The Israeli daily Haaretz. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

A recent headline in Haaretz read, “Sharp Rise in the Number of Palestinian Children in Prison.” The article noted that there have been 438 Palestinian Arab youths put in Israeli jails since February. In the lead paragraph, the newspaper said, “Seven have been detained without being charged, including one who is not yet 16.”

Nowhere in the article do we learn what these “youths” did — although those among us who follow the situation know that they are stabbing, bombing and attacking Israelis continuously. They have killed — and they are terrorists.

Go figure — “kids” stab and go to prison.

Among the quotes in the article was one from B’Tselem that stated, “This is an oppressive system based only on incarceration. There is no attempt to provide alternatives to imprisonment.”

The paper claimed, “The law also infringes on the basic right to live in dignity by denying the parents child allowance for a convicted child.” (Subtext: Those damn Israelis don’t pay the Palestinian-Arab parents of a Palestinian-Arab terrorist).

As the newspaper also noted, “There’s an ongoing court case filed in the Israeli high court of Justice on these issues by Adalah, Hamoked – the Center for the Defense of the Individual, Addameer and the Israel Association for Child Protection” that says “denying social benefits is discrimination on the basis of nationality, as it applies almost exclusively to Palestinian children.”

Many of these organizations are funded by the American Jewish extremist organization The New Israel Fund. The New Israel Fund’s donors include Luis and Lee Lainer, Bonnie Orlin, The Jewish Communal Fund, Daniel and Anne Marie Kahneman and others.

Following up on the Haaretz article, The New York Times ran a front-page headline reading, “Surge in Palestinian Youths in Prison Tests Israel’s Justice System.”

Among the touching anecdotes, “Sharing a cell inside an Israeli prison, the Palestinian girls would toss baskets and play a game they called shuffle ball. There were academic classes in the afternoon, and sometimes an Arab-Israeli prisoner known as Auntie Lina would braid their hair.”

We learn that one of the terrorists who “tried to stab an Israeli with a seven-inch blade on March 23” was “a troubled tomboy who was repeating fifth grade, was scared of the dark and still wet her bed.”  That same tomboy was “hyperactive and having trouble at school.”

Those poor, oppressed terrorists who try to kill Israelis are struggling in school. How sad.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had it right when he said a few years ago that “The two main enemies facing Israel are The New York Times and Israeli newspaper Haaretz.” As he said, “They set the agenda for an anti-Israel campaign all over the world.”

I, for one, don’t care about the rights of terrorists who seek to murder innocent people. I care for the lives of the innocent.