Tragedy has struck in Israel yet again. This time, four boys were kidnapped and murdered. They did nothing wrong—they weren’t trying to hurt anyone, they weren’t committing any crimes, and yet their lives were taken from them far before they were meant to. First, Hamas terrorists abducted three yeshiva students, Eyal Nifrah, Neftali Frankel, and Gilad Shaar on their way home and shot them all in cold blood. The only crime these boys had committed was being Jewish. Second, radical Jewish nationalists retaliated by abducting and murdering a Palestinian boy, Muhammed Huessin Abu Khedir.

As horrible as both these acts were, and as similar as they may look on the surface, the two murders were executed and received completely differently.  The Jewish boys were murdered by Hamas terrorists who, if given the chance, were going to try and ransom the lives of the teenagers in exchange for prisoners. Hamas organizes and encourages these kidnappings and hails the persecutors as heroes who are standing up for their cause—the destruction of the Jewish people and the state of Israel. The mother of one of the alleged murderers, Amer Abu Aysha, said she was proud of what her son had done and hoped he would continue to evade capture. Many Palestinians took to the gesture of holding up three fingers, one for each abducted Jew, and a cartoon was published on the Palestinian Authority’s Facebook page of three rats with Jewish stars on their bodies hanging from a string. As Israel did all in its power to locate these boys and their murderers it still took nearly three weeks to finally find them, and the two supposed persecutors are still at large. Meanwhile, the PA, although they claim to be compliant and trying to help the IDF locate the two Hamas suspects, have allowed these men to either escape the West Bank, or have done an excellent job hiding them from the IDF all while inciting more hatred from the Palestinian people.

What happened to Muhammed Abu Khedir was an equally disgusting act. There is no place in Israeli society for those who feel they are entitled to take the law into their own hands and extract revenge against Hamas. Yes, there needs to be a harsh response to Hamas’ actions and Israel needs to show them that acts such as these will not be tolerated, but it is the job of the government and the military to do so, not Israel’s civilians. Unlike Hamas who orchestrated the kidnappings, the PA who did little to help find the Jewish boys or their kidnappers, and many Palestinians who adopted the three finger taunting gesture and applauded the killers the Israeli government was quick to act on the murder of Abu Khedir. Within hours of the news being reported Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu publicly condemned the murder and reached out to the grieving family. In a matter of days Israel arrested six suspects in the murder, vigilantes who acted completely on their own accord to commit this heinous crime. Israel will ensure that they receive the full brunt of the law and are properly punished for what they’ve done. Unlike Hamas, the Israeli government was not behind the kidnapping, in fact, they condemned it as soon as it happened. Unlike the PA, the IDF and Israeli Police were swift and quick in their arrest of the alleged murderers and did not get in the way of the investigation or run to the UN to complain about the way the investigation and search for the persecutors was handled (as the PA did when the IDF was searching the West Bank for Gilad, Eyal and Neftali). And unlike the many Palestinian citizens who celebrated the murder and adopted the three finger salute, Israeli society and Jews around the world have nearly universally condemned the murder and are outraged at how Israelis could stoop so low as to retaliate by killing an innocent teenager.

As advocates it is important to understand that both of these acts were tragedies but it is also important to understand the different circumstances under which they were carried out and the way the governments and civilians reacted to the different situations. To reiterate, Hamas, unprompted, orchestrated the kidnap and murder of three innocent Israelis in order to ransom them for terrorist prisoners, taking advantage of Israel’s commitment not to let any Israeli into the hands of Hamas and other terrorist organizations. The PA, which Hamas is technically a part of, was unhelpful and actually hindered Israel’s investigation as well as while posted malicious propaganda on their Facebook page. And the Palestinian people largely celebrated the murder of the three teens. On the other side, Jewish nationalist vigilantes kidnapped and murdered a Palestinian boy as vengeance and were immediately condemned and ostracized by the Israeli government and Israeli people before being arrested and becoming subject to the the full force of Israeli law. Two seemingly similar crimes, with two drastically different reactions.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/181726#.U7zU_xbwm6Q (picture posted on PA Facebook page)

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-names-suspects-in-kidnapping-of-three-teens/ (quote from mother of one of the suspects)

-Yoni Krakow