More views on the news

After my last post I feel I must comment on the shooting at the Jewish religious college in Jerusalem last night. It is to be deplored, and certainly condemned. Was the man who carried out the shooting a terrorist, though? Apparently he worked as a driver near the college.

In the current climate in Israel and Palestine it wouldn't be surprising if normal, peace-loving citizens are driven to violent crime. Perhaps he had been watching tv and hearing about all his compatriots who have been murdered by the state of Israel recently. That sort of thing could drive some people over the edge, and in a culture where men are judged by how well they care for and protect their families and fellow citizens, some men are bound to feel they must do something, anything, to retaliate. Does this make them terrorists, freedom fighters, or mentally ill?

Of course this culture needs changing, but it will be so much harder to urge people to act in peaceful ways while Israel bombs them whenever it feels like it, forces them to live without adequate food or clean water, decent sanitation, jobs and hope for a better future, or even a future at all. The way Israel treats Palestinians has increased violence in the home and the suicide rate, so it is only to be expected that the violence will spill over into Israel at some stage however harshly they try to control it.

There is a saying that those who live by the sword, will die by the sword, and sadly this is being proved to be true. At the same time those who live with and close to those who live by the sword are being killed, too. The estimates I have heard are that about a third of those killed by Israeli attacks last week were not terrorists, which means forty innocent people were killed alongside the 80 who were deemed to be terrorists.

Many people will be less bothered by the death of the terrorists than by the deaths of the others who died, and some seem to consider the innocent dead as 'necessary collateral damage'.

According to the BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen, the college where these 8 young men were shot 'was the ideological cradle of the settler movement in the West Bank, which could be the reason it was targeted'. Apparently, many of its students are on special courses that combine religious study with service in combat units in the Israeli army.

Could this be another case of those who live by the sword, and by encouraging acts of violence, dying by the sword?

How will Israel respond this time? Will they continue the cycle of violence or finally realise that they need to behave differently?

The BBC report can be found here.