Daniel Greenfield: Did Women of the Wall Fake a Hate Crime Against Itself?

by Daniel Greenfield
FrontPage Mag

After serious questions were raised about the Anti-Israel political affiliations of the Women of the Wall board, including opposition to the Jewish presence in Jerusalem, and their interlocking organizational networks with partisan left-wing groups, the group accused critics of McCarthyism and is now blaming them for a bout of graffiti on the house of one of their board members.

Last week, the home of Women of the Wall board member Peggy Cidor was attacked with graffiti. The graffiti read: “Petty, watch out” and “Women of the Wall are villains.” Ever since this incident, before a police investigation has even determined who the culprits are, Women of the Wall have started a media campaign falsely claiming that “right-wing Orthodox journalists and bloggers false accusations” against the Women of the Wall organization “directly cause a real, physical threat and danger to the lives of the women.”

The Women of the Wall rhetoric is violently hysterical considering that all they’re dealing with is some graffiti.

Women of the Wall member Peggy Cidor, who found graffiti scrawled on the walls of her home on Thursday morning, told Arutz Sheva that she was scared that the graffiti is only the beginning. “One day I will get up and find an explosive device near the door.”

Because that’s how it works. First it’s a little paint. And then it’s an IED. Or a grenade.

“The next time I’m going to wake up with a grenade at my door?” she said. “Who knows? This happens in this country.”

That does happen. But it’s generally carried out by the Muslim allies of Women of the Wall’s board members. No arrests have been made, but Women of the Wall’s people already know exactly whom to blame for their paint grenades. Their critics.

A spokeswoman for the feminist prayer group blamed the incident on recent media attacks against Women of the Wall board members by Orthodox journalists and bloggers, some claiming that the feminist organization had an anti-Israel agenda.

[WOW Spokeswoman Shira] Pruce doesn’t actually explain what Women for the Wall said that led to the paint violence. But welcome to Israel, where all you need do is be on the left and accuse the right of “incitement”. And any criticism of the left is incitement.

“I feel threatened. It’s a terrible feeling,” she told Israel Hayom. “I point to the ones who are truly guilty in my eyes, not irresponsible youths, but the rabbis and leaders of a sector of the haredi public who incite [their followers] with strong language. There was wild incitement in their media outlets. I feel that my life is in danger. Maybe someone will [try to hurt me with] an improvised explosive device.”

Between the journalists, bloggers, Rabbis and Women for the Wall, it seems like half of Israel is guilty of violently painting things on Peggy Cidor’s walls.

Maybe Israelis should just give up this whole country business. A nation in which an activist for an obnoxious left-wing group can have her walls spray painted has no more moral authority.

Reached for comment Thursday afternoon, Ronit Peskin, a director and spokeswoman for Women for the Wall, uniformly denied Pruce’s accusation of incitement. “That is beyond ridiculous,” she said. “We condemned violence from the start and have completely eliminated violence at the Kotel [Western Wall], yet they continue to blame us.”

I’m going to go ahead and guess that Ronit, of Penniless Parenting, isn’t going out and violently grenading Peggy Cidor’s hallway. She has a family to take care of… unlike many of the Women of the Wall members who have nothing else to do with their time.

And what did Ronit Peskin say that was so violently ‘inciteful’.

“When Anat Hoffman and other WOW board members mistakenly compare Israel to Saudi Arabia, claim that women here are oppressed and have no rights, and that Conservative and Reform Jews get arrested for praying in their way, it’s doing irreparable harm to our nation,” she said. “The answer is not to let a tiny but vocal minority ruin the experience for everyone else.”

Women for the Wall clearly needs to apologize. You can see how quoting Women of the Wall’s lies led directly to their new paint job.

At least Shira “Love to hate Israel” Pruce does.

Women for the Wall co-founder Ronit Peskin responded that she was happy to attend a mediated session, while Shira Pruce stated: “No I am not happy and I am not to going to do this. Ronit and her colleagues have spent the last month attacking Women of the Wall’s leaders in the media- now claiming that we are anti-Israel and anti-Orthodox. Finally this morning, we see the “fruits” of Women for the Wall and Jonathan Rosenblum’s efforts- one person was crazy and committed enough to that messaging to attack one of my leaders at her home. It is time for Ronit to take responsibility for her actions and words before someone gets hurt.”

I’m not sure how you get hurt with graffiti. Lead poisoning?

I have no idea if Women of the Wall faked the graffiti. It certainly comes at a convenient time for them and redirects away the many questions that have been raised about the group.

The Anti-Israel left has a history of faking hate crimes against itself and anyone can scrawl some graffiti on a wall. One tell might be the literacy level of the graffiti.

Women of the Wall’s name in Hebrew is grammatically incorrect. It should be (Nashim HaKotel not Nashot.) Women for the Wall, being a legitimate Israel group, however uses a grammatically correct name. If any of the graffiti reveals similar linguistic deficiencies, a closer look should be taken at some of the American left-wing activists who make up Women of the Wall.

Read the full article at FrontPage Mag.