opinion: stephen m. flatow

Times softpedals killing of Jewish peace activist

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An Arab member of Knesset’s public support of a terrorist who murdered an American-Jewish peace activist led to the Knesset last week to enact a law that could, under difficult circumstances, lead to the removal of an MK’s legislative immunity. 

 But if you read the account by New York Times correspondent Isabel Kershner, you wouldn’t know anything about the terrorist or his victim — all you would learn is that Israel’s rulers are suppressing dissent and might be infected by “budding fascism.”

 It’s as if Kershner and her editors are living in an alternative universe, in which Israel is always guilty, Arab extremists are always innocent, and the 141 Americans who have been murdered by Palestinian terrorists simply didn’t exist.

 The current controversy began in February, when Haneen Zoabi and two other Arab Knesset Members (all from the Balad Party) paid a solidarity visit to ten families of Palestinian terrorists who were involved in recent attacks. One was the father of Baha Alyan.

For those who don’t recognize Alyan’s name, let me refresh your memory.

In October 2015, Alyan and fellow-terrorist Bilal Ghanem armed themselves with guns and knives, and boarded a bus in Jerusalem. One of the passengers was 78-year-old Richard Lakin, a civil rights veteran from Connecticut. Lakin “taught English to Israeli and Palestinian children” in Jerusalem and “never missed a peace rally,” according to his rabbi. The cover photo on Lakin’s Facebook page featured a Jewish child and a Palestinian child under the heading “Coexist.” Of course, none of that matters to Palestinian terrorists. They kill left-wing Jews, they kill right-wing Jews. It’s all the same to them.

Nor were Alyan and Ghanem deterred by the fact that Lakin was obviously an elderly man. They stabbed him in the face and chest. But that wasn’t enough. They also shot him in the head.

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