Rock thrower
Rock throwerFlash 90

Another Palestinian Arab has tried to murder an Israeli Jew—with aid and comfort from the congressional radicals known as The Squad.

The incident took place on Tuesday, when Israeli soldiers briefly entered the town of Balata, near Shechem (Nablus), to arrest terrorists. The army is forced to do that from time to time, because the Palestinian Authority, which governs Balata, refuses to do it.

As the soldiers walked along, a would-be killer named Imad Hashash climbed to the roof of a house, armed with what news reports described as “a large object.”

I don’t know how familiar Hashash was with American politics, but thanks to the internet, it’s not so far-fetched to imagine that he might have heard of the bill that has been submitted to Congress, which would help shield him from arrest if he dropped that “large object” on an Israeli.

You see, Hashash was 15 years old. And earlier this year, the five members of The Squad —Representatives Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, and Ayanna Pressley— co-sponsored a bill that would slash U.S. aid to Israel if the Israelis arrest any Palestinian Arab terrorists who are under the age of 18. Teenagers aren’t terrorists, says The Squad; they’re “children.”

Why would a Palestinian Arab teenager undertake the arduous task of dragging a “large object” all the way up to the roof? To kill Jews, of course. When you drop something from above, it causes much greater damage than if you throw it from the ground level.

The Times of Israel, to its credit, did something in reporting this episode that many media outlets don’t do—it pointed out a few relevant facts about what has happened in previous such object-dropping attacks.

It reported: “Last year, an Israeli soldier, Amit Ben-Yigal, was killed after a Palestinian dropped a large rock on him from the roof of a building near Jenin.” An Israeli Army spokesman said at the time that Ben-Yigal was wearing a helmet, but the force of the brick was such that “his helmet was destroyed.”

The Times of Israel added: “A similar incident occurred in 2018, when a marble slab was thrown from the third floor of a building in a refugee camp near Ramallah, killing Ronen Lubarsky.”

At the time of the Lubarsky murder, on May 24, 2018, YNet (the news agency of the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot) noted that Palestinian Arabs often climb up to their rooftops and attack Israelis by throwing “furniture and even washing machines.”

At least a few people remember the names of Amit Ben-Yigal and Ronen Lubarsky. But how about Dan Cohen? On my desk, I have a newspaper clipping from some years ago, showing a young Israeli man in a wheelchair. The caption reads: “Dan Cohen, a 20-year-old soldier who was struck in the head by a 65-pound cement block thrown from a rooftop [in Nablus]…The injury left him paralyzed from the chest down.”

Dan Cohen clipping
Dan Cohen clippingStephen Flatow

Who has ever heard the names of any Israelis who have been permanently maimed by Arabs throwing rocks, or bricks, or large objects from rooftops? Who remembers the Israelis who lost an eye, or suffered brain damage, or endured other crippling injuries? Whoever reads about what happened to them after some Palestinian Arab “child” tore their lives apart?

The Israeli soldier whom Imad Hashash was about to attack did not want to become the next Dan Cohen. So, when he saw Hashash poised to hurl that “large object,” the soldier shot him dead. I’m sure The Squad considers Hashash the victim and the soldier the murderer. Because when it comes to Israel, the Squad members literally do not know the difference between truth and falsehood.

Their bill to aid teenage Palestinian killers has been endorsed by an interesting list of organizations. Some are extremist groups that have openly defended Palestinian Arab terrorism, such as the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Sadly, alongside those names one finds the names of groups that want to be seen as part of the Jewish mainstream, but are not, such as J Street and Americans for Peace Now.

Circumstances in life sometimes force you to take sides. You could take the side of Imad Hashash and the other young Palestinian Arabs who murder or maim Israeli Jews. Or you could take the side of Amit Ben-Yigal, Ronen Lubarsky, Dan Cohen and the other victims.

If you want to know which side somebody is on—the side of the Palestinian Arab killers or the side of the Israeli Jewish victims—just look at the list of those who have endorsed the bill to prevent teenage Palestinian terrorists from being arrested. That’s all you need to know.

Stephen M. Flatow, an attorney in New Jersey and the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995. He is a member of the board of Nishmat and the author of “A Father’s Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror.”