When the US refuses to say ‘Palestinian’, the condemnation is irrelevant - opinion

Biden administration officials are usually outspoken and explicit when talking about the Palestinian Arabs. But there is one situation in which they seem to have great difficulty uttering the word “Palestinian.” Can you guess when that might be?

Shai Nigreker and his son Aviad Nir last week committed the crime of washing their car while Jewish. It happened in the Palestinian Authority town of Huwara. The two men weren’t “settlers.” They weren’t “occupying” anybody. They’re from the coastal city of Ashdod, 25 miles south of Tel Aviv. But as they stood outside the Huwara car wash, minding their own business, a Palestinian Arab terrorist walked up to them and murdered them in cold blood.

The father and son were doing exactly what the State Department and the Jewish left always urge Israeli Jews to do: engage in ordinary social and economic interactions with Palestinian Arabs. The critics accuse Israelis of not wanting to “get to know” Arabs. They insist that if Israelis would just spend more face-to-face time with Arabs, they would see that coexistence is possible.

Well, that’s just what Shai and Aviad did. They ran errands in Huwara. They spent their money in Palestinian shops. They had conversations with Arab residents. They took their car to the car wash.

The attack could not have been premeditated, since the killer had no way of knowing that the two men would be at the Huwara car wash that day. This means that the murderer was doing something else when somebody told him that Jews were spotted nearby. So, he walked over to see for himself.

Think about that for a moment. The Palestinian Authority’s level of anti-Jewish incitement is so intense, and terrorists are permitted to operate so freely in PA-governed Huwara, that on a random day, when two Jews were spotted at a car wash, there happened to be a random Palestinian terrorist nearby, he happened to be carrying a loaded gun, and he was ready, on a moment’s notice, to murder two unarmed civilians.

The killer didn’t even need a getaway car. According to media reports, “he fled on foot.” He was so confident that the residents of Huwara wouldn’t oppose him, and so sure that there would be no PA policemen nearby who might interfere, that he just walked away.

"Driving while Jewish"

YEARS AGO, civil rights activists in the United States coined the term “driving while Black” to describe unjust arrests of African-American motorists. I guess Shai Nigreker and Aviad Nir didn’t realize that in Palestinian Authority territory, it’s a crime to have your car washed while Jewish.

Now to the Biden administration’s response.

Last Saturday at 1:46 pm, soon after receiving reports of the murders, the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs issued the administration’s official response via the social media platform X formerly known as Twitter. Here’s the full text:

“We unequivocally condemn today’s terrorist attack in the West Bank that killed two Israelis. The United States expresses its condolences to their families and calls for immediate steps to end the violence and incitement to violence.”

Notice what was missing? The word “Palestinian.” There wasn’t the slightest indication as to who killed the two Israelis. For all we know, it could have been Martians.

And there was not the slightest hint as to who it is that the US expects to take “immediate steps to the end violence and incitement to violence.” Albania? The Red Cross? The Girl Scouts?

There’s an awful political logic behind the Biden administration’s deeply troubling statement. Of course, the administration could not refrain from condemning the attack; that would infuriate Jewish voters in crucial states just as the president’s reelection campaign is getting underway.

But the administration doesn’t want to remind the public that Palestinian Arabs murder Jews at a car wash. That would undermine the crusade to create a Palestinian state along Israel’s old nine-mile-wide borders. Because who in their right mind would agree to establish a sovereign state next door that would be ruled by bloodthirsty murderers?

In addition, the Biden administration does not want to specifically call on the PA to take steps to end violence and incitement – because then the administration would have to follow up and do something when the PA refuses to take those steps.

Remember, it’s been 30 years since the PA agreed, in the Oslo Accords, to arrest terrorists, disarm and outlaw terror groups, extradite terrorists to Israel, and end all anti-Jewish and anti-Israel incitement in its schools and news media. Yet it has never done so. For the Biden administration to demand that the PA fulfill those obligations, and then face up to the PA’s refusal to do so, would impede the march to a Palestinian state.

So that’s how we ended up with this mealy-mouthed State Department “condemnation” that is barely worthy of the name. Condemnations matter only if the Biden administration is prepared to name the party that is being condemned. Condolences are meaningful only if the US is prepared to take steps to help ensure that it won’t be issuing such condolences again next week. Anything less is a farce.

The writer is a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, an attorney in New Jersey, and the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995. His book A Father’s Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror is now available on Kindle.