Where fear is in short supply

[drdon326]

What does one say to a man whose entire family has just been wiped out by terrorists? That was the dilemma that confronted me this week when I visited Gush Katif in Gaza and met David Hatuel.

His pregnant wife Tali and four young daughters were killed two weeks ago by terrorists who shot them at point blank range. It was an outrage that shocked the world.

I asked him if he felt hatred toward Arab terrorists who could do such a thing. He responded that he was not interested in blame, had barely examined press reports as to the murderers' identity, and harbored in his heart absolutely no desire for revenge. Rather, his sole wish was that no family should be forced to suffer a similar tragedy. He had asked Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who paid him a condolence call, to finally provide security along the entrance road to Gush Katif, where scores of innocent civilians have been murdered over the years.

I then asked David, who is a devoutly religious man, if he hated God for allowing such an unspeakable calamity to occur. He answered, "My secular friends ask me how I can carry on. They tell me that if it were them, they would have put a bullet through their heads. But I am only able to cope because of God. Rather than focus on the horror of how my family was taken from me, I am focusing instead on the 12 beautiful years God gave me with my beloved wife and daughters. Some people don't even get that. We always had the most wonderful time together. I just have to believe that God has a plan as to why the time was cut short."


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[Name removed]

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[liberalhistorian]

2. Hey, come on. I agree that they have no right to

be there and that they're bringing their problems on themselves, and that the settlements ALL need to be totally disbanded RIGHT NOW and they have absolutely NO business stealing Palestinian land, wiping out whole villages, bulldozing homes, diverting water supplies, and destroying the livelihoods and the very lives of far too many Palestinians, but to say that is just plain wrong. This was deliberate murder, just like the strikes at Rafah were deliberate murders. Neither one can ever be justified and both must be condemned in the strongest terms.

Unfortunately, far too many people consider Israeli lives to be much more important than Palestinian lives. And, of course, we all know that every single Palestinian, right down to the babes in arms, are "terrorists", so if they're gunned down or blown up in cold blood, it doesn't really matter because they all "asked for it."

But what you're saying is no better and no different from what the Israel-is-always-right-and-always-holy-and-can-do-no-wrong crowd always says about Palestinian victims of Israeli violence.