Return of the Hunt: Part II

“Justice, justice, shall you pursue, that you thrive and occupy the land that the L-rd your G-d is giving you. (Deuteronomy 16:20) JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh

Duma. Once upon a time, my only association with this unusual word was from a work of horror fiction from American novelist, Stephen King, Duma Key. That association is gone forever. Non-fiction replaces fiction. Other horrors, true nightmares in every sense of the word, now come to mind. The Arab town of Duma. Some words transcend a specific time, place, or geological location. Deir Yassin was one such place. Duma will become another. It will conjure up a terrible period in Jewish history. (Bear with me, sane reader. I have not lost my mind.)

Duma was a tragedy, but not for the reasons the Jewish liberal press would have you believe. There was no crime against Arabs, neither arson nor murder. The tragedy of Duma was in the form of a blood libel against true Jewish Maccabees, in the same manner that leftists once demonized good Jews for the murder of Arlosorov, and perpetuated the Arab myth of Jewish savagery in the murderous Arab town of Deir Yassin. 

Duma will conjure the worst examples of Jews committing grave injustices against other Jews. It will come to symbolize the true face of Jewish extremism. A face comprised of weak, evil, incompetent politicians who readily set their faceless, nameless, Shabbak thugs (who waste energy and resources that can be used to crush Arab terror!) to beat innocent Jewish children in dark rooms where only the walls hear the screams of forced confessions. Long ago, the clever Arabs discovered that leftist Jews would blame Jews when Arabs kill each other. Israel’s consistent knee-jerk reaction to such incidents have scandalized Israel’s leadership since the state’s inception. 

The second part of this terrible story involves the inevitable barbarism, which follows these blood libels. Some incidents in our modern history personify the willingness of Israeli leftists to brutalize other Jews. The Altalena was the deliberate slaughter of innocent Jewish warriors, orchestrated by Ben Gurion, and carried out in large measure by Rabin. In recent years, Yassamnikim thugs perpetrated a pogrom against helpless, defenseless Jews in Amona. Duma is the latest chapter. The common denominator is that the government always gets away with it.

Once again, the left took the lies of the Arab narrative of Duma (much like Deir Yassin long ago), and perpetrated a blood libel. In bold-faced type, they wrote the story: “Extremist Jews” set fire and murder Arabs in the Arab village of Duma. No evidence? The Shabak does not care.

The true synopsis of Duma: Arabs murder other Arabs during an ongoing war between rival families, and blame it on Jewish “settlers.” A weak criminal government uses the incident to perpetuate the story of Jewish extremism, to harass those deemed “Jewish extremists.” They utilize the brutal administrative detention to imprison and torture their targets. No one hears from them for weeks and months. They endure unimaginable horror and are made to confess.

Administrative detention: a euphemism for the abuse of Jews by Israel’s leaders where they detain Jews without cause for indefinite periods. The British once used this barbaric measure to punish Jewish heroes. Years ago, Israel’s leaders used it to incarcerate the gibor of our age, Rabbi Meir Kahane (may G-d avenge his blood.)Today, the Likud sinks even lower in their own filth by abusing this primitive, goyish, immoral act to target their Jewish detractors. It is the perfect vehicle for abuse, and contrary to the most rudimentary aspects of halachic justice. They do not require evidence of a crime. They merely have to crush your bones until you confess to one.

Several months ago, I wrote an article in The Jewish Press about this insidious crime (Return of the Hunt). More than four months have passed and the abomination continues. Thanks to the efforts of people like Attorney Itamar Ben Gvir who represents several of the incarcerated Duma “suspects,” we are now privy to details of horrific Shabak tortures against Jews ranging from physical beatings on vulnerable, sensitive spots on the body, sensory and sleep deprivation, and even sexual assault, possibly including sodomy. (ISA ‘sexually harassed’ Duma suspect.) If this doesn’t make you want to storm the barricades, nothing will.

(I would be remiss if I failed to mention the legal group HONENU who defend Jewish heroes from Israel’s repressive judicial process. They are also involved in this case, advocating for immediate justice.)

Several days ago, I expressed my concern and certainty that the Shabak was sexually assaulting these young men, since the Shabak needed to do something so terrible to them that would make them reticent to speak about it. Ben Gvir’s statements confirmed what I suspected to be true. I fear that we may never know the full extent of such actions.

Many leftists celebrate the imprisonment of kipah wearing, unruly “hilltop youth” with peyot. Yet the most abominable silence comes from Likudniks who will defend Bibi to their grave. Then we have the quislings of the respectable Habayit Hayehudi. Several months back, Habayit’s Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked jumped onto the bandwagon with their own perspective, which displayed that the loyalist “religious parties” take a back seat to no one when it comes to repugnant positions. The words “capital punishment” were thrown about. For those who hoped that he might have done teshuva, Bennett recently came out with a statement in support of the Shabak’s monstrous acts. It shows him to be a cruel and foolish man, more interested in Arab rights than Jewish lives. Those who worship these leaders should understand that Mapai once used these same KGB tactics against Bibi’s supposed ideological forebears.

