Developing: !"#$%% '()$ (* *+,+$-* .$,.%($*+ (/ +#" .$0,.$* 1 !(2$ 34.

,+$*

METRO
5,0+* 6$+ 73..8 ,+
9)":,+("/ +)(,%

METRO
;$$) (/ %(<3") *+")$ 0,3*$*
=>?@@@ (/ .,7,6$

SPORTS
A(7$ '") B$. C"D +" 4%,/
'") /$D+ 8$,)
THE PODIUM
E,):,)(+8 (/ +F$ G(..%$ H,*+
By Jeff Robbins | JULY 09, 2014
IIsraeli missiles hit smuggling tunnels in Rafah on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)
It has been a fortnight of remarkable barbarity in the Middle East, even by the
standards of a region that regularly features it. In a part of the world where the mass
slaughter of Syrian civilians continues and where jihadis have reinforced their seizure
of large swatches of territory by declaring an Islamic caliphate, the murder of four
teenagers has captured the worlds attention, and with good reason.
!"#$#%$
First came the gruesome discovery of three Israeli teens, Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaar
and Eyal Yifrach, who had been executed in gangland fashion, apparently by
Palestinians linked to Hamas. Their kidnapping had been declared an Israeli fiction
by some Palestinians, even while it was celebrated by others. Palestinian social media
mocked the Israeli boys and the Israeli governments inability to locate their
abductors.
CONTINUE READING BELOW !
Then came the savage murder of 16-year-old Muhammed Abu Khdeir by Jewish
extremists who, having failed in their attempt to murder another Palestinian a day
earlier, proceeded to abduct Abu Khdeir, burn him to death and leave his charred
remains in a forest. This act of unalloyed evil was apparently in revenge for the killing
of the Israelis, a grotesque extension of the price tag attacks visited on Palestinian
communities by ultra-right wing settlers.
For a fleeting moment, it appeared possible that the brutality of these killings was so
stunning in its senselessness that it might trigger reflection on both sides, and the
restoration of calm. In Israel, public officials from across the political spectrum
expressed their revulsion at Abu Khdeirs killing. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu telephoned the boys parents, while Israeli dignitaries visited his familys
home to express their condolences.
Rachel Fraenkel, mother of one of the murdered Israelis, took time from her own
mourning to publicly embrace Abu Khdeirs parents. No mother or father should ever
have to go through what we are going through, she said, and we share the pain of
Muhammeds parents.
On the Palestinian side, President Mahmoud Abbas rose above a Palestinian civil
society that has seen fit to bestow honors upon those who have killed Israeli civilians,
and condemned the abduction of the Israeli teenagers, while Palestinian security
officials assisted their Israeli counterparts in their search for the perpetrators. While
no one deluded himself that Palestinians and Israelis would, like the Capulets and the
Montagues in the final scene of Romeo and Juliet, clasp hands and agree to overcome
their vendetta, there were nevertheless moments this past weekend when there was
reason to hope that new shoots of large-mindedness might pierce the conflicts
poisoned soil.
Enter Hamas, whose doctrinal determination to annihilate Israel has yet again
ensured that both Israelis and Palestinians will continue to lose their lives.
CONTINUE READING BELOW !
Since the beginning of this year, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have fired over 600 rockets
at Israeli communities. These rocket attacks are the Daily Double of human violations,
in which Palestinian homes and schools are used as human shields from which to fire
missiles at Israeli civilians. The calculus of Hamas and its affiliates is cold-blooded:
with any luck, innocent Israelis will be killed or hurt, and the Israelis, in their effort to
stop the rocket fire, will inevitably kill or hurt Palestinians living near the source of the
rocket fire. In short, harm to both Israelis and Palestinians is what Hamas desires, and
it usually gets its wish.
Over the weekend, the Netanyahu government repeatedly signaled its desire to avoid a
confrontation with Hamas, utilizing Egypt to try to negotiate a cease fire. During the
past 48 hours alone, however, over 250 rockets from Gaza have been fired at Israeli
communities, and thousands of Israelis have been forced to take cover in shelters.
Hamas has threatened to hit Israeli civilian centers throughout Israel and, armed with
an estimated 10,000 rockets, this is no idle threat.
Thus has begun this weeks new development, a development which is not truly new
at all: the siege of Israeli civilians under rocket fire, and an Israeli government forced
to take action to protect its civilians. Those who have been fortunate enough not to
have endured rockets aimed at their homes can be counted upon to issue the familiar
incantations about Israeli collective punishment, dodging as always the question of
what, precisely, Israel is supposed to do about attacks against its civilian if not to try to
prevent them.
The tests facing Israel are two-fold: protecting its citizens, while not permitting the
violence in its neighborhood to serve as an excuse for the moral degradation of its own
culture. Neither is easy and both are regrettable necessities.
Jeff Robbins, a former US delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission,
is chairman of the New England Board of the Anti-Defamation League.
Jeff Robbins, a former US delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission,
2014 BOSTON GLOBE MEDIA PARTNERS, LLC
is chairman of the New England Board of the Anti-Defamation League.