I am not writing about the heartbreaking news from Japan. I can’t stomach what I am seeing, and anybody that knows me can tell you that I am writing from my stomach, not my head.

Therefore I would like to go back to the horrible murder of the parents and three of their children in Itamar, this past weekend.

On the same day that the victims were buried, Israeli officials were talking about the response. The option everyone took was revenge, an eye for an eye. But this revenge had nothing to do with bombs or guns. Ministers were talking about expanding the settlements, one minister suggested building 5000 new houses in the West Bank. The Prime Minister even came out with a brilliant copy-writing when he came to consul the family: „they shoot, we build.“ And so Israel will build 500 new houses in the settlement.

The timing of this response show us something about the current Israeli thinking. This is not a response that comes after long discussion and thoughts about how building 500 new units will be perceived in the whole political context. Rather, it was a response of instinct, of the urge to revenge. This is who we really are when we don’t wear the costumes of political negotiations. They shoot, we build. We will value how much life worth, how many bricks for one soul. This time it is 100 houses per murder.

It is a fascinating equation. It defines the side: the bad guys are shooting, the good guys are building.

But what it really does it to put an equation between the brutal murder and Israel settlement project. Israel just admitted that for every Palestinian crime, it will react with a crime of its own.