Terug
"The murderous Palestinian violence striking Israel since September 2000
is what brought Ariel Sharon to power. It is what greatly reduced the strength
of the peace camp, which seeks an agreement on the basis of the principle of
dividing the Land of Israel into two sovereign states. As long as the terror
continues, Sharon's policies, which make do with brutal reactions without offering
any political exit from the conflict, is perceived as the appropriate response
to Palestinian behavior. "
So far the report in the Jerusalem Post on November the 23rd. In this view the
"murderous Palestinian violence" is a natural phenomenon that Ariel
Sharon has to fight in the same way that one fights a storm or an earthquake.
The peace camp is perceived as a kind of dam, while Sharon is perceived to reacting
"brutally", even Quixotically, as if he were fighting something as
a windmill, that keeps turning anyway, to no avail.
Now image: if Frankie was beating up Johnnie and Johnnie hits back, would anybody
tell Johnnie to stop and to receive Fankies blows? No of course, Frankie would
be told to stop and then Johnnie would stop on his own, because there would
be no reason any more to defend himself. As long as Frankie keeps dealing blows,
Johnnie has a right even to knock Frankie out, so that he can no longer harm
him.
But if Johnnie is called Yochanan, or say, Israel, and Frankie Fatah, or Hamas,
or the Palestinians, for short, than this theory is no longer valid.
Then Johnnie must receive blow after blow, because -G'd forbid! - he may hurt
Frankie.
And so Johnnie is searching for ways to make Frankie stop hitting him without
hurting him. Of course that makes no impression on Frankie. He knows that Johnnie
will never be: a) punished or b) allowed to do act adequately, so Frankie hits
on, until Johnnie is knocked out.
This is the predicament Israel is currently in. The terror will not stop and
Israel is not allowed to wage a war that will stop it. With any counter measure
Europe and the UN cry out that the violence is not proportional to the amount
of blows Israel has received, and the US takes Israel to task because it is
afraid to antagonize the Arab world - the ones who are hurting Israel - until
after the war in Iraq is finished.
This has everything to do with a deep seated belief, that whatever Israel is
going to do, it will not stop the terror attacks. Palestinians, and other Arabs
use terror as a weapon. That is a given, just as a snowstorm in a given in December
and January. And you cannot hurt the source of a snowstorm or a bout of rain
by force. You take an umbrella and wait until it stops. Then you bury the dead
and repair the damage.
But bombs do not detonate themselves. Explosives do not grow out of the soil.
Crude materials are imported by human hands, explosives are made in factories
by human hands, and brought into coffee shops, pizzerias, discos, wedding halls,
on buses etc. by humans, who then detonate them, hoping to make as many casualties
as possible.
Nor do those human beings, if one may call them that, either living or working
in voids, strewing their explosives dreamily and haphazardly around them so
that others may pick them up absent mindedly, at which point they may inadvertently
go off and kill people.
Of course there is a rigid organization behind all this and they are linked
and cooperate with each other in order to maximize the damage in each attack.
They call themselves Hamas or Hezbollah, or Tanzim, or any name that seems appropriate
for the time and place of the attack. The most lethal of them for Israel live
in the territories that are currently under Palestinian control. Most of the
Palestinians, if not all, do not care at all if the Jews of the world are alive
or dead. Given the joy and celebrations after each attack in which Jews are
killed, it seems that they prefer dead Jews. Truly friendly Palestinian voices
must still be heard. Truly friendly Jewish voices toward Palestinians are heard
all the time. Yossi Sarid, Yossi Beilin, Shimon Peres, Uri Avenery etc. voice
the interests of the Palestinian people incessantly. They would not believe
how much their 'friends' really despise and loath them. Try to talk to Palestinians
in Arabic, say that you yourself are an Arab too, and you will learn the true
depths of their hatred of Jews and the entire western world and how eagerly
they are waiting to take over.
And if you cannot do that yourself, it is wise to believe people who did so
and not call them 'extremist Jews' and hatemonger's, thus putting them on a
line with the Arab terrorists, who are also euphemistically called 'extremist'
or 'militants'.
The sentiments of hatred however, are not exported as freely as their bombs
and words of denunciation of the attacks they themselves plan and execute.
Some Jews in Israel and abroad say that they have a reason to hate us. They
say: It is natural for them to act like that. Some say: We did the same thing
before Israel became independent. What they don't say is that the Haganah never
targeting children in their beds, or holiday makers, or teenagers on their evenings
out, or bride and groom and their guests, or buses with innocent people going
to work and to school.
Neither do they mention the fact that Arabs were killing innocent Israelis even
then, in those pre-state days. The hatred runs deep and is not of modern making.
Still, it is deemed unethical to make casualties among the attackers while trying
to stop them. If not in the voice of Israelis themselves, then it is the voice
of the media that asks after each attack: "How is Israel going to react.
Will it start another cycle of violence?"
The Jewish dead are forgotten the moment they died. The only thing that matters
is how the people who commit these atrocities are going to feel.
"What will the hawk Sharon do", they ask. "He will take revenge!"
they answer themselves. "He will hurt innocent people!" Over 600 dead
Israeli civilians do not count as innocent people. Armed Palestinians do.
"Israel needs a man of peace", they say. Like Rabin, like Peres, like
Barak. That is why Amram Mitzna was chosen leader of the Likud. But none of
his predecessors, who really meant well and wanted the best for the Palestinians,
could stop the terror attacks by talking and trying to forge peace deals. That
is where the perennial hatred of the whole Arab world for the Jews comes in.
The hands of the 'hawk' Sharon are tied but the US and the UN who hesitate themselves
to attack al-Qaeda in its hiding places all over the world. All in fear of escalation.
Killing innocent people every day all over the world: in India, Indonesia, the
Philippines, Malaysia, Nigeria, Moscow, New York, Washington, Yemen, Algiers,
Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and today in Kenya, that is not escalation?
No it is not. Because this is a natural phenomenon, and if one retaliates, well,
than innocent people will get killed.
Day by day these attacks are growing more numerous and more vicious.
Day by day the western world, and also the Far East is becoming this little
more battered.
We must all unite in recognizing these attacks for what they are. They are not
snowstorms. They are not earthquakes. They are caused by human hands, thought
out by human brains. And these humans have to be stopped as soon as possible.
Even if there is a chance of 'collateral damage'. The people are waging a war
against us and in a war people fight back. If they refrain from being so, there
are vanquished.
We are sinking deeper and deeper in World War 3.
When will we admit it to ourselves?
Estel