Dear Editor,
Miriam Berger's article of February 11, 2023 misleads on several important points in reporting on a Palestinian Arab driver killing two people in Jerusalem by aiming his car at them. She attributes the deaths to "a spiraling cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, amidst the return to power of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government is in the midst of a constitutional battle."
There is no "cycle" of violence "between" two peoples; there is repetitive violence perpetrated by Arabs who want to eliminate Jews and eradicate the state of Israel. Under Palestinian Authority law, the PA rewards Arabs for murdering Jews. The rewards increase with the number of deaths. If the assailant is killed that is fine, his or her family will get a life time reward, the terrorist will be deemed a martyr, and likely have a monument to his or her name, such as a school named after him or her. Since PA media pays homage to murderers, kids are fed the milk of slaughter on a daily basis. Their text books have eliminated Israel from any maps or history and teach lies and hatred towards Jews, and then the PA sends kids to summer camps or after school programs to learn how to kill.
Berger suggests the violence is linked to a "constitutional battle," but Israel has no constitution. The internal conflicts between Israelis have nothing to do with the terrorism waged against all Israelis, whether left or right politically. Of course, it is to the advantage of would-be murderers that Israelis themselves are embroiled in policy struggles regarding proposed legislation which the new government is committed to, as per their election platform, and which might strengthen security, reform the judiciary, and constrain illegal Arab land grabs while shutting down foreign funded, terror-supporting NGOs.
Calling such attacks "lone wolf" ignores the fact they are acting out the publicly declared policy platform of the corrupt, undemocratic, (last elected 17 years ago) tyrannical Islamist government of the PA. Canada is complicit in funding the pay-for-slay program and the training of terrorists by virtue of its annual endowment to the UN Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA.
Berger's generalization that attacks are on the increase, "..in part due to the proliferation of guns among both Palestinians and Israelis," is false. Yes, there are more guns among the Arabs who are seeking to kill Israelis but Israelis have not taken up more guns to kill. Those authorized to carry a gun are encouraged now to do so, in order to stop attacks and save innocent lives. One cannot claim that killing someone who is trying to kill you, is an equivalent act of violence.
Respectfully,
Andria Spindel, Executive Director