If someone on our side shoots/stabs/beats someone to death, it’s by mistake. Not like the other side – they’re natural born killers. And we buy it time after time

State your area of expertise? Rafi Kedoshim is shown at the May 4 meeting of the Special Committee for Children’s Rights at the Knesset in Jerusalem. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Birthday cakes adorned with nooses are jarring. At least they should be. Yet nooses are exactly what the birthday boy, Minister for National Security Itamar Ben Gvir, freshly turned 50, would like to install in jails housing Palestinian security prisoners.

It could happen, too. At the end of March, the Knesset passed legislation sponsored by Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party that will mandate death by hanging within 90 days for Palestinians convicted in connection with deadly terror attacks.

Why Palestinians? Because the new law stipulates that only military courts can impose these sentences, and that’s where Arab residents of the West Bank are tried.

“No more revolving door for terrorists but a clear decision,” Ben Gvir declared jubilantly when the law passed by a final vote of 62 to 47. “Whoever chooses terrorism chooses death!”

Not, mind you, if you’re an Israeli accused of terrorism. You’ll be tried in a civilian court and, if past performance is any indicator of the future, you’ll probably be given a sentence many would describe as at least leaning toward lenient.

(This, of course, is........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)