Haaretz.com: Much has been written about the causes of violent Jewish extremism in Israel, including that its goal is to bring down the state in an apocalyptic civil war in order to impose the extremists’ vision of a Messianic Kingdom upon the rest of us. Even established figures on the religious right have acknowledged this. The question is how to combat it.
One approach could be to address Jewish extremism in the same way that Western countries have begun responding to the growing threat of Islamic extremism among their Muslim populations. In a speech describing how to tackle Islamic fundamentalism, British Prime Minister David Cameron laid out what was to my mind one of the best approaches there is. (I say this even though I have reservations about his government’s implementation of the strategy.)
In the United Kingdom, evidence suggests a relatively large number of Britain Muslims are sympathetic to jihadi causes, but wouldn’t engage in an act of terror. Cameron’s approach seeks to distinguish between people who are already committed to acts of terror and their non-violent sympathisers, and responds to each group separately.
Categories: Intolerance, Israel, Jewish Faith, Jewish Reactions, Jihad, The Muslim Times