Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Rationalizations
I spoke with an old friend yesterday who is an ardent Zionist albeit one who lives in the States. He is a leader amongst liberal Jewish democrats of the eastern seaboard and I am sure his thinking is a good barometer to what other north-eastern Jewish democrats are thinking at the moment. “So who are you voting for?” he asked. I thought the question was a little absurd.
“Bush of course.” I said.
“What!” was the answer I received followed by an explicative. I tried to explain over his protests but it seemed to me that what I was saying was going in one ear and out the other so I put it in terms as simply as I could.
“George Bush has allowed us to fight the terrorists in the best way possible, by going after them on their own turf. Also we built a wall almost to completion ending the daily attacks on our civilians. As a matter of fact incidents of terror today are few and far between.”
“But Joe” he said, “Bush has destroyed any credibility as an even handed arbiter and has allowed the destruction of the peace process by giving Sharon a free hand in the territories.”
So now I understood. Israel shouldn’t have “carte blanche” to do what it feels is necessary to protect its citizens, and as a result more Israeli civilians will be intentionally targeted and slaughtered in cold blood by Palestinians with the blessings of their leaders in the hopes that the United States will gain the good graces of the Palestinian people. A people who took to the streets in celebration as the World Trade Center came crumbling down. A people whose majority has time and time again have given their blessings to suicide bombers. A people who are led by the men who invented international terrorism. A people who are taught that martyrdom will gain you entrance to paradise as long as you murder a few Jews along the way, regardless of age. It is a ridiculous argument, but one that I have heard many times before but not from a fellow Jew. Most of the people who propagate this idea are European leftists who are no friends of Israel.
Think about the reasoning behind it. One man in history jumps to mind when thinking about this ludicrous position. Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of Great Britain bargained away Czechoslovakia to Hitler thinking it would bring “Peace in our time.” It didn’t. Haven’t we learned anything? The only way to stop terror is to destroy the people who believe that it is okay to blow up babies. Reasoning with them won’t work and certainly peace talks with them won’t work. I know this because I was sold that bundle of goods the first time around. I bought it and now I am paying for it. Let’s try another way, which may not bring about peace but certainly will make the streets safer for my children.
I spoke with an old friend yesterday who is an ardent Zionist albeit one who lives in the States. He is a leader amongst liberal Jewish democrats of the eastern seaboard and I am sure his thinking is a good barometer to what other north-eastern Jewish democrats are thinking at the moment. “So who are you voting for?” he asked. I thought the question was a little absurd.
“Bush of course.” I said.
“What!” was the answer I received followed by an explicative. I tried to explain over his protests but it seemed to me that what I was saying was going in one ear and out the other so I put it in terms as simply as I could.
“George Bush has allowed us to fight the terrorists in the best way possible, by going after them on their own turf. Also we built a wall almost to completion ending the daily attacks on our civilians. As a matter of fact incidents of terror today are few and far between.”
“But Joe” he said, “Bush has destroyed any credibility as an even handed arbiter and has allowed the destruction of the peace process by giving Sharon a free hand in the territories.”
So now I understood. Israel shouldn’t have “carte blanche” to do what it feels is necessary to protect its citizens, and as a result more Israeli civilians will be intentionally targeted and slaughtered in cold blood by Palestinians with the blessings of their leaders in the hopes that the United States will gain the good graces of the Palestinian people. A people who took to the streets in celebration as the World Trade Center came crumbling down. A people whose majority has time and time again have given their blessings to suicide bombers. A people who are led by the men who invented international terrorism. A people who are taught that martyrdom will gain you entrance to paradise as long as you murder a few Jews along the way, regardless of age. It is a ridiculous argument, but one that I have heard many times before but not from a fellow Jew. Most of the people who propagate this idea are European leftists who are no friends of Israel.
Think about the reasoning behind it. One man in history jumps to mind when thinking about this ludicrous position. Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of Great Britain bargained away Czechoslovakia to Hitler thinking it would bring “Peace in our time.” It didn’t. Haven’t we learned anything? The only way to stop terror is to destroy the people who believe that it is okay to blow up babies. Reasoning with them won’t work and certainly peace talks with them won’t work. I know this because I was sold that bundle of goods the first time around. I bought it and now I am paying for it. Let’s try another way, which may not bring about peace but certainly will make the streets safer for my children.
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Target Practice
It’s dangerous being a Jew these days and in many cases much more dangerous being an Israeli. Today if you are a Jew you are a target around the world. In the past few years Jewish sites have been bombed on a regular basis, and individual Jews have been violently attacked. Whether in South America, Europe, Asia or Africa, Jews are not safe. We saw the Jewish community center in Buenos Aries bombed not too long ago, the ancient synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia bombed as well. Synagogues in Turkey and Europe bombed or burned, Jews attacked on the streets of Paris and Moscow, and heads of state such as former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad laying the blame collectively on jewish shoulders for all the worlds ills. You don’t even have to be alive to be a target if you were a Jew. The countless attacks on Jewish cemeteries and graves throughout Europe and New Zealand attest to this fact.
Being an Israeli can be even more dangerous but not for the traditional concerns. Here in Israel we have finally turned the tide against terror for three reasons. First, Ariel Sharon has taken the steps that were needed to effectively minimize the everyday threat of terror inside Israel. By building a fence (or most of it anyway) separating Israeli citizens and Palestinians, most terrorists are having a hard time infiltrating Israel. Having soldiers on both sides of the fence allows us to catch many of the terrorists as well. Second, the IDF is actively operating in the West Bank and Gaza, catching or killing those who would murder our children at a blink of an eye. Third, and some would say most importantly, is that President George W. Bush has taken the pressure off of Israel in the international arena and has allowed us to fight terror in the best way we know how, and no one knows how to fight terror while minimizing the effects on the innocent better than Israel. There is no more talk of “the cycle of violence” or “balance” or “peace talks”. President Bush, more than anyone else understands that the only way to stop terror is by fighting terrorists on their own territory.
So why can it be more dangerous for the average Israeli than your average Diaspora Jew? The answer is a simple one: most countries outside Israel have absolutely no idea how to defend against terror on their own territory let alone fight terror. When Israelis gather in groups outside of Israeli territory and are unarmed, they are simply sitting ducks. The massive attacks on Israeli vacationers in Mombasa, Kenya and Sinai, Egypt have shown all Israelis that wherever they may be in the world they are not safe.
