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By Morton A. Klein and Elizabeth Berney, Esq.
(APRIL 19, 2022 / JNS) Sadly, it is again time to mourn for more murdered innocent Jews and pray for the wounded in Israel. On April 7, a Palestinian Arab gunman from Samaria slipped through a hole in the security fence, traveled to Tel Aviv, murdered three Israeli Jews and injured another 11 people, several of whom are fighting for their lives. The three who died were Barak Lufan, 35, a father of three, Olympic kayaker, Paralympics coach and head Olympic kayaking team coach; Tomer Morad, 27, a recently graduated mechanical engineer; and Tomer’s recently engaged childhood friend, Eytam Magini, 27, whose family attended Eytam’s funeral instead of his wedding.
In just two weeks, Palestinian Arabs and Islamist Israeli Arabs murdered 14 innocent victims—10 Jews, an Israeli Druze, an Israeli-Arab Christian and two Ukrainians—in shooting, car-ramming and knife-stabbing attacks.
Unfortunately, it’s also again time for more empty U.S. condemnation statements that fail to identify the victims as Jews or Israelis; fail to identify the perpetrators as Palestinian Arabs or Islamist Israeli Arabs; and fail to change U.S. policies that contribute to anti-Jewish terror, such as sending $500 million to Palestinian Arabs in the past year.
Remarkably, every statement by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides follows this same pattern. These U.S. officials have no problem falsely accusing Jewish “settlers” of provoking violence by building Jewish homes, as Blinken did on March 27—the same day that Palestinian Arab terrorists murdered two Israelis at a bus stop in Hadera. Similarly, on March 15, Nides immorally denounced Israelis building homes in and around Jerusalem, and Judea and Samaria, as “stupid” and “infuriating.” But these men studiously avoid accurately identifying actual terrorists: the Palestinian Arab murderers of innocent Jewish and Israeli victims.
When Palestinian Arabs murder Jews or Israelis, the “who” is always missing from the classic “who, what, where, when and how” needed to accurately inform readers.
This is the same pattern that the Obama-Biden administration adopted. In 2016, we documented that U.S. State Department condolence statements consistently omitted both the Jewish and/or Israeli identity of the victims, and the Palestinian Arab identity of the terrorists that perpetrated murderous attacks in Israel. Similarly, the Obama-Biden administration’s statements about terrorism in Nigeria omitted identifying that the terrorists were Islamists and that their innocent murdered victims were Christians. By contrast, that same administration identified those involved in terror attacks in other countries whenever doing so fit with the administration’s political agenda.
After the April 7 terror attack on Israeli Jews, Nides tweeted: “Horrified to see another cowardly terror attack on innocent civilians, this time in Tel Aviv. Praying for peace, and sending condolences to the victims and their families. This has to stop!”
Yes, this has to stop!
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