Vitriol

I just got back from my synagogue.  It is one of the largest in Efrat and it was packed with men women and children who took time from their busy Friday to stand together and recognize the power of words.  We read Tehillim (Psalms) together in hopes that our meager words might help G-d decide what to do about Elroi Refa'el ben Galia Glynis whose life hangs precariously by a thread.

His father stood before us with tears streaming down his face and asked G-d to please take into account the good things all of us have done in our lives... and to please transfer these 'credits' to his son's account.  He never mentioned a word about anger, or blame, or who had set the tragic events in motion that had led to the wounding of his son.  In fact he begged G-d in a trembling voice to please erase from the minds of the tankists who had accidentally fired the shell that had wounded his son, all thoughts that they might have endangered a precious life. 

I stood in awe that with so much hanging in the balance, Eli Mizrachi was using words to plead with G-d, not only for his son's recovery... but for the mental well-being of the young men who must surely be beside themselves with self-loathing and guilt.

Words.

We treat them so casually... but they are powerful beyond measure.

The title of this post is a word that has fallen mostly out of fashion.  It is the medieval term for Sulfuric Acid (H2S04) as well as a range of other caustic acids and chemicals.  But people haven't really used the term to describe the physical chemical since Victorian times.

However, as an expression, vitriol continued, for a while, to be used to describe any abusive or venomous language used to express blame or censure or bitter deep-seated ill will.  But even that has become less common as more and more people discount the lethality of words.

The real vitriol was sometimes used as a horrible weapon to blind, disfigure, and effectively end a person's ability to carry on a normal life in the company of his/her peers.

The results of tossing around verbal vitriol is only slightly less horrible.  The use of intentionally damaging invective is, to me, every bit as unforgivable an offense as tossing a vial of Sulfuric acid into someone's eyes.

When Imams hurl verbal vitriol from their pulpits about Jews poisoning wells or storming the Temple Mount, they intentionally send their followers into the streets armed with hate so corrosive that it must passed from mouth to mouth lest it consume the person who holds it in his heart.

When the faithful followers repeat it to their friends, and to their children, they plant in each heart a puddle of burning hate for whoever would poison their people and storm their holy places.

When someone knows with the certainty of a burning heart that Jews are poisoners of wells and destroyers of holy places and meets a Jew on the street, it becomes an act of self defense... even a holy mission... to kill such a dangerous person.

Our graveyards are full of innocent people who died as a direct result of vitriolic words poured into too many hearts.

When a blogger calls all people in orange her enemy, and in a fit of frustrate rage attributes to the entire right wing the worst imaginable attributes.  She passes the vial of vitriol to every receptive heart that reads her words.

I have spent a couple of weeks writing directly and indirectly about words and their power.  But many bloggers continue to throw around the most irresponsible and destructive words imaginable.  And they hide behind the "I see your point but I stand by  my words" because everyone with a computer and a blog is entitled to express their opinions, right?  Right???

Over the past few days the rumor started circulating in the Jewish/Israeli blogosphere that the extremists in Gush Katif had started throwing acid in the faces of soldiers and police who had been sent to remove them.

I was horrified and outraged when I read this.  I had already lost patience with the outsiders who, after squandering a 30 year opportunity to move to Gaza, finally decided that their life wasn't exciting enough and decided to go where the action was.  So I immediately started searching the news sites.  Nothing.  When I found no mention of the acid attack(s), I called Soroka hospital and the Army Spokesman's office to ask for confirmation and nobody had heard anything about it.

Yes, these extremists were destroying property... using force and violence completely beyond the pale to resist being removed... and they were even throwing paint, and water and turpentine.  Make no mistake... raising a hand against a soldier or policeman who is carrying out legal orders... throwing objects, and even a case of trying to unseat a policeman or soldier from a ladder, were all inexcusably reckless and dangerous.

But they were not premeditated, potentially lethal attacks!  Nobody was intentionally trying to wound or (G-d forbid) kill anyone!

Then yesterday Ynet and the Jerusalem Post picked up on the rumors of the acid attack(s).  From hour to hour the reporting went back and forth between a single attack and a series of attacks... yet no specifics were given and no victim(s) were named. 

For something this serious it was unimaginable that Army spokespeople wouldn't be making statements and hospitals issuing status reports.  I knew in my heart that this was a case of the vitriol spreading and doing it's deadly work.

Finally this morning the Jerusalem post confirmed my fears when it published a story saying that it had not been acid, but that paint and paint thinner had been used.

This is not for a moment to excuse the use of any material or force to resist the troops sent to carry out the unimaginably difficult task of disengagement.  But to maliciously start... and irresponsibly spread... the lie of settlers using acid to attack soldiers was potentially as dangerous as a real acid attack.

Let me explain...

If you are a soldier and you receive reports through the media and from friends who read blogs, stating that instead of relatively passive resistance to your efforts you will now face a disfiguring or even lethal attack... you are much more likely to contemplate the use excessive force.

All it would take is for one such soldier to see a settler about to throw a a bucket of paint, or thinner, or even water... and he might think his life is in danger... and he might shoot to defend him or herself

And then a fire would be lit that few could extinguish.

Word would spread that soldiers were shooting the settlers and a settler might shoot back.

Word would spread among the soldiers that the settlers were shooting and they would receive orders to return fire.  Before anyone could stop the tragedy from being played out there could easily be countless dead and wounded lying in the streets of Gush Katif... all because someone hated the settlers so much that they wanted to believe them capable of such an attack... and so they willingly passed the vitriol from hand to hand until it was accepted as fact.

I have remove several people from my blogroll/ favorites list because of their irresponsible and hateful use of words.  I will never read another word they read... even if the word is 'apology'.

I'm done with them.

The same goes for anyone whose comments I've seen seeded around the blogosphere like little vials of acid, defending, excusing and even encouraging such vitriol.  I'm done with them as well.  I won't read them, and I consider their words to be completely suspect now.

Calling everyone in orange your 'enemy' is vitriolic no matter what the context, or what modifiers come later.  An enemy is someone you fight and who wants to do you harm... and is deserving of being attacked.

Calling the misguided, and disruptive (even criminal) extremists who infiltrated Gaza out of some belated and suspect love for Gush Katif, 'insurgents' is vitriolic and suggests that these people intend to wage an armed struggle against the government and the soldiers which the government sends to carry out expulsion orders.  Insurgents are a clear and present danger to the country and deserve no quarter.

Starting, and even repeating a rumor of an acid attack simply because you believe someone capable of such an attack is also vitriolic... and could potentially have lead to tragic confrontations between frightened soldiers and equally frightened settlers.

Because of vitriol... because of WORDS... people could have died.  What then?  Would a retraction by the Jerusalem Post bring them back?  Would a heartfelt apology or justification on a blog bring them back?  Would any number of words ever bring back those precious lives?????????

I have already written to both Ynet and the Jerusalem post demanding that they investigate how such claims could have been printed without confirmation from IDF spokespeople and medical personnel.  My guess is that they will find that the rumors (perhaps originating in the blogosphere) became so widespread and pervasive that an irresponsible editor decided to just run with the story.  After all, with the world's media on their turf it wouldn't due to get scooped!

What will it take before people recognize the terrible power that words posses.  Would that editor wait outside the largest Mosque in Ramallah for the crowds who have just received their weekly dose of vitriol?  I think not... but that would be a fitting way to let him/her experience first hand the lethality of vitriol.

I'm sorry there is no Photo Friday today... but in this case I felt it was worth pointing out that words are sometimes worth a thousand pictures.

Shabbat Shalom

* Source: Here