As anti-Semitism spreads around the world under the guise of anti-Zionism, Israelis and Jews will find the world to be a much more dangerous place. Until all freedom loving people in the world unite in a total all out war against tyranny and terror, those counties who pay lip service to the War on Terror will continue to deteriorate into a lawless mess of blood and guts devoid of foreign investment, tourists and progress. This is exactly what the Islamist terrorists want, a world devoid of Jews, Christians, democracy and progress.
Ironically, these days it seems that the safest place for any Jew to be is right here in Israel. That is until Iran, whose leadership has repeatedly called for Israel’s total destruction, attains nuclear weapons. In the coming months we will all have to decide what to do about that imminent threat. Most Israelis I believe know exactly what needs to be done about it. I just hope that we will have the support of America when the time comes.
It’s dangerous being a Jew these days and in many cases much more dangerous being an Israeli. Today if you are a Jew you are a target around the world. In the past few years Jewish sites have been bombed on a regular basis, and individual Jews have been violently attacked. Whether in South America, Europe, Asia or Africa, Jews are not safe. We saw the Jewish community center in Buenos Aries bombed not too long ago, the ancient synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia bombed as well. Synagogues in Turkey and Europe bombed or burned, Jews attacked on the streets of Paris and Moscow, and heads of state such as former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad laying the blame collectively on jewish shoulders for all the worlds ills. You don’t even have to be alive to be a target if you were a Jew. The countless attacks on Jewish cemeteries and graves throughout Europe and New Zealand attest to this fact.
Being an Israeli can be even more dangerous but not for the traditional concerns. Here in Israel we have finally turned the tide against terror for three reasons. First, Ariel Sharon has taken the steps that were needed to effectively minimize the everyday threat of terror inside Israel. By building a fence (or most of it anyway) separating Israeli citizens and Palestinians, most terrorists are having a hard time infiltrating Israel. Having soldiers on both sides of the fence allows us to catch many of the terrorists as well. Second, the IDF is actively operating in the West Bank and Gaza, catching or killing those who would murder our children at a blink of an eye. Third, and some would say most importantly, is that President George W. Bush has taken the pressure off of Israel in the international arena and has allowed us to fight terror in the best way we know how, and no one knows how to fight terror while minimizing the effects on the innocent better than Israel. There is no more talk of “the cycle of violence” or “balance” or “peace talks”. President Bush, more than anyone else understands that the only way to stop terror is by fighting terrorists on their own territory.
So why can it be more dangerous for the average Israeli than your average Diaspora Jew? The answer is a simple one: most countries outside Israel have absolutely no idea how to defend against terror on their own territory let alone fight terror. When Israelis gather in groups outside of Israeli territory and are unarmed, they are simply sitting ducks. The massive attacks on Israeli vacationers in Mombasa, Kenya and Sinai, Egypt have shown all Israelis that wherever they may be in the world they are not safe.
As anti-Semitism spreads around the world under the guise of anti-Zionism, Israelis and Jews will find the world to be a much more dangerous place. Until all freedom loving people in the world unite in a total all out war against tyranny and terror, those counties who pay lip service to the War on Terror will continue to deteriorate into a lawless mess of blood and guts devoid of foreign investment, tourists and progress. This is exactly what the Islamist terrorists want, a world devoid of Jews, Christians, democracy and progress.
Ironically, these days it seems that the safest place for any Jew to be is right here in Israel. That is until Iran, whose leadership has repeatedly called for Israel’s total destruction, attains nuclear weapons. In the coming months we will all have to decide what to do about that imminent threat. Most Israelis I believe know exactly what needs to be done about it. I just hope that we will have the support of America when the time comes.
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Acting on Impulse
I was seething mad, but I couldn’t show it. Here I was in Jaffa guiding a family of tourists and I could sense the dismal mood of the shop keepers. I thought it was due to the lack of tourists but that wasn’t so. As I walked by a gift shop, their radio was blaring the sad news: there had been twin homicide bombings on two Beersheva public buses just minutes before. We would soon know that sixteen people were murdered many of them children.
We got back in the tourist van I was driving and I gently told them the news. Next I turned on the radio where the reporter was sadly reporting the facts before he began to interview someone.
“What are they saying?” asked one of the tourists as a man on the radio began to shout.
“He is upset that the security fence construction has not been built in the south of the country. The government has been arguing about the route with the US government and Israel’s own Supreme Court for months now to no avail and now his daughter is dead” I replied.
What should I do now? Where should I take them? We are supposed to go to the Diaspora Museum but I feel I must do something, I must express my feelings to them somehow. How can I show them how I and my fellow Israelis feel at a horrible time like this?
I begin to drive towards Tel Aviv University where the museum is and I find myself as if by fate right in front of Rabin Square. I stop.
“We are going to make a ten minute stop here” I say and we all get out right smack in the middle of Israel’s most densely populated city. I was thinking to myself that this probably isn’t the place were tourists want to be right now, right in the heart of Tel Aviv, walking amongst Israelis, buses going back and forth on one of Israel’s busiest streets, but I thought that that was the whole point: we have to deal with this day in and day out for our entire lives, surely these tourists can take ten minutes of dealing with our daily anxieties.
We walk two city blocks dodging the traffic and the fast paced pedestrians. We come to the memorial next to the stairs that our Prime Minister walked down before being murdered in cold blood by a fellow Jew on November 5, 1995. I began to talk. Well not really talk but shout. I had to shout over the noise and the traffic. Slowly an audience began to assemble behind my tourists, watching and listening. I had no idea what I was going to say. I had not thought about it, it just came out. This is pretty much what I said:
Yitzhak Rabin was born in Jerusalem in 1922 and became a defender of the Land of Israel at an early age. He spent most of his life as a warrior, fighting Israel's enemies. He joined the Jewish underground, in the Palmach, in 1940 and fought the Nazis during WWII. He fought the British after the war as second in command of the Palmach and was the commander of the elite Harel Brigade which opened the road to Jerusalem during the War of Independence saving all of Jewish Jerusalem from starvation. As Chief of Staff during the Six Day War he led the IDF to victory, uniting Jerusalem and capturing the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights. In 1974 he became Prime Minister for the first time but not the last. From 1984 to 1988 he was Israel minister of defense building the Israeli Army into one of the world’s finest modern and technologically advanced military forces.
