Editorials & Other Articles

Purveyor

(29,876 posts) Thu Sep 17, 2015, 07:26 PM Sep 2015

Meet A Man Trying To Bring Israel's Radical Youth Back From The Brink

As a steady trickle of young kids in the US and Europe have embraced radical Islam, a similar phenomenon has been taking place in Israel — with young Israelis embracing a violent interpretation of Judaism.

September 17, 2015 · 2:45 PM EDT
By Daniel Estrin (follow)

The topic has been at the top of the news in Israel recently: Young Jewish extremist are suspected of carrying out a July 31 firebombing that killed three members of a Palestinian family.

So, who are Israel’s young Jewish extremists?

They are among the so-called Hilltop Youth — young Jewish settlers squatting on West Bank hilltops. It’s an elusive group that shuns journalists and most adult authority figures, but hilltop youth have agreed to meet with 35-year-old Avia Azulay, a Jewish settler in the West Bank and youth counselor for a local settler council.

On a recent afternoon, he paid a spontaneous visit to an organic farm near his home where hilltop youth help out as farmhands.

Azulay felt at home on the farm: He walked straight back to the farm’s kitchen and made himself a cup of black coffee, then wandered to the edge of the hilltop and warmly greeted two young men carrying wooden beams for a new office building.

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http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-09-17/meet-man-trying-bring-israels-radical-youth-back-brink

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Meet A Man Trying To Bring Israel's Radical Youth Back From The Brink (Original Post) Purveyor Sep 2015 OP

It doesn't sound like he's doing a very good job of it starroute Sep 2015 #1

Bring them back from "extremism" to embrace what? Mr_Jefferson_24 Sep 2015 #2

starroute

(12,977 posts)

1. It doesn't sound like he's doing a very good job of it

Reply to Purveyor (Original post)

Fri Sep 18, 2015, 02:04 AM

Sep 2015

"He said he tells them to stay away from vigilante violence because they could get a criminal record, and then the Israeli army wouldn’t enlist them — offering them a path back to mainstream Israeli society."

That's not going to have much effect on a bunch of violent adolescents who have already dropped out of mainstream society and whose goal is to overthrow Israel's secular democracy.

Mr_Jefferson_24

(8,559 posts)

2. Bring them back from "extremism" to embrace what?

Reply to Purveyor (Original post)

Sun Sep 20, 2015, 11:44 PM

Sep 2015

Mainstream Israeli values? Youth as well as adults in Israel are heavily propagandized to embrace the extreme and brutally oppressive apartheid imposed on illegally occupied territories, as well as the unconscionable violence meted out to the defenseless citizens trapped in the Gaza Strip. Further, these youth will be required to serve their term in the IDF where they will be expected to do their part in meting out this violence and oppression.

President Carter has addressed Israel's longstanding illegal occupation:

And President Carter is not the only one speaking out about Israeli crimes:

What have these so called extremist youth done that comes anywhere close to matching the violence and extremism of the Israeli government?

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