Palestinian Arab Terrorism And The West’s Moral Apathy

This week, Jews around the world celebrated Passover, commemorating the Jewish exodus from Egypt. As families gathered around their seder tables with the Haggadah (a compendium of texts telling the story of the exodus), they recited these words: “And this (God’s blessings and the Torah) is what kept our fathers and what keeps us. For not only one arose and attempted to destroy us, but in each generation, they stand to destroy us, and God saves us from their hands.”

The Dee family, originally from Great Britain but residing in Efrat, Israel (the so-called West Bank, the heart of Biblical Israel), undoubtedly recited the same words. On Friday, Rina Dee (15), Maia Dee (20) and their mother Lucy (48) drove through the Jordan Valley en route to Tiberias, only miles from where Joshua crossed the Jordan River with the Jews. They were attacked and shot to death by a Palestinian Arab terrorist who fired 20 bullets into their car.

Hamas, the governing Palestinian party in the Gaza Strip and a powerful force in Palestinian Arab areas of Judea and Samaria, celebrated the murders. “We congratulate the Jordan Valley operation and warn the occupation against continuing its aggression against our Palestinian people and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque,” they said. Meanwhile, husband and father Rabbi Leo Dee eulogized half of his family: “Let the Israeli flag today send out a message to humanity which is: We will never accept terror as legitimate. We will never blame the murder on the victims. There is no such thing as moral equivalence between terrorist and victim.”

Unfortunately, the media continued to play the moral equivalence game by treating the murder of two sisters and their mother as another round in the supposed “cycle of violence” between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs. The media fail to acknowledge that Palestinian Arab terrorists target innocent civilians and then celebrate their evil accomplishments by handing out candies, while the Israeli Defense Forces seek to root out and destroy terrorists. But to the media, it’s all the same. “Daughters of British rabbi die in West Bank drive-by shooting,” The Sunday Times (UK) touted, leaving no explanation for who had committed the shooting or why. “Two British sisters killed and mother injured in West Bank shooting,” tut-tutted The Guardian. The Associated Press lied by omission by titling their article “2 killed in West Bank after Israel strikes Lebanon, Gaza.”

The Biden administration has done little better. As terrorism continues to spread, the administration urged Israel to “de-escalate,” as if any country could ignore their moral duty to protect their citizens from routine terrorist attacks. Refraining from providing legitimate self-defense feeds a vicious cycle, with terrorists thriving on vile moral equivalency that legitimizes their attacks on innocent civilians. This increases the necessity for larger-scale intervention, while the media and left-wing governments will decry the “cycle of violence” yet again, fostering yet more terrorism.

In every generation, there are some who seek the destruction of the Jews. In every generation, through the grace of God, they have failed. But that does not relieve people who retain decency from standing up against evil terrorists. The alternative is apathetic complicity, and that complicity costs lives.