He was a man of war, a fighter, a paratrooper who had led the nation to victory after victory, but that was not his finest hour. His finest hour came in the early 1990’s. Again as Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin did what he had done many times before on the battlefield: he took a chance. This chance was taken in the political arena. Yitzhak Rabin took a chance for peace. He came to a moment in his life where he could see that if Israel made some bold moves maybe, just maybe, he could end the conflict with the Palestinians and all Arab nations once and for all. He said “Enough!” to the bloodshed, let’s try another path. He took the chance and paid for it with his life.
Both Rabin and the world believed that Yassar Arafat had changed his stripes. Israel withdrew from almost all of the Palestinian population centers under Rabin’s watch, and later under his successor, Ehud Barak, Israel offered to withdraw from almost all of the West Bank and Gaza and half of Jerusalem. There never was a counter offer. So was Yitzhak Rabin wrong in trying to make peace with terrorists and their supporters? I don’t think so. He took a chance and we paid the price, but now we know better. I like most Israelis at the time voted for him and put our full trust in him, but we learned our lesson and so too would have Yitzhak Rabin:
You can’t appease terrorists, you must destroy them.
“So what do you think would have happened if Yitzhak Rabin would have lived?” asked my tourist a grandfather about a dozen children.
“Oh that’s easy” I replied. “He would have led us to victory in war like he had done many times in the past.”
I was seething mad, but I couldn’t show it. Here I was in Jaffa guiding a family of tourists and I could sense the dismal mood of the shop keepers. I thought it was due to the lack of tourists but that wasn’t so. As I walked by a gift shop, their radio was blaring the sad news: there had been twin homicide bombings on two Beersheva public buses just minutes before. We would soon know that sixteen people were murdered many of them children.
We got back in the tourist van I was driving and I gently told them the news. Next I turned on the radio where the reporter was sadly reporting the facts before he began to interview someone.
“What are they saying?” asked one of the tourists as a man on the radio began to shout.
“He is upset that the security fence construction has not been built in the south of the country. The government has been arguing about the route with the US government and Israel’s own Supreme Court for months now to no avail and now his daughter is dead” I replied.
What should I do now? Where should I take them? We are supposed to go to the Diaspora Museum but I feel I must do something, I must express my feelings to them somehow. How can I show them how I and my fellow Israelis feel at a horrible time like this?
I begin to drive towards Tel Aviv University where the museum is and I find myself as if by fate right in front of Rabin Square. I stop.
“We are going to make a ten minute stop here” I say and we all get out right smack in the middle of Israel’s most densely populated city. I was thinking to myself that this probably isn’t the place were tourists want to be right now, right in the heart of Tel Aviv, walking amongst Israelis, buses going back and forth on one of Israel’s busiest streets, but I thought that that was the whole point: we have to deal with this day in and day out for our entire lives, surely these tourists can take ten minutes of dealing with our daily anxieties.
We walk two city blocks dodging the traffic and the fast paced pedestrians. We come to the memorial next to the stairs that our Prime Minister walked down before being murdered in cold blood by a fellow Jew on November 5, 1995. I began to talk. Well not really talk but shout. I had to shout over the noise and the traffic. Slowly an audience began to assemble behind my tourists, watching and listening. I had no idea what I was going to say. I had not thought about it, it just came out. This is pretty much what I said:
Yitzhak Rabin was born in Jerusalem in 1922 and became a defender of the Land of Israel at an early age. He spent most of his life as a warrior, fighting Israel's enemies. He joined the Jewish underground, in the Palmach, in 1940 and fought the Nazis during WWII. He fought the British after the war as second in command of the Palmach and was the commander of the elite Harel Brigade which opened the road to Jerusalem during the War of Independence saving all of Jewish Jerusalem from starvation. As Chief of Staff during the Six Day War he led the IDF to victory, uniting Jerusalem and capturing the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights. In 1974 he became Prime Minister for the first time but not the last. From 1984 to 1988 he was Israel minister of defense building the Israeli Army into one of the world’s finest modern and technologically advanced military forces.
He was a man of war, a fighter, a paratrooper who had led the nation to victory after victory, but that was not his finest hour. His finest hour came in the early 1990’s. Again as Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin did what he had done many times before on the battlefield: he took a chance. This chance was taken in the political arena. Yitzhak Rabin took a chance for peace. He came to a moment in his life where he could see that if Israel made some bold moves maybe, just maybe, he could end the conflict with the Palestinians and all Arab nations once and for all. He said “Enough!” to the bloodshed, let’s try another path. He took the chance and paid for it with his life.
Both Rabin and the world believed that Yassar Arafat had changed his stripes. Israel withdrew from almost all of the Palestinian population centers under Rabin’s watch, and later under his successor, Ehud Barak, Israel offered to withdraw from almost all of the West Bank and Gaza and half of Jerusalem. There never was a counter offer. So was Yitzhak Rabin wrong in trying to make peace with terrorists and their supporters? I don’t think so. He took a chance and we paid the price, but now we know better. I like most Israelis at the time voted for him and put our full trust in him, but we learned our lesson and so too would have Yitzhak Rabin:
You can’t appease terrorists, you must destroy them.
“So what do you think would have happened if Yitzhak Rabin would have lived?” asked my tourist a grandfather about a dozen children.
“Oh that’s easy” I replied. “He would have led us to victory in war like he had done many times in the past.”
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
Destroying the Jezreel Valley
I was riding my mountain bike today through my backyard and I took the time to appreciate my surroundings. My backyard happens to be one of the least developed areas of Israel: the Jezreel Valley. I love it here. I love the fresh air, the rolling hills off in the distance, and most off all I like to listen to the quiet. Its not your average ordinary quite. Its the chirping of the crickets at night, the low deep gurgle of the frogs by the streams, the leap of the otters into the water as I ride by, the gentle wrestling of the windswept wheat fields and the majestic view of the constant turning sunflowers throughout the day. From any point in the Jezreel Valley you can see clear to the other side. Only a handful of 6 story buildings crowded together in the town of Afula even dare to disturb the pioneer feeling of the land where the first Chalutzim called home. This however is about to change forever.
