Reminds me of the treatment of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.
What is at work here is explained by the following fundamentalist belief:
"Gush Emunim rabbis have continually reiterated that Jews who killed Arabs should not be punished, [e.g.]... Relying on the Code of Maimonides and the Halacha, Rabbi Ariel stated, 'A Jew who killed a non-Jew is exempt from human judgement and has not violated the [religious] prohibition of murder'..The significance here is most striking when the broad support, both direct and indirect, for Gush Emunim is considered. About one-half of Israel's Jewish population supports Gush Emunim."-- Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky's "Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel"