Price Tag Actions are Self-Defeating
Price Tag Actions are Self-Defeating

We have recently seen a wave of self- defeating actions, whereby it seems that a small group of Jews who believe they are acting to save Eretz Yisrael are actually undermining it.

The unprecedented attack upon the Israeli soldiers of the Ephraim brigade post near Kedumim is perhaps the most prominent example of this. But there have been a whole series of incidents in this vein, which have been attributed to what is called "Price Tag" attacks. It is suspected that provocateurs are influencing a group of youths who are alienated since the Gush Katif expulsion and the wanton destruction of homes by the Defense Ministry and hope to prevent further unjustified demolitions - Migron, for example - this way,  but that does not mitigate from the incidents themselves.

These acts are most often petty vandalism which include, most recently, desecrating with hate- writings the unused mosque on Strauss St. in Jerusalem. They provide excellent material for anti- Israel propaganda. They enable all those who would destroy us to say that we are violent and hate- filled as we know our enemies to truly be.

These attacks sometimes show no respect for the dignity of the person.  All these acts give our enemies and not only our enemies grounds for stigmatizing the entire enterprise of Jewish life in Judea and Samaria.

These attacks also undermine the position of Israel in the world as liberal democracy and enable our enemies to compare us to the present Iranian regime or to the Taliban.

These attacks or a similar one like them might also be the spark which sets off a total Jihad against us, one in which thousands of Israelis will lose their lives, and in which the very existence of the state may be threatened.

These attacks are from the point- of view of all those care for and believe in the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria, acts that undermine the moral basis of our being here. After all, one of our moral claims is that we are to be a 'light to the nations' and that we are to set an example in developing friendly and beneficial relations with neighbors and strangers.

The acts by which private individuals make themselves judge and jury, and believe that they can by violence impose their will, allow a small minority to misrepresent the true face of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. They, by their foolish actions, stigmatize the community as a whole, not only in the eyes of other nations, but in the eyes of the great majority of sane and patriotic Israelis.  

The Israeli Government has decided to try rioting Jews in military court. This aims to be a means of deterrence against such outlaw actions.

But the real deterrence can only come from within the communities themselves, and from within the families of those who perpetrate these acts. Somehow the lesson must be internalized that these attacks are self- defeating, do not diminish but rather increase the threat of destruction of Jewish life in Judea and Samaria and in fact Israel as a whole.

They are a real danger to the people of Israel and it is time to put an end to them once and for all, and completely.