The State of Israel is building a racetrack in the Land of Israel. Yes that’s right a racetrack. They are building this enormous, illuminated, concrete monolith not in Tel Aviv or the big city’s outskirts but far out into the country. The State of Israel, the UJC and the local Gilboa Regional Council, have given the go ahead for private contractors to carve up a pristine swath of the Jezreel Valley owned by the Jewish people of the entire world through the JNF (Jewish National Fund), and pave hundreds of acres of Israel’s greatest farmland and wildlife sanctuaries into parking lots and a mecca of gambling that will be a prime draw for every mafia boss, too bit thug, pimps and hookers, and other assorted criminals to set up shop. They say that this monstrosity will create 8,000 jobs for the local residents. Are you kidding me? We can’t get our own people to pick their own olives in the fields, so how exactly are we going to get them to shovel horse manure all day long? Yes it might create these jobs, but not for Jews. Probably for our lovely neighbors in Jenin. Or maybe we can import another 8,000 Thai workers.
But that’s not all. No there is more. Dani Atar our wonderful mayor and Labor party member, in conjunction with Bibi Netanyahu the Minister of Finance and Likud member want to take two of the Jewish peoples most precious historical sites and turn them into Disneyland! That’s right. No longer will Tel Yizrael just be a place for Jews from all over the world to explore the ruins, the mikves, mosaics, wine presses, ancient wells, or the ruins of King Ahab’s winter palace. No it won’t be enough to stand on the hill looking out over Navot’s vineyards with a bible in one hand seeking out the spirituality of our ancient history which is the exact spot where the Prophet Elijah went forth to do battle with the pagan priests. Soon we will only see a huge hotel, restaurant and swimming pool on top of this tranquil hilltop.
That’s not all. The crown jewel of the Jezreel Valley will also be encroached upon. That’s right the Gilboa Mountain range. No more will we be able to walk out onto ‘Saul’s Shoulder” with bible in hand and relive the last battle where Saul and his son Jonathan fell to the Philistines. There will be another hotel and snack bar, probably with the lasted Britney Spears single blasting out of the poolside speakers. Just think of it! No more prancing gazelles to interrupt your quiet secluded picnic. No more green pastures covered with red, blue and purple wildflowers and no more breathtaking views of the fields our forefathers created out of the malaria infested swamps. Who needs it anyway. Do you? If you do I suggest that you contact your nearest UJA-UJC president and start yelling and screaming about the theft of your land, because it is your land and some guy with a few million dollars has no right to build an 800 room hotel on our national treasures just because it will be profitable. Shame on all those involved in this absurd endevor.
I was riding my mountain bike today through my backyard and I took the time to appreciate my surroundings. My backyard happens to be one of the least developed areas of Israel: the Jezreel Valley. I love it here. I love the fresh air, the rolling hills off in the distance, and most off all I like to listen to the quiet. Its not your average ordinary quite. Its the chirping of the crickets at night, the low deep gurgle of the frogs by the streams, the leap of the otters into the water as I ride by, the gentle wrestling of the windswept wheat fields and the majestic view of the constant turning sunflowers throughout the day. From any point in the Jezreel Valley you can see clear to the other side. Only a handful of 6 story buildings crowded together in the town of Afula even dare to disturb the pioneer feeling of the land where the first Chalutzim called home. This however is about to change forever.
The State of Israel is building a racetrack in the Land of Israel. Yes that’s right a racetrack. They are building this enormous, illuminated, concrete monolith not in Tel Aviv or the big city’s outskirts but far out into the country. The State of Israel, the UJC and the local Gilboa Regional Council, have given the go ahead for private contractors to carve up a pristine swath of the Jezreel Valley owned by the Jewish people of the entire world through the JNF (Jewish National Fund), and pave hundreds of acres of Israel’s greatest farmland and wildlife sanctuaries into parking lots and a mecca of gambling that will be a prime draw for every mafia boss, too bit thug, pimps and hookers, and other assorted criminals to set up shop. They say that this monstrosity will create 8,000 jobs for the local residents. Are you kidding me? We can’t get our own people to pick their own olives in the fields, so how exactly are we going to get them to shovel horse manure all day long? Yes it might create these jobs, but not for Jews. Probably for our lovely neighbors in Jenin. Or maybe we can import another 8,000 Thai workers.
But that’s not all. No there is more. Dani Atar our wonderful mayor and Labor party member, in conjunction with Bibi Netanyahu the Minister of Finance and Likud member want to take two of the Jewish peoples most precious historical sites and turn them into Disneyland! That’s right. No longer will Tel Yizrael just be a place for Jews from all over the world to explore the ruins, the mikves, mosaics, wine presses, ancient wells, or the ruins of King Ahab’s winter palace. No it won’t be enough to stand on the hill looking out over Navot’s vineyards with a bible in one hand seeking out the spirituality of our ancient history which is the exact spot where the Prophet Elijah went forth to do battle with the pagan priests. Soon we will only see a huge hotel, restaurant and swimming pool on top of this tranquil hilltop.
That’s not all. The crown jewel of the Jezreel Valley will also be encroached upon. That’s right the Gilboa Mountain range. No more will we be able to walk out onto ‘Saul’s Shoulder” with bible in hand and relive the last battle where Saul and his son Jonathan fell to the Philistines. There will be another hotel and snack bar, probably with the lasted Britney Spears single blasting out of the poolside speakers. Just think of it! No more prancing gazelles to interrupt your quiet secluded picnic. No more green pastures covered with red, blue and purple wildflowers and no more breathtaking views of the fields our forefathers created out of the malaria infested swamps. Who needs it anyway. Do you? If you do I suggest that you contact your nearest UJA-UJC president and start yelling and screaming about the theft of your land, because it is your land and some guy with a few million dollars has no right to build an 800 room hotel on our national treasures just because it will be profitable. Shame on all those involved in this absurd endevor.
Monday, June 28, 2004
How Much Longer?
