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Israfax
Jewish Israel today is a modern state, an advanced Western democracy. Yet only a hundred years ago, the blink of an eye historically, Theodor Herzl--in a Europe plagued by both genteel and murderous antisemitism--still dreamed of a day when Jews would be free in their own land, secure in their own homes. Yet again today, antisemites, this time Arab-backed Palestinian homicidal suicides and terrorists, seek, literally, to unhouse us, to "re-ghettoize" us (as Yossi Klein Halevi puts it). They seek to show that we are not free in what they view as their land, and that Israel is "not the answer to Jewish survival, but a threat to it". Globally, we are back in the vicious days of the UN's "Zionism equals racism" resolution, seen clearly in the recent UN-sponsored Durban "human-rights" debacle, and in the UN Human Rights Commission's recent resolution accusing Israel of "terrorism" while omitting any reference to the real Arab terrorists. Isolating Israel, turning it into an illegitimate "pariah" state, and ultimately forcing mass emigration from it, are the goals--and, finally, triggering a wider conflagration which, with new weapons of mass destruction, would finally destroy the Jewish state. In Israel, since September, 2000, over 400 Israelis have died, and thousands have been wounded and maimed in Arafat's "war of national suicide". (The U.S. demographic equivalent would be not the 3,000 Twin Towers' victims, but 80,000 dead, and in not one, but a score, of incidents.) Outside the Land, in France and England and Germany and Belgium, we are witnessing a wave of antisemitic vitriol and attack unrivalled since the end of World War II. Synagogues are burnt, and Jews beaten, from Kiev in Ukraine, where the old pogromist cry of "Kill the Jews" echoes once again, to the island of Djerba in Tunis, where the country's most ancient synagogue was bombed, and at least a dozen people were killed. So, while we are right to be joyous over the Jewish people's return to history, the miracle of modern Israel's sovereign independence, our joy must be tempered by the seriousness of the latest war against the Jews, in the Land and in Diaspora. The Passover Haggadah tells us that it is we here, now, who were freed from slavery in Egypt. Hence too it is we, here now, who must, in every generation, fight to defend that freedom. In Israel, Arafat's homicide bombers and terrorists have, at great cost, finally been checkmated by the IDF; here, in Diaspora, amidst a rising tide of antisemitism masquerading as "anti-Israelism" or "anti-Zionism", we too must follow the blue-white flag, and defend our Jewish freedom. As the song says: Am Yisrael, am Yisrael/Am Yisrael chai! (Prof. Frederick Krantz, Editor of ISRAFAX magazine, is also Director of the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research) Israel's 54th Birthday: Three Times
Chai Fifty-four years ago, in the shadow of the Holocaust, a small community of pioneering Jews--chalutzim--in Eretz Israel was determined to realize a dream that had spanned nineteen centuries of exile and harrowing hardships. They founded the State of Israel, a state for the Jews. Thus began a remarkable epic of nation-building and survival that was one of the stirring miracles of the twentieth century. Israel's founding brought the first of four wars (1948, 1956, 1967, 1973) in which outnumbered Israeli forces defeated armies of its Arab neighbors intent on extinguishing the Jewish state. Few nations have endured as much turmoil as this young-old nation since its foundation fifty-four years ago. Few states since the end of World War II have faced the kind of lethal, unremitting threat that has stalked Israel since its birth. Today's struggle--today's war--is a war for the right of Israel's citizens to live in peace and security, against relentless enemies who do not shrink from using any means to create pain, chaos, fear, devastation, and to harm innocent people. In today's Middle East environment, Israel must maintain its military might in order to defend itself and to prevail against an array of Arab enemies and terror. Israel's foes will not desist from their goal of erasing the State of Israel from the Middle East. For a country that has fought so valiantly just to stay alive, the idea of peace may seem a mirage. But as Israel marks its 54th anniversary and struggles for its existence, we celebrate, knowing that Israel is more than a country. It is an idea that inspires millions of Jews around the world. From the ruins of Europe, from the ashes of the gas chambers, from Russia, Argentina, America, Egypt, Morocco, and dozens of other lands, our people created a vital new land sustained by our ancient faith. Hod Avinu Chai! Happy Birthday Israel! P.M. Sharon's Address to the Knesset:
Terrorists Have "One Dispatcher"--Arafat "Our dead lie in a long row: women and children, young and old. And we stand facing them...and we are speechless...Entire Jewish families, Jewish and Arab, are destroyed in the heat of the murderous insanity which has taken hold of our Palestinian neighbors...They have one mission: To chase us out of here...from our home in Elon Moreh and from the supermarket in Jerusalem, from the café in Tel Aviv, and from the restaurant in Haifa, from the synagogue in Netzarim...and from the Seder table in Netanya. And there is one dispatcher: Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat... "We remained patient and moderate as one atrocity followed another. Despite the fact that we knew of our power to act, we hoped that we would not be forced to use our forces...Minister of Foreign Affairs Shimon Peres has left no stone unturned in his efforts to find a partner for dialogue... "However, Arafat...still assumes, that he will be able to defeat Israel and break its spirit. In our sensitivity to the sanctity of human life and in our openness for political debate, he sees basic weakness. By way of blood and horror he wants to force Israel into a unilateral withdrawal to its 1967 borders, including Jerusalem... "The Government of Israel has thus decided to instruct the IDF and other security forces to embark on Operation Defensive Shield, which has one goal: uprooting the terrorist infrastructure which Arafat built...IDF soldiers and officers have been given clear orders: To enter cities and villages which have become havens for terrorists; to catch and arrest terrorists and, primarily, their dispatchers and those who finance and support them; to confiscate weapons...From the outset, this IDF operation was planned to be temporary...These actions have not yet been completed, and the IDF will therefore continue to operate...until the mission has been accomplished...We...do not intend to permanently reoccupy Palestinian cities...But peace can only be attained if, once we evacuate the territories, we find a responsible Palestinian leadership... "[W]e are noticing the first buds of a transformation in the long-time Arab trend to deny the very right of the State of Israel to exist...I welcome the fact that an important Arab leader such as Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has, for the first time, acknowledged Israel's right to exist within secure and