A Self-Sacrificing Knight, or a Terrorist Who Killed a Jew?

Israel is reeling from the first terrorist attack since the war with Gaza in May, in which an Israeli citizen has been killed. May God bring comfort to the family of Eliyahu Kay, and may his memory be a blessing. 

Instead of going through the details of the attack, which we covered in detail on this week’s episode on The Israel Guys, I’d like to bring to attention how Palestinians use this attack as an example to encourage others to do the same. According to Palestinian Media Watch, terror organizations and leaders use successful attacks that leave Jews dead to encourage more such attacks against the Jewish nation. 

PFLP, which is short for Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, called the recent murder in Jerusalem a “heroic operation,” and called the terrorist a “knight,” adding that “resistance is the ideal option for uprooting the occupation from our land and removing its settlement enterprise from all our national land.”

The PFLP also encouraged Palestinians to copy the attack, calling the terrorist a “self-sacrificing fighter.” 

I’m intentionally not mentioning the name of the terrorist. Murderers do not deserve any attention. You would think that since he was killed by security forces only 32 seconds into his shooting rampage, this would discourage others from committing similar acts of terror. Wrong! 

(BTW: he managed to shoot five people in 32 seconds. Besides Eliyahu Kay who was killed, another rabbi was seriously wounded, and three others were moderately injured.) 

The son of the murderer posted the following to Facebook after the attack: 

“Allah be praised, [my father is] a Martyr. The Martyr died as he wanted, may Allah have mercy on you, you are my support. You were everything for me. You lived like a lion and you died as a Martyr like a lion. Allah be praised, [I am] the son of a Martyr.”

As you can see, Islamic terrorists glorify death and violence, believing that becoming a so-called “martyr” is the ultimate path to glory in heaven. Dying while killing a Jew only serves to inspire those that they leave behind. 

The response to stop other attacks from happening should be to punish the family and accomplices of the terrorists. It’s difficult for our western mentalities to process, but the Middle-Eastern mindset only respects strength. Unfortunately, Israel is not only facing a middle-of-the-road governing coalition that leaves them with little options for dealing with terrorism, but the country is also facing an increasingly critical international voice. 

As Christians who support Israel, we should do our part to encourage and stand up for Israel in our communities. We should unite in our voice of support to Israel, letting them know that they are backed by Christians all around the world in taking the necessary measures to defend their land and people.