Yasser Arafat is condoning and encouraging the murder of our children and we ( as in you who are reading this and me) are letting him get away with it. War sucks. That’s right it sucks. I would use even harsher language if I thought it would get printed so let’s stick with the adjective “sucks”. I think most civilized people try to stay out of war because they realize that it sucks for those people sent off to war, it sucks for those people on the receiving end of an invasion, it sucks for anyone in the immediate area of a battle, and it sucks for the people and the families of everyone who gets killed. As a soldier I can tell you that the very last thing I want to do in my life is spend one second at war. I have been at war and it just sucks.
I sound like a broken record but as you know we Israelis did not start this current war and we do not want it. The war sucks for all involved as well as the innocent bystanders and we Israelis wish that it would simply go away. We announce to the world that we will be withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and that the Palestinians have a chance to implement the Road Map by collecting the terrorist weapons and ending terror. But as usual they openly refuse to do so. Meanwhile they continue to purposely attack our civilian population. This morning Palestinians purposely launched a missile into a nursery school inside Israel killing a four year old boy and another civilian. Are you kidding me? A four year old boy not even close to any military installation was targeted and murdered in cold blood. Who’s next my three year old daughter?
Do you understand what is happening here? Israel pledges to withdraw from territory captured in a war it did not start. That’s right. Despite all the propaganda that you have heard to the contrary that makes Michael Moore look like Honest Abe, we did not start the war that gave us the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai and Golan. Leading up to the Six Day War, between 1949 and 1967, there were over 3,000 attacks on Israel from all neighboring states including the Jordanian West Bank and the Egyptian Gaza Strip. We offered to withdraw in 1994 and we do so from a large swath of land. In fact we withdrew from 90% of the Palestinian population centers. Arafat pledges to fight terror. We allow the PLO into the territories and we arm them ourselves. And what happens? In 2000 we offer to withdraw from up to 95% of the territory captured including half the Old City of Jerusalem and all of the eastern neighborhoods of the same city, our eternal capital. And then what happens? Terror increases and increases and increases to a point that over 1,000 Israelis are dead over the last four years. So what do we do? We say fine. If you Palestinians do not want peace we will separate from you. We will build a wall/fence and you take that side we will take this side and we will withdraw to our side. And what happens? Tunnels to smuggle missiles are built and Palestinians launch missiles into kindergartens.
Do you know what is going to happen next if this barbaric terror continues against our children? Well let me tell you what is going to happen. This 36 year old tour guide, and hundreds of thousands other Israeli reservists like me, are going to be screaming at the Israeli government to please allow us to don our olive drab uniforms, grab our rifles and leave our families for God knows how long in order to go off to war…which really, really sucks. And this time, I swear by God, we won’t stop the war until the Palestinian people beg us to stop and there won’t be anything France will be able to do about it.
Yasser Arafat is condoning and encouraging the murder of our children and we ( as in you who are reading this and me) are letting him get away with it. War sucks. That’s right it sucks. I would use even harsher language if I thought it would get printed so let’s stick with the adjective “sucks”. I think most civilized people try to stay out of war because they realize that it sucks for those people sent off to war, it sucks for those people on the receiving end of an invasion, it sucks for anyone in the immediate area of a battle, and it sucks for the people and the families of everyone who gets killed. As a soldier I can tell you that the very last thing I want to do in my life is spend one second at war. I have been at war and it just sucks.
I sound like a broken record but as you know we Israelis did not start this current war and we do not want it. The war sucks for all involved as well as the innocent bystanders and we Israelis wish that it would simply go away. We announce to the world that we will be withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and that the Palestinians have a chance to implement the Road Map by collecting the terrorist weapons and ending terror. But as usual they openly refuse to do so. Meanwhile they continue to purposely attack our civilian population. This morning Palestinians purposely launched a missile into a nursery school inside Israel killing a four year old boy and another civilian. Are you kidding me? A four year old boy not even close to any military installation was targeted and murdered in cold blood. Who’s next my three year old daughter?
Do you understand what is happening here? Israel pledges to withdraw from territory captured in a war it did not start. That’s right. Despite all the propaganda that you have heard to the contrary that makes Michael Moore look like Honest Abe, we did not start the war that gave us the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai and Golan. Leading up to the Six Day War, between 1949 and 1967, there were over 3,000 attacks on Israel from all neighboring states including the Jordanian West Bank and the Egyptian Gaza Strip. We offered to withdraw in 1994 and we do so from a large swath of land. In fact we withdrew from 90% of the Palestinian population centers. Arafat pledges to fight terror. We allow the PLO into the territories and we arm them ourselves. And what happens? In 2000 we offer to withdraw from up to 95% of the territory captured including half the Old City of Jerusalem and all of the eastern neighborhoods of the same city, our eternal capital. And then what happens? Terror increases and increases and increases to a point that over 1,000 Israelis are dead over the last four years. So what do we do? We say fine. If you Palestinians do not want peace we will separate from you. We will build a wall/fence and you take that side we will take this side and we will withdraw to our side. And what happens? Tunnels to smuggle missiles are built and Palestinians launch missiles into kindergartens.
Do you know what is going to happen next if this barbaric terror continues against our children? Well let me tell you what is going to happen. This 36 year old tour guide, and hundreds of thousands other Israeli reservists like me, are going to be screaming at the Israeli government to please allow us to don our olive drab uniforms, grab our rifles and leave our families for God knows how long in order to go off to war…which really, really sucks. And this time, I swear by God, we won’t stop the war until the Palestinian people beg us to stop and there won’t be anything France will be able to do about it.
Thursday, May 20, 2004
Another Day Another Bus Ride
I wake at zero-five hundred and I usually take about a half an hour to get ready for the day before making myself a cup of powerful coffee (that we in Israel simply call “mud”) and read a few headlines off the Jerusalem Post website. This morning an article caught my eye entitled “Israeli Arab planned attacks”. Apparently a certain Basel Mahajneh, a 19 year old from the Israeli Arab village of Umm el-Fahm in Wadi Ara, admitted to be plotting a suicide bombing for Hamas before his arrest last month. It seems he was going to blow up bus #842 running from Afula to Tel Aviv. My stomach turns and I discard the rest of my coffee before setting out for the day.
