JNS.org
An article published by left-wing Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz drew widespread condemnation Wednesday for calling Israel’s national-religious community “more dangerous” than the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorists.
In the article titled “More Dangerous than Hezbollah,” columnist Yossi Klein wrote “the national religious [Israelis] are dangerous, more dangerous than Hezbollah, more than drivers ramming their cars into people and girls with scissors.”
A statement posted on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Facebook page said, “The article in Haaretz is disgraceful, and they have lost it completely… Haaretz should apologize.”
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin similarly weighed in Thursday, saying the author’s words are “defamation that exposes a vast hatred and undermines any capacity to dialogue or criticize.”
Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home), Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) and Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid each separately condemned the article, with Bennett tweeting, “When you think that Haaretz has reached its peak of humiliation, it always manages to surprise with a new low.”
Haaretz Publisher Amos Schocken responded to the widespread condemnation via Twitter, posting, “I can’t figure out what all the excitement is (Pavlovian, I must say) over Yossi Klein’s column. He is just saying something similar to what I said six years ago.” Schocken was referring to a controversial article he wrote accusing Israel’s national-religious community of implementing apartheid.
Moshe Keinan, a bereaved father who lost his son serving in the IDF responded to the Haaretz article with an article of his own on Arutz Sheva titled “‘My only son died defending Israel, are we worse than Hezbollah?”
Hi,
My name is Moshe Keinan and I am a “settler” from the community of Shiloh. My only son, may G-d avenge his blood, was also a resident of Shiloh. He was a fighter in the Givati Brigade’s commando unit, an officer in the anti-terror commando unit.
During the day he instructed his cadets and at night he would go out at the head of his team of soldiers to capture barbaric terrorists.
Since last night I have had no rest, I couldn’t sleep and couldn’t calm down.
I and my family, who gave the dearest one to me, my son, who sacrificed his young life and sanctified G-d’s name when he fell protecting his people and his country, are we worse than the Hezbollah?
I want to tell you, small-minded journalist that you are, you are worse than the Hezbollah and not because it is impossible to kill you, as you wrote about us. We don’t kill and evict Jews, we only kill our enemies.
You are worse because of your shameful opinions, because of your hard heart. You are lucky that you live in a Jewish and democratic country where there is freedom of speech even for depraved people like you.
Moshe Keinan
You can read Keinan’s article in full HERE
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