Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-Ad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah

The bodies of the three Israeli teenagers Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-Ad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah were found today in a field near Hebron. They were kidnapped three weeks ago and shot apparently soon after. It is impossible to get inside the minds of the two Arabs who were responsible for the kidnapping, and I don't want to go there. Whether they were members of Hamas or some other crazy fringe group is immaterial. It is also immaterial that the two men have served time in Israeli prisons and were released in a prisoner exchange. They were killers. What did they try to achieve? Did they hope that the Israelis would release more prisoners in exchange for the three boys?  Was it a kidnapping that went wrong? Were these hapless men trying to kidnap soldiers and found only three school boys? Whatever they had in mind, they only undermined the cause of the Arabs and made the lives of innocent people, Hamas or otherwise, more miserable. Hundreds were arrested, the lives of prisoners were made more difficult, and they confirmed the image of Palestinians as blood thirsty savages with whom negotiations are futile. But although I don't believe in collective punishment, and certainly don't approve of using the death of these boys as a political weapon to score points against Hamas, I agree with the message that murdering Jews is not OK, throwing lethal rocks at Jews is not OK, and feel much less sympathy for those who were killed in the course of protests or were caught in the cross fire than I do for the families and friends of the murdered Israeli boys. I can't condone soft-hearted pity for my enemies. I reserve my pity for my people. The boys could have been my grandchildren, the soldier killing stone throwers could be my grandson.