I walk about a half mile before hitching a ride to the main highway that runs through the heart of the Jezreel Valley. I set my bag down and watch the sun come up over Mount Tabor which looms over the city of Afula. The prophetess Deborah and her general Barak gathered the combined Israelite forces there 3200 years ago to do battle with the Philistines based in the city of Haroshet HaGoiim which is near today’s village of Um el-Fahm in Wadi Ara. The battle took place “by the waters of Megiddo” and to make a long story short, we won.
The number 842 bus comes barreling down the highway and I flag it down. The armed security guard gets off first, gives me a quick once over look and says, “Good morning” with a smile. I get on the bus heading towards Megiddo Junction. I take out some tests to grade as a group of American high school students have (finally) come to study at a prestigious Israel program. I see the ancient city of Megiddo rising at the point where the valley blends in with the rolling green hills.
The ancient tel looms over the earliest highways that converge on the junction. This has been the crossroads between the empires in Egypt & Mesopotamia running north-south and the spice routes of the far east to the Mediterranean ports running east-west for 5000 years at least. We pass a makeshift memorial to the victims of the number 842 suicide-bombing that took place here two years ago and then the bus arrives at the mountain pass between the Maneshe hills and Samarian Mountains and into a gorge on the ancient road that runs along the seasonal riverbed called Wadi Ara. As we approach the first Arab village the five or six people on the bus, all Jews, suddenly awake from their morning slumber and we begin to stare at the door. The security guard gets off the bus with a changed demeanor. His face is cold and professional, he looks at everyone sitting at the stop sharply as if to accuse, hand on his side near his weapon, speaking into the microphone attached to a stealthy earpiece.
The Arabs do not get immediately on the bus. They first must answer questions and if those aren’t answered sufficiently, their belongings and bodies are searched. Only then they are allowed on the bus. I’m disgusted. I see the angst in their faces. They mumble under their breath. I know what they are saying as they look down avoiding eye contact and sitting in the very front of the bus huddled together away from the Jews who are spread out. I’m disgusted not by them but with myself. I hate myself for allowing this racial profiling but at the same time I am thankful that I may finally take the bus with some sort of security apparatus in place. I ask myself why Jews and Arabs aren’t both subjugated to the same scrutiny. I strain my brain to think of the last time a Jew blew himself or herself up on a bus filled with civilians and I know immediately what the answer is: never.
I still cringe at the sight of it though. I cringe for the people being searched because of their ethnicity and I cringe because their brethren has made me accept these horrible circumstances. Most of all I cringe because I know that the many of the residents here in Wadi Ara aid and support the intentional murder of Jewish civilians at the hands of murderous savages. Terror is not the way to peace. Civil disobedience yes. Strikes and protests maybe. International protests maybe. Negotiation maybe. But the intentional targeting and killing of babies women and children going along their daily business is definitely not the way. And for a person even to suggest that a another has a right to kill unarmed civilians is ok makes me cringe even more. So I accept this violation and I will continue to accept it until my right to live as a Jew in a Jewish nation is accepted, not just temporarily tolerated.
As we leave Wadi Ara and emerge in the Sharon plain along the Mediterranean Sea we pass many Jewish towns and villages, picking up passengers along the way. People doze back into sleep as we make our way towards Tel Aviv. We stop in Netanya and four soldiers get on the bus, four close friends it seems. They are smiling and laughing, talking about their weekend, their boyfriends, chewing gum and blowing bubbles just like any other teenage girls would do. They speak fluent Hebrew however their accents are different. Two of them are tall and thin, blond haired, blue eyed obviously Russian immigrants. Another is either Ethiopian or her parents are immigrants from Ethiopia. The fourth, a sabra, long black hair tied back in elastic fair in complexion with dark brown eyes. Four Hebrew speaking soldiers from the four corners of the earth, with different cultures, backgrounds and characteristics.
I look at them and smile as I come to the realization that we Jews of Israel are not the racist monsters that I read about in the New York Times. Those people do not exist. We Israelis are striving for a balance between ideas, peoples and forces beyond our control, and when we find that right balance we will continue to strive to create a utopian society that will surely be a light unto the nations. I then turn my attention to my students papers on Theodore Herzl and Zionism to see if they have any new ideas on how to achieve this noble goal.
I wake at zero-five hundred and I usually take about a half an hour to get ready for the day before making myself a cup of powerful coffee (that we in Israel simply call “mud”) and read a few headlines off the Jerusalem Post website. This morning an article caught my eye entitled “Israeli Arab planned attacks”. Apparently a certain Basel Mahajneh, a 19 year old from the Israeli Arab village of Umm el-Fahm in Wadi Ara, admitted to be plotting a suicide bombing for Hamas before his arrest last month. It seems he was going to blow up bus #842 running from Afula to Tel Aviv. My stomach turns and I discard the rest of my coffee before setting out for the day.
I walk about a half mile before hitching a ride to the main highway that runs through the heart of the Jezreel Valley. I set my bag down and watch the sun come up over Mount Tabor which looms over the city of Afula. The prophetess Deborah and her general Barak gathered the combined Israelite forces there 3200 years ago to do battle with the Philistines based in the city of Haroshet HaGoiim which is near today’s village of Um el-Fahm in Wadi Ara. The battle took place “by the waters of Megiddo” and to make a long story short, we won.
The number 842 bus comes barreling down the highway and I flag it down. The armed security guard gets off first, gives me a quick once over look and says, “Good morning” with a smile. I get on the bus heading towards Megiddo Junction. I take out some tests to grade as a group of American high school students have (finally) come to study at a prestigious Israel program. I see the ancient city of Megiddo rising at the point where the valley blends in with the rolling green hills.
The ancient tel looms over the earliest highways that converge on the junction. This has been the crossroads between the empires in Egypt & Mesopotamia running north-south and the spice routes of the far east to the Mediterranean ports running east-west for 5000 years at least. We pass a makeshift memorial to the victims of the number 842 suicide-bombing that took place here two years ago and then the bus arrives at the mountain pass between the Maneshe hills and Samarian Mountains and into a gorge on the ancient road that runs along the seasonal riverbed called Wadi Ara. As we approach the first Arab village the five or six people on the bus, all Jews, suddenly awake from their morning slumber and we begin to stare at the door. The security guard gets off the bus with a changed demeanor. His face is cold and professional, he looks at everyone sitting at the stop sharply as if to accuse, hand on his side near his weapon, speaking into the microphone attached to a stealthy earpiece.
