On Friday, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper's DNA of hatred, which since the election it had been trying to hide, let loose. Buckets of paint were spilled to stir up bad blood and quarrels In Israeli society. I have no intention of defending Lior Lotan's crude style. Government representatives need to be sensitive when dealing with civilians, especially when it comes to an issue of utmost importance such as a missing family member. But the newspaper that once had its own country didn't focus on Lotan, but rather on fanning flames. The story was exploited as a tool to set various sectors of society against each other -- and if it was possible to harm Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while doing so, even better. So, Sima Kadmon, if he belonged to a different ethnic group, he would have been treated differently? You're so deluded. Go and count up Israeli hostages starting from the 1980s. Which groups did they hail from -- were they only "our people, from Maaleh Adumim or Herzliya Pituach," as you put it? How many years did Gilad Schalit wait to be freed? Was it the missing men's skin color that was a consideration for the government decision-makers, or was it the fact that they voluntarily crossed the border into Gaza and weren't sent there by the State of Israel? This insult was splashed in huge letters across the front page of Friday's Yedioth. The paper's readers started Shabbat with vats of hate. Incidentally, Yedioth columnist Nahum Barnea wrote that no price should be paid to Hamas to release Israelis who cross the border on their own initiative. We've learned that deals like that give terrorism momentum and an incentive for more kidnappings. Barnea urged readers not to connect Avera Mengistu's fate to his ethnicity, but these responsible statements were removed from the outtake of his piece that ran on the cover of Yedioth. The truncated quote created the opposite impression and fit in with the campaign of hatred and racist oppression. Let us hope that Mengistu is returned safely. But Hamas sees the uproar and will now know how to trade on every scrap of information. What now -- a media campaign conducted by Yedioth to free 1,000 prisoners, while setting Jews against each other? Publicizing it, certainly as a media riot, will make it difficult for Hamas to return the missing youths absent a major deal. Where is the responsibility? "Tell it not ... publish it not ... lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice," our own King David once warned (2 Samuel 1:20). So, he said it ...
