Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein and State Attorney Shai Nitzan have let the Shin Bet security agency interrogators keep using aggressive tactics against the Jews believed to be behind the Duma terrorist attack last summer that killed three members of a Palestinian family. This investigation is a badge of honor for the state, so long as it is under the supervision of the State Attorney's Office and does not violate the law. Those who support using harsh tactics cannot choose which suspected terrorists should be subjected to them, and have no right to claim they should be reserved for Arab suspects exclusively. Such tactics must apply across the board when it comes to terrorism suspects, whether Jewish or Arab, and I am glad this has been the case. The fact that such tactics had to be used against the Jewish suspects is highly discomforting, but there was simply no other choice. These Jews, who may very well be driven by messianic ideology, are thought to be associated with the outlawed Jewish group Kahane Chai or possibly part of the Sikrikim ultra-Orthodox sect, which is known for its extreme interpretation of Jewish law. They believe harassing Christians and Muslims will bring about the apocalyptic war of Gog and Magog, a necessary step before the messiah arrives. They are not just a group of deranged individuals, they are a threat to each and every one of us. More than a decade ago, Matti Golan's controversial play "Atom" depicted what radical Jews could do. It was a short-lived production because the public was not interested, but it made a real-life comeback last week, when news outlets showed footage of Jews celebrating a wedding by stabbing the image of the baby killed in Duma. It comes as no surprise, then, that some on the radical Right, while condemning the suspects and calling their actions "despicable," have refused to call the Duma murders terrorism. This rhetorical choice of words was made because they reject the classification of the suspects as ticking bombs who may be actively hatching terrorist plans. They hoped that if they drove home this message, the Shin Bet would go easy on the suspects. But the Shin Bet and the State Attorney's Office could not be fooled. Weinstein and Nitzan let the Shin Bet go on with the interrogation methods, as long as it upheld the law. This is where Deputy Attorney General Raz Nizri has a role to play, owing to his expansive knowledge of the suspects' halachic terminology and the legal matters involved. He also visited the detainees. Let's hope he told them he was not a Shin Bet official. Let's hope he went just to make sure they were properly treated, and that he didn't talk about the case itself. Considering that the investigation has continued, it appears he was content with what he saw there. I hope he didn't find anything to substantiate the provocative claims that the detainees were denied prayer time and that they were spat on and kicked, not to mention sexually abused and interrogated upside down, with their legs tied to the ceiling. The suspects' attorneys have criticized Nizri for arriving by himself. But this is only because they feared he would debunk the ludicrous accusations against the interrogators. Nizri, with or without the attorneys' consent, was duty-bound to visit the detainees and make sure their rights were not infringed upon. We may take some comfort in the fact that the backbone of the current government includes Likud, Habayit Hayehudi and Shas. If the Zionist Union were in power, these messianic segments in our society would have had the wrong impression that only half of Israelis hate them. But with a Likud-led government in power, they know the entire nation is against them. Their rabbis, as well their other leaders, know that as well.
