Duma and the war against Jewish Israel

On July 31, 2015, some unknown assailant or assailants fire-bombed an Arab home in the Israeli-Arab village of Duma. Three Arabs were murdered in that fire, including an infant.

It was a horrible crime. It was condemned by Jewish Israel.

There is evidence to suggest that this incident had a context. That context was an ongoing clan war in that village. But some Jews in Israel wouldn’t accept that possibility. They refused to consider that this incident might have been Arab-on-Arab violence. Instead, they saw this murder as an opportunity.

Even before a competent, professional police investigation could be launched (some believe that such an investigation was never launched), certain Jews decided that this crime had been committed by Jews. They cried, ‘Jewish terror’.

That was possible. We all acknowledge that. But then, it was also possible that this fire-bombing was part of that clan warfare. In fact, for a murder committed in the center of an Arab village which the epicentre of a long-running feud, that might have been the most obvious investigative starting point.

The opportunists didn’t acknowledge that possibility. They ignored it. They never spoke of it.

That silence suggests a truth. It suggests that, when you ignore an obvious probable cause for murder, professional police investigation may not be your agenda.

It’s been 150 days since that fire-bombing. Duma is not about a murder investigation. It’s about how Jews threaten to destroy Israel (Stuart Winer, “Bennett accuses Jewish extremists of using ‘murder’ to destroy state”, Times of Israel, December 21, 2015).  

Since September, 2015, Arabs have conducted a wave of terror against Israel. But because of Duma, we no longer focus on that Arab terror. We focus on ‘Jewish’ terror.

Who benefits from such a focus? Who benefits when Jews are accused of trying to destroy Israel? (Winer, ibid). Who benefits when Rightist Jews are accused of unravelling Israel’s democracy? (Naomi Chazan, “The unraveling of Israeli democracy”, Times of Israel, December 22, 2015).

Israel’s Left benefits. They’re the ones who argue that the problem with Israel is its Jews.

An attack on Israel’s Jewishness is good news for Israel’s Left. Look at what it did last week. It attacked Israel’s Jewishness.

Israel’s Ministry of Education approved a new civics textbook for Israel’s schools. The head of the far-Left Meretz Party, Zehava Galon, went ballistic over this news (Uzi Baruch, “New civics textbook approved, Meretz head goes livid”, Arutz Sheva, December 22, 2015). She, along with other Leftists, was horrified. The new text was bringing ‘right-wing’ [Jewish] values to children (ibid).  The Left complained, “The new book erases the democratic identity of the state and completely subjugates it to the Jewish identity" (ibid).

This accusation is the Left’s life-blood. You should remember it. It’s the Left’s anti-Jewish mantra.

But this mantra doesn’t defend Israel, as the Left claims. It dismantles Israel.

Israel’s ‘Declaration of Independence’ links Jewish identity to the State of Israel (“Declaration of Establishment of State of Israel”, mfa.gov.il, May 14, 1948). For example, the ‘Declaration’ says,  “The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles [Jews]” (ibid). It says, Israel “will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the [Jewish] prophets of Israel (ibid) [emphasis mine]. Put another way, this founding Document ‘subjugates’ the identity of the State to its Jewish roots.

In addition, the ‘Declaration’ clearly speaks of “the Jewish people in the building-up of its State” (ibid) [emphasis mine]. The link is explicit: Israel is the Jewish people in the Jewish “ancient homeland” (ibid). Israel has a fundamental Jewish identity.

For the Left, this is a lie. According Leftist Chazan (above), the problem with Israel is that ‘ultra-nationalists’ are committing some kind of Original Sin against Israel by “conflating the state with the (Jewish) people”. This is nonsense. ‘Ultra-nationalists’ aren’t linking ‘State’ with ‘Jewish’ because of some insane idea. They are taking that link from Israel’s ‘Declaration of Independence’.

Israel’s Left rejects that link. It wants to erase the Jewish ideals of Israel’s ‘Declaration of independence’.  It uses Duma for this purpose: instead of insisting on a professional police investigation in Duma according to the standards found in any democracy, it chooses to use Duma to demonize the Jewish Right.  

Leftists do this by claiming that Duma proves that Jewish Rightists threaten Israel’s survival (Tova Dvorin, “Former ISA chief blames justice system for Duma”, Arutz Sheva, December 27, 2015). The Jewish Right feels this demonization: 78 percent of the national religious sector (the main ‘Jewish Right’) feel the Duma murders have been used to attack their community (Jeremy Sharon, “Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu suggests Shin Bet behind wedding celebrating Duma murders”, Jerusalem Post, December 28, 2015).

Duma is not about a threat from the ‘Right’. It’s about how the Left seeks to attack Jewish Israel. 

Duma is a powerful opportunity for the Left. It empowers the Leftist dream to destroy Jewish Israel. It emboldens the Left to question the legitimacy of Jewish Israel.

Duma: it’s the newest weapon in the Left’s war against Jewish Israel.