A Semi-Sane Settler

The 16-year-old son of the rabbi murdered on the West Bank last week had this to say at his father's funeral:

"We are not seeking revenge against the Arabs. The difference between us and them is that we are human beings. We won't shoot them in the head for no reason. We are Jews, holy people, human beings."

His view of revenge is to be commended; his view that Jews are pure and Arabs aren't human is problematic, not because many Arabs haven't done inhuman things to Jews, but because Jews also do inhuman things to Arabs. In fact, settlers do on occasion shoot Arabs in the head for no reason, which is perhaps the main reason their movement has lost whatever moral power it once posessed.