No Pity. None. Never.

I Live Fairly Close to Temple Israel in West Bloomfield. I Feel no Pity for the Attacker

I live fairly close to Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan which suffered an attack late last week when a man (whose name is not worth of mention) drove his truck into a synagogue attached to a school full of kids. Google Maps says it would be about a half hour by car but that’s with road construction and closed on and off ramps along the way. Without that, I could probably shave about ten minutes off of that. It’s close enough that I stopped and tried to figure out if I had ever driven past it, and far enough away that I figured that I probably hadn’t even if I couldn’t rule the possibility out entirely.

All of that to say that the Temple Israel attack hit close to home for me, in a very literal sense. I was actually at work when it the attack happened, and that’s even closer to the Temple than my house is. A man driving his truck into a building full of kids is the kind of thing that you never want to hear about period, dot, end of sentence. It’s even worse than when it’s close enough to your church that you’re tempted to walk in on Sunday and ask if any of the people there had friends with kids in the building. I didn’t actually do that, but I was tempted.

I wish I were more surprised by the attack on Temple Israel. I’m not. The Detroit area has the largest collection of Arabs outside of the Middle East as well as a large Jewish population. I count both Arabs and Jews as friends. That’s not me virtue signaling, it’s life in Southeastern Michigan.

Whenever something goes down in the ME, I start looking for headlines. I hate doing it, but only a fool would pretend that it couldn’t happen here. Too many people from both sides live in too close a proximity for the possibility of violence to not exist. People are people and bigotry exists. It is what it is. I keep my head on a swivel and stay out of business that isn’t mine. I’ve survived for almost five decades that way, so it seems to be an effective tactic.

I get a desire for vengeance. I’m a McCoy of the McCoys and the Hatfields. My family went back and forth trading killings with the Hatfields. Nothing got resolved. Eventually, Cotton Top Hatfield was executed for murder and the feud fizzled out. That was a good thing. That much having been said, I was raised by a father who was known to say, “I don’t get mad. I get even.” He would usually giggle when he sent it, but it was clear to anyone listening that he meant it. It’s the unofficial family motto.

So, just being real, when I heard that members of the Temple Israel attacker’s family were killed in an Israeli airstrike, his brother having been a member of Hezbollah, I identified with his desire to hit back. I get the need make his enemies pay for the death of his family, My family did the same thing.

Here’s the difference: MY FAMILY KILLED THE PEOPLE WHO KILLED THEM. The fighting was between the men in the two families. No children were killed. The only woman to die was Alifar McCoy and I’m not sure that was intentional. Feuds are war and war is hell.

Hezbollah fires rockets into neighborhoods full of women and children intentionally. Their motive is to kill the infidel who has what they see as their land. They make no attempt to target the IDF or do anything that would reduce their fighting effectiveness. Their goal is to create terror. They’re not fighting a war. They’re murdering innocents because they know they can’t win a straight up fight. Hezbollah is an organization of cowards. They won’t invade because they know they’ll end up defeated and dead.

So when I hear about a Hezbollah member getting what he deserves, I don’t cry about it. He lived by the sword. He died by the sword. If his family got caught up in the blowback, that’s unfortunate. Hezbollah uses civilians as shields. This is what happens when Hezbollah hides rockets in civilian neighborhoods. When the only way to hit a military target is in an area filled with civilians, the deaths of the civilians fall on the organization (Hezbollah) that put the military assets there in the first place.

So no, I don’t feel bad because the shooter’s family caught it in the neck. That’s on Hezbollah. They decided to hide their bombs and their troops in populated areas. Now people are dead when those same bombs and troops are targeted. Israel’s only options are to target those weapons and accept the civilian casualties that come with doing so or allow Hezbollah (Hamas, the Houthis, etc.) to kill Israeli civilians. Only one of those choices is viable and civilians pay the price.

Enter the man who attacked Temple Israel. I already admitted that I understand his anger. I don’t have a problem with him being mad. What I do have a problem with is his choice of targets. Dude was born in Lebanon. If he had gone back and ambushed an Israel (with or without help) I’d shrug my shoulders. It’s not that I want to see IDF members dead. I support Israel. But an IDF patrol is a legitimate military target. But that’s not what he did.

The Temple Israel attacker decided to attack a building full of Jewish children. These kids were blameless. They weren’t members of the IDF. They weren’t in Israel. They weren’t on the same continent as Israel. The attacker decided to kill a bunch of kids simply because they were Jews. That’s it. That’s the whole reason. To him, those kids were targets because they were members of the dominant race in Israel. That’s it.

This isn’t war. It’s not even vengeance. It’s straight up racism. Those kids, and the adults that were also in the building, were targeted because they were Jewish. Nothing that happened to that man’s family justifies killing people that had nothing to do it and that aren’t in the presence of Israeli assets. This was a straight up attempted murder.

Unfortunately, the Temple Israel killer took his own life before he was forced to face justice. That’s too bad. I wouldn’t mind him locked in a prison full of men who don’t like the fact that he tried to kill kids. I mean, the attacker probably wouldn’t survive his stay, but at least he’d feel the wrath before he shuffled off the mortal coil.