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