The Arabs do not get immediately on the bus. They first must answer questions and if those aren’t answered sufficiently, their belongings and bodies are searched. Only then they are allowed on the bus. I’m disgusted. I see the angst in their faces. They mumble under their breath. I know what they are saying as they look down avoiding eye contact and sitting in the very front of the bus huddled together away from the Jews who are spread out. I’m disgusted not by them but with myself. I hate myself for allowing this racial profiling but at the same time I am thankful that I may finally take the bus with some sort of security apparatus in place. I ask myself why Jews and Arabs aren’t both subjugated to the same scrutiny. I strain my brain to think of the last time a Jew blew himself or herself up on a bus filled with civilians and I know immediately what the answer is: never.
I still cringe at the sight of it though. I cringe for the people being searched because of their ethnicity and I cringe because their brethren has made me accept these horrible circumstances. Most of all I cringe because I know that the many of the residents here in Wadi Ara aid and support the intentional murder of Jewish civilians at the hands of murderous savages. Terror is not the way to peace. Civil disobedience yes. Strikes and protests maybe. International protests maybe. Negotiation maybe. But the intentional targeting and killing of babies women and children going along their daily business is definitely not the way. And for a person even to suggest that a another has a right to kill unarmed civilians is ok makes me cringe even more. So I accept this violation and I will continue to accept it until my right to live as a Jew in a Jewish nation is accepted, not just temporarily tolerated.
As we leave Wadi Ara and emerge in the Sharon plain along the Mediterranean Sea we pass many Jewish towns and villages, picking up passengers along the way. People doze back into sleep as we make our way towards Tel Aviv. We stop in Netanya and four soldiers get on the bus, four close friends it seems. They are smiling and laughing, talking about their weekend, their boyfriends, chewing gum and blowing bubbles just like any other teenage girls would do. They speak fluent Hebrew however their accents are different. Two of them are tall and thin, blond haired, blue eyed obviously Russian immigrants. Another is either Ethiopian or her parents are immigrants from Ethiopia. The fourth, a sabra, long black hair tied back in elastic fair in complexion with dark brown eyes. Four Hebrew speaking soldiers from the four corners of the earth, with different cultures, backgrounds and characteristics.
I look at them and smile as I come to the realization that we Jews of Israel are not the racist monsters that I read about in the New York Times. Those people do not exist. We Israelis are striving for a balance between ideas, peoples and forces beyond our control, and when we find that right balance we will continue to strive to create a utopian society that will surely be a light unto the nations. I then turn my attention to my students papers on Theodore Herzl and Zionism to see if they have any new ideas on how to achieve this noble goal.
Sunday, April 04, 2004
Let it Fall
The first time people started yelling and screaming that the Temple Mount was in danger of collapse was when Bibi Netanyahu was Prime Minister back in 1996. He had authorized the opening of the Western Wall tunnels that ran along the entire western side of the Temple Mount and ended in the Moslem Quarter. The Palestinian Authority began disseminating propaganda that “the Jews” where tunneling under the Temple Mount in order to blow up the Al Aqsa Mosque. The fact is that these particular tunnels do not extend under the Temple Mount but the Palestinians cried wolf anyway. In the end the tunnels were opened and everyone forgot about it…until now.
The Temple Mount was built by King Herod of Judea at the end of the first century B.C.E. He was hated by the Jews and was himself not halachically Jewish. He slaughtered the Maccabee family, the true heirs to the throne in Jerusalem, and then married the last Maccabean princess before murdering her too. He thought that if he rebuilt the Temple in grand Roman fashion he would be loved by both Jews and Romans alike. Fat chance.
Herod, built four walls atop the holy Mount Moriah in Jerusalem where traditionally Abraham bound Isaac and Solomon built the first Temple to the one true God. He then filled it in with dirt to make it larger (815 X 815 ft) and then built a brand new Temple over the Second Temple before taking apart the old Second Temple. The Western Wall is one of these four retaining walls that the new Second Temple sat upon. The others as logic goes are the southern, eastern and northern walls. The Western Wall is holy to the Jews not because it is a remnant of the holy Temple, but because our tradition holds that the “Shechinah” or “God’s Spirit” rested on the Western Wall after the Temple was destroyed.
Today architects, engineers and archaeologists are shouting that the Temple Mount retaining walls are in danger of collapse. If one or more of the four retaining walls does collapse, it could mean the end for the Al Aska Mosque and the 7th century jewel of Arabic architecture, the Dome of the Rock, which sits more or less on the same site as Solomon’s Temple and the Second Temple used to sit before their destruction. Of course the Waqf (Palestinian religious authority of Jerusalem) is pointing its finger not inward where the blame lies but outward at, you guessed it, the Jews.
During the autumn months of 2000, Palestinians began carrying out illegal construction of an underground mosque in the “Solomon Stables” part of the Temple Mount. This construction has not halted during the last four years and a “bulge” in the southern (retaining) wall appeared in the fall of 2002. The unauthorized construction destroyed Jewish antiquities thousands of years old, but both the Barak and Sharon governments were afraid of the repercussions if police halted the work on the new “mosque” which is housed amongst the arches constructed by King Herod more than two thousand years ago to support the southern part of the Temple Mount. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you harm these arches the floor and walls may come crumbling down. However if you deny that there ever was a Second Temple, I guess it is easy to deny that these very arches supported it.
The Israel Antiquities Authority wanted to carry out repair work and oversee the excavations of the Temple Mount area which it is entitled to under Israeli law. The Waqf however refused to allow this and the Israeli governments did not force the issue. A “compromise” was reached whereas Jordanian archaeologists would oversee repairs on the south wall. The work however seems shoddy and many Israeli experts say the repairs are just a band aid for the affect rather than a fix of the cause. An earthquake in February 2004 again struck the foundations of the Temple Mount, causing damage this time to the eastern (retaining) wall. Again a key structural weakness pointed out by the Israel Antiquities Authority is the “Solomon Stables” part of the Temple Mount. The Waqf of course denies that any structural cracks exist in the eastern wall.