A man cannot incriminate himself: a basic halachic concept. The Torah understood the dangers of forced confessions. Most liberal Jews misunderstand the Torah’s strict criteria for Halachic guilt. They view it through the distortion of an intellectual cataract, which they see as being the Torah’s reticence to administer harsh punishments for real crimes. How mistaken they are. The Torah intended to prevent a travesty to the Torah’s ideal of justice. To kill an innocent man is as obscene as the notion of a guilty man going free. It matters little even with the strict judicial criteria for say capital punishment, Jewish society had other measures to ensure that probable offenders were punished adequately while still retaining the halachic criteria. 

The Torah standards follow the reality of human nature and psychology. There is a breaking point for everyone, including the strongest of men. Evil men have always used strong-arm tactics to break people. The Shabak will do anything to a kipah wearing, peyot swinging “hilltop youth” to pin a crime on them. They will ignore Arab incitement and actual violence, but wage warfare to uncover the origins of supposed “price tag” attacks. Democracy for Arabs. Gestapo tactics for obstinate idealistic Jews. If anyone of these detainees “confessed”, it is because the Shabak broke their spirits, not to mention their bodies. 

Hasbara: The Backdrop of the Problem

One of the main impediments to exposing and eradicating the abuses of Israeli government towards other Jews is the modern day notion of public relations for Israel. Some advocates for Israel are terrified of highlighting examples of rampant institutional corruption in Israel, which harms the public in all spheres of life from economics to security. Others support such brutal measures either out of a sense of ideological commitment to their leaders and parties, or by actual approval of such measures against Jews.

Contemporary hasbara (PR) efforts are pandering, patronizing, and self- aggrandizing. They are often untrue or exaggerated. Frequently they celebrate things Torah observant Jews should not celebrate. There is a place for a proper, respectable form of hasbara. Current expressions do not meet the criteria for dignified hasbara.

One of the more popular ones is the oft mentioned, “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East…..” Surely the most popular hasbara slogan among liberal Jews. From a Torah perspective, western democracy cannot be celebrated since all systems of government, including the best of them, cannot reach the theoretical perfection that only a truly Torah oriented society can provide. Yet in the absence of such a system, a flawed democracy is preferable to a government based upon the principles of Sodom. If it were so, such egregious abuses of personal liberty would never occur.

The fact that Tel Aviv is a gay mecca in the Middle East does not mean Israel is democratic. It means that Tel Aviv is a gay mecca. It means that while Sodom is gone, the legacy of Sodom and Gomorrah permeates the country. Neither high tech technology, nor Tel Aviv’s reputation for being a gay Middle Eastern mecca is our reason for being. The latter is a reason for not being. Israel’s democracy is a veneer. A tyranny with voting booths remains a haven of corruption. Even in the worst societies, there were often veneers of equality. Yet no one likes to vote at the other end of a shotgun.

Do you live in a democracy? If the answer to even one question is yes, then you do not live in a democracy.

• Does your government ban a popular Jewish party because they speak truths relating to the Arabs of Israel?
• Do the leaders of your country detain Jews for months without any charges and denying them legal representation? 
• Do government agents beat the living pulp out of such detainees? 
• Does the judicial arm of said country approve of and permit such abusive tactics while the same country demands that her doctors heal and feed Arab murderers? 
• Has your country recently eliminated an Arab who brutally murdered Jews in his youth, was captured by Israel and then released him to kill again? If the answer is YES, then you live in an asylum? 
• Do the military/police beat and bludgeon Jews but skirt any legal consequences?

As I have noted before, if the Shabak had any evidence against any of the detainees they would have charged them long ago. There is no way on earth that a group of young untrained men could fool Israel’s world-class forensics. They would need the equivalent knowledge of the experts to fool them. The idea is absurd. You can be certain that Israel used every modern tool to uncover evidence of wrongdoing. The only logical explanation is that they are trying to pin a crime on innocent Jews.

Netanyahu has the nerve to speak of Jewish extremism. He is the very model of a Jewish extremist, a man who believes himself King, and has no cognizance of a Creator. If he did, he could never permit such abuses against other Jews. 

One day, good men will recount the true story of our internal Jewish enemies. The tale of perfidy will make Ben Hecht’s famous entry, a mere chapter in a larger encyclopedia of injustice. The Likud will sit alongside Labor in the annals of Jewish criminality. In addition to the sin of spilled Jewish blood, the Likud will have to answer for the brutal terrorizing of Jews, which we now know included sexual assault. Fellow Jews, speak loudly and fearlessly on behalf of our modern day Maccabees. Our battered brothers cannot scream out for themselves. 

A final message to our leaders who are responsible for detaining and abusing our heroic Jewish brothers. And it starts with Netanyahu at the top: Release these heroic prisoners of Zion immediately. G-d will not forgive this enduring crime against the Jewish people. There will be justice.