On Friday, seven members of a Palestinian family picnicking
on a beach (according to Palestinian reports) were killed by
an explosion. The Palestinians reported that Israel was at
fault (as they always do) but refused to show any evidence
that this was so. Signs of any Israeli guilt should be easy
to produce in the form of fragments of whatever Israeli
ordnance caused the explosion. On the contrary: the
Palestinians systematically destroyed all remnants of the
event.
Israel's reaction was typical: Officials expressed regret for
the loss of innocent life and sympathy for the bereaved. They
did not take responsibility, but announced an
investigation.
The Palestinian response was not typical but not out of
character. Assuming Israeli blame, Hamas announced it was
ending its self-declared 16-month truce.
The speed with which it made the announcement suggests that
the decision to go on the offensive against us had been made
in advance. The destruction of the evidence by the
Palestinians indicates that the truth of who was to blame is
not of interest to them.
It is not clear who is actually interested in the truth about
what happened. It is clear that neither the family nor the
beach was targeted by Israel. The Palestinians fire their
rockets targeted at Israeli civilians from within non-
combatant populations. According to the international rules
of war, the Palestinian fighters who do not distinguish
themselves from noncombatants by living apart and wearing
uniforms and the like, are themselves are responsible in such
circumstances if noncombatants are killed in an appropriate
response to their aggressive attacks. Thus, even if it should
turn out that it was an Israeli weapon that killed the
family, the criminal terrorists who continue to fire Kassam
rockets targeting Israeli civilians from within the
noncombatant population are really responsible.
The Israeli response gave the initial impression that they
felt guilty, and much damage is certainly done that will not
be repaired by an announcement several days later —
even if they find that it was Palestinian explosives that
caused the deaths. It was suggested that the family was
killed by a stray Kassam rocket, or by a landmine installed
by Palestinians.
The attitude of Palestinians (and many other Arabs) to
language is quite different from what people in the West are
used to. Recall that nine months ago 21 Palestinians were
killed in the middle of a mass celebration of the Israeli
withdrawal from Gaza. Palestinian sources immediately blamed
Israel, even though it was later discovered that the
explosions were caused by negligent Hamas handling of
explosives.
The concept of speaking the truth as a standard of behavior
is lacking in many communities in the Middle East. They
regard speech as just another tool to get them what they
want. They are prepared to say whatever is useful in
achieving their goals. There is no special or independent
value assigned to speaking the truth. Most of the time they
do speak the truth because otherwise it would not be worth
speaking altogether — that is, usually the truth gets
them what they want. But they attach no value, and derive no
satisfaction, from speaking truly.
From our perspective, the faculty of speech is one of the
highest human abilities. Using it properly — by
speaking truly, and for Torah and tefilloh — is
of value, and abusing it is reprehensible and degrading. We
could never look at our speech as merely a tool to achieve
our goals without any reference to whether it is functioning
properly or not.
This feeling of respect for the power and ability of speech
is shared by other Western peoples. But we should not make
the mistake of assuming that everyone in the world shares
it.
Our military and diplomatic spokesman should counter the
verbal attacks with vigorous verbal defenses, stressing the
presumed innocence of IDF forces and immediately suggesting
alternatives that in the end may turn out to be the most
likely explanation, rather than offering unappreciated
sympathy and apologies.