So what are we to do? It seems to me that if the Israeli government is too afraid to enforce the rule of law on the Temple Mount and allow the wholesale destruction of Jewish history by the Moslem authorities then they should at the same time have no regard for any damage that befalls the Temple Mount caused by illegal construction by those very same people. If they damage the Temple Mount building a mosque then let them fix it themselves. If the Eastern and Southern walls come crumbling down let them come down. Herod was a beast of a being and we should not hold his creations as anything holy anyway. If Mount Moriah is exposed once again to sunlight for the first time in 2000 years due to Arab negligence than so be it.
There is a story (that I can not confirm is true) that tour guides like to tell here in Israel when touring the Old City. After the Six Day War Moshe Dayan, Yitzak Rabin and the IDF Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, were touring the newly liberated Jewish Quarter when they came upon a majestic view of the Dome of the Rock. Rabbi Goren suggested that the soldiers take the excess explosives not used during the war and blow it up to hasten the arrival of the Third Temple. Dayan and Rabin looked at each other and ignored the comment. Later a policy of religious tolerance was declared by the Israeli government and all Christian, Moslem and Jewish holy sites were declared protected for the first time in Jerusalem since King Solomon’s reign 3,000 years earlier. Well folks as it turns out, Rabbi Goren may just get his wish and it will only be because of the uncompromising hatred of the Palestinians and their Moslem fundamentalist brothers.
The first time people started yelling and screaming that the Temple Mount was in danger of collapse was when Bibi Netanyahu was Prime Minister back in 1996. He had authorized the opening of the Western Wall tunnels that ran along the entire western side of the Temple Mount and ended in the Moslem Quarter. The Palestinian Authority began disseminating propaganda that “the Jews” where tunneling under the Temple Mount in order to blow up the Al Aqsa Mosque. The fact is that these particular tunnels do not extend under the Temple Mount but the Palestinians cried wolf anyway. In the end the tunnels were opened and everyone forgot about it…until now.
The Temple Mount was built by King Herod of Judea at the end of the first century B.C.E. He was hated by the Jews and was himself not halachically Jewish. He slaughtered the Maccabee family, the true heirs to the throne in Jerusalem, and then married the last Maccabean princess before murdering her too. He thought that if he rebuilt the Temple in grand Roman fashion he would be loved by both Jews and Romans alike. Fat chance.
Herod, built four walls atop the holy Mount Moriah in Jerusalem where traditionally Abraham bound Isaac and Solomon built the first Temple to the one true God. He then filled it in with dirt to make it larger (815 X 815 ft) and then built a brand new Temple over the Second Temple before taking apart the old Second Temple. The Western Wall is one of these four retaining walls that the new Second Temple sat upon. The others as logic goes are the southern, eastern and northern walls. The Western Wall is holy to the Jews not because it is a remnant of the holy Temple, but because our tradition holds that the “Shechinah” or “God’s Spirit” rested on the Western Wall after the Temple was destroyed.
Today architects, engineers and archaeologists are shouting that the Temple Mount retaining walls are in danger of collapse. If one or more of the four retaining walls does collapse, it could mean the end for the Al Aska Mosque and the 7th century jewel of Arabic architecture, the Dome of the Rock, which sits more or less on the same site as Solomon’s Temple and the Second Temple used to sit before their destruction. Of course the Waqf (Palestinian religious authority of Jerusalem) is pointing its finger not inward where the blame lies but outward at, you guessed it, the Jews.
During the autumn months of 2000, Palestinians began carrying out illegal construction of an underground mosque in the “Solomon Stables” part of the Temple Mount. This construction has not halted during the last four years and a “bulge” in the southern (retaining) wall appeared in the fall of 2002. The unauthorized construction destroyed Jewish antiquities thousands of years old, but both the Barak and Sharon governments were afraid of the repercussions if police halted the work on the new “mosque” which is housed amongst the arches constructed by King Herod more than two thousand years ago to support the southern part of the Temple Mount. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you harm these arches the floor and walls may come crumbling down. However if you deny that there ever was a Second Temple, I guess it is easy to deny that these very arches supported it.
The Israel Antiquities Authority wanted to carry out repair work and oversee the excavations of the Temple Mount area which it is entitled to under Israeli law. The Waqf however refused to allow this and the Israeli governments did not force the issue. A “compromise” was reached whereas Jordanian archaeologists would oversee repairs on the south wall. The work however seems shoddy and many Israeli experts say the repairs are just a band aid for the affect rather than a fix of the cause. An earthquake in February 2004 again struck the foundations of the Temple Mount, causing damage this time to the eastern (retaining) wall. Again a key structural weakness pointed out by the Israel Antiquities Authority is the “Solomon Stables” part of the Temple Mount. The Waqf of course denies that any structural cracks exist in the eastern wall.
So what are we to do? It seems to me that if the Israeli government is too afraid to enforce the rule of law on the Temple Mount and allow the wholesale destruction of Jewish history by the Moslem authorities then they should at the same time have no regard for any damage that befalls the Temple Mount caused by illegal construction by those very same people. If they damage the Temple Mount building a mosque then let them fix it themselves. If the Eastern and Southern walls come crumbling down let them come down. Herod was a beast of a being and we should not hold his creations as anything holy anyway. If Mount Moriah is exposed once again to sunlight for the first time in 2000 years due to Arab negligence than so be it.
There is a story (that I can not confirm is true) that tour guides like to tell here in Israel when touring the Old City. After the Six Day War Moshe Dayan, Yitzak Rabin and the IDF Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren, were touring the newly liberated Jewish Quarter when they came upon a majestic view of the Dome of the Rock. Rabbi Goren suggested that the soldiers take the excess explosives not used during the war and blow it up to hasten the arrival of the Third Temple. Dayan and Rabin looked at each other and ignored the comment. Later a policy of religious tolerance was declared by the Israeli government and all Christian, Moslem and Jewish holy sites were declared protected for the first time in Jerusalem since King Solomon’s reign 3,000 years earlier. Well folks as it turns out, Rabbi Goren may just get his wish and it will only be because of the uncompromising hatred of the Palestinians and their Moslem fundamentalist brothers.
