This is a guest post by Yeze of the Rosh Pina Project
Why did terrorist Yaakov Teitel act in the way he did?
Dina Kraft writes:
This Jack/Yaakov Teitel is being described as someone who acted alone in his attacks and planned attacks. But in an interview with Israel Radio yesterday, Ami Ayalon, the former head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service (basically Israel’s FBI), said that even such loners need a spiritual or ideological base in order to thrive.
Leah Ortiz, mother of Ami Ortiz, remarks:
The public is being reminded that the investigation is continuing to root out terrorist sleeper cells that are hiding and camouflaging themselves among the local residents. The newspapers report, and journalists have told us, about an Orthodox group who hold to the doctrine of what is called “Redemption” which claims that the reason the coming of the Messiah has been delayed is because of the tolerance of the State of Israel for Christians, left wingers and Homosexuals. All of these groups are classified as false prophets that have to be dealt with.
Indeed, Teitel’s actions were the product of a worldview of despair, in which rational debate is cast aside in favour of brashness and combat. Treating Messianic Jews as deceivers and tricksters, Teitel became the ultimate deceiver. Teitel deceived Ami Ortiz with a gift disguised as a Purim package. Teitel deceived Israel’s authorities, living for years in freedom as past victims lay dead. Teitel deceived his own family, and ultimately I suspect, Teitel deceived himself into thinking that he was in some way doing God’s will.
The case of Yaakov Teitel should serve as a warning as to how far people can take their prejudices. In this case, violent words have bred violent actions – a fact acknowledged by Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu. And there are surely more Yaakov Teitels out there, plotting domestic terrorism. The mother of one of the victims of the shooting in the gay nightclub in Tel Aviv has warned that there is another Teitel out there.
Tonight, another man from Shvut Rachel who was an acquaintance of Teitel, Yosef Spinoza, has now been arrested.
Both men are being defended in the media by Adi Kedar of the Honenu organisation.
When Teitel was arrested in October, Honenu spokesman Shmuel Meidad protested:
“They have accused him [Y. T.] of every [unsolved] murder [in the State of Israel] from [Haim] Arlosorov [in June 1933] to the murder in the gay bar,” Shmuel Meidad, head of the Honeinu Legal Aid Organization, said. “They even reported that he confessed but [defense attorney] Adi Kedar or any one else has not met with him.”
Who or what is Honenu?
It is an Israeli legal group which campaigns for the release of Jewish murderers from Israeli jails when Arab murderers are released. They are headed up by Shmuel Meidad, known in right-wing circles as ‘Zangi.’ Meidad has previously spent time in prison, as has Ariel Groner, responsible for handling prisoner affairs in Honenu, who was arrested in 2006 and spent three months under house arrest.
This past week Israelis have marked the anniversary of the murder of Yitzchak Rabin in 1994. Guess which organisation tried to raise money for Rabin’s assassin in 2005? That’s right: Honenu.
Haaretz reported:
Honenu is headed by a resident of Kiryat Arba, Shmuel Meidad. It was established in 2002 and rose to prominence for its defense of people arrested in protests against the disengagement plan. The Amir fund was started recently, and is being kept under wraps. No mention of it is made on the Internet site. The organization has a telephone center for donations that can be made via standing bank orders, by check or by credit card.
To ensure that the money goes to the Amirs, the donor must write “for the fund promoting Yigal and Larissa Amir’s rights” on the reverse side of the check. For a credit-card donation, the donor must speak to the fund’s directors.
Concerning Honenu, Nadav Shrangai wrote in Haaretz in May 2008:
In their requests to current MKs, Hanenu notes that not a single Jewish terrorist who was released early returned to hurting Arabs, and that the organization disagrees with comparisons between Arab terror and Jewish terror.
As far as Hanenu is concerned, even if justification of Jewish terror is wrong, it derives from “mistaken judgment against a background of compromised security, or personal factors related to judgment and the sense that one needs to exact revenge.”
Zangi himself recalls that president Weizman showed him both sides of his hand when he explained to him, in Weizman’s coarse style, why he decided to reduce the sentences of Jewish terrorists. “See my hand, Zangi? Everything I think – you think the opposite. And everything you think – I think the opposite. We both come from different worlds, but one thing we agree on: If you release Arab murderers, release Jewish murderers as well.”
Let’s assess: The likes of the child-murdering Samir Kuntar deserve to be locked away for life, and never allowed into free society again. Hezbollah’s campaigns to free Kuntar shows their utter contempt for society (if it wasn’t blindingly obvious already), and reveal a total lack of human decency. Yet Honenu’s argument is just as disgusting.
Arab murderers are freed in exchange for the the bodies of Israeli soldiers to be returned, so why not free Jewish murderers when Arab murderers are freed?
Let’s put the question another way: what if Israel frees an Arab paedophile for political reasons? Should it then free a Jewish paedophile, just to make things ‘fair’?
Consider also the way that Honenu latched on to the politics surrounding Gilad Shalit, not campaigning for Shalit’s return, but for the release of Jewish nationalist prisoners. Honenu cynically tried to exploit an impossible situation, focusing on the release of guilty criminals rather than the innocent Shalit.
Among those listed by Honenu for release were Ami Popper, murderer of seven Arabs.
And guess who has previously championed Honenu’s cause?
Shas leader, and Israel’s Interior Minister and Deputy PM Eli Yishai, whom we last met enabling Yad L’Achim to run riot, subverting Israel’s democratic law and abusing his position in the process.
Quite frankly, it is little wonder, that Gideon Levy describes Yishai as Jean Marie Le Pen with a beard. Yishai does nothing to counter the assumption by religious and political zealots that Redemption will only come when Eretz Israel is cleansed of its postmodern Amaleks.
