More terror, more silence

An Israeli father-of-six was murdered in a West Bank terror shooting on the eve of Yom Kippur, yet you won’t hear about it in the mainstream media, which obsesses only over violence committed by Israeli residents of the territory.

You won’t hear about it from Australian government ministers. Foreign Minister Penny Wong will not be putting out a joint press release with her British and Canadian counterparts. They too obsess only over settler violence. In the case of Canada, you can bet its government will draw no link between its rhetoric on Israel and the Palestinians and the terror shooting outside an Ontario synagogue on Yom Kippur.

As for Britain, which has taken the extraordinary step of boycotting all Israeli companies over the green line, it is so lost to extremism and antisemitism that Jews are considering leaving en masse to Israel.

We do not excuse violence that is committed against Palestinians. It is real and abhorrent. Its perpetrators should face justice and be named and shamed. Its cheerleaders within the extremist right fringe of the Israeli ruling coalition are equally repugnant.

But focusing obsessively on it while ignoring the real and ongoing threat of Palestinian terrorism has no positive effect on advancing peace in the region – in fact it has the opposite effect – and makes Jewish communities in the Diaspora unsafe.

On the ground, ignoring Palestinian terrorism encourages more of it. Terror leaders know that it is only Israeli reactions that will be globally condemned.

The intransigent Palestinian Authority (PA), meanwhile, knows it need make zero serious effort to deliver the reforms it promised our own government in return for statehood recognition.

The PA still maintains a pay-for-slay policy despite claiming to have ended it, a recent NGO Monitor forum heard. Palestinian textbooks continue to corrupt and incite the youth, while terrorists are lauded as national heroes.

And we are to believe that Israeli communities, many of which lie within blocs that would be subject to land swaps if there were to be an agreement, are the real impediment to peace, their residents all tarred with the same violent brush due to the actions of just a few.

It would be laughable if it were not so dangerous.