In a massacre that one might hope would be confined to horror movies, one or more individuals believed to be Palestinian terrorists recently invaded the home of a sleeping family in Israel and stabbed to death the mother, the father, their 11-year-old son, their 4-year-old son and their baby girl. Two other children in the home apparently escaped the killers’ notice, and a 12-year-old daughter came home after the slaughter because she had been with her youth group.
Whatever enmity exists between Israelis and Palestinians, it is hard to fathom hatred so great that that it would drive anyone to murder in cold blood not only adults but even a toddler and an infant. What unspeakable viciousness!
But what took place after the murders was also appalling and cruel. As Jeff Jacoby notes in The Boston Globe, “As news of the massacre in Itamar spread, young men in Gaza distributed candy and pastries in celebration.” That reminds us of the horrible fact that some – though certainly not all – Palestinians openly rejoiced after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by radical Muslims that killed nearly 3,000 Americans.
In addition, just two days after the murder of the young Israeli family, members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement brazenly named a square in the city of Ramallah after a terrorist whose 1978 attack on a bus killed 37 Israelis, including more than a dozen children.
It can be extremely difficult to resolve disputes among peoples even if all sides are well-intended and have no desire to commit violence. But it is hard to see how any peaceful resolution between Israel and its neighbors is possible when so many haters refuse to accept the Israelis’ basic right to exist.