One cannot but recall that Jewish murderers who massacred others with a machinegun at the Cave of the Patriarchs and in the Islamic College in Hebron.

One cannot but recall the funeral held for “Baruch (Goldstein) the man” at his magnificent gravesite and the park around it. And this is what one of the important rabbis of Religious Zionism said in his eulogy for the killer from Hebron: “He is a martyr killed by gentiles for being a Jew, and therefore he joins the victims of the Nazi Holocaust.” One cannot but recall the honor bestowed upon his relatives. So take off the masks.

One cannot but recall the Jew who entered the Islamic college in Hebron armed with a machinegun and murdered three students. He was sentenced to life in prison and later pardoned by the president. Today he is known as a rabbi and publishes articles. And we have not forgotten the Jewish murderer who killed seven Arab laborers at the Gan Havradim junction in 1990. So take off the masks.

One cannot but recall the incredibly well-reasoned requests by the rabbis who asked that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s murderer be allowed to get married and celebrate his son’s bar mitzvah. Had the murderer from Jabel Mukaber who carried out the yeshiva attack stayed alive, would we also allow him to get married and have children? Killing gentiles eventually leads to killing of Jews

The words written by Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu regarding murderers who deserve death are entrenched in our holy Torah and the time has come to take off the masks for this important discussion.

This is what Rabbi Eliyahu wrote in Ynet over the weekend: Showing mercy on the murderer’s family is like showing mercy to a drug addict and giving money for the next dose. Having pity on murderers? This would ruin the world.

Later, the rabbi wrote: A murderer should be exterminated; anyone who says that “a person is still a person” in fact sentences the murderer’s next victims to death. Yet this is what Tana Devei Eliyahu (parasha 26) has to say about this: “A man must distance himself from theft, whether from Jew or Gentile, or anyone in the marketplace. One who steals from a Gentile will ultimately steal from a Jew. One who defrauds a Gentile will ultimately defraud a Jew. One who swears falsely to a Gentile will ultimately swear falsely to a Jew. One who lies to a Gentile will ultimately lie to a Jew. One who sheds the blood of a Gentile will ultimately shed the blood of a Jew. But the Torah was not given to desecrate, but rather to sanctify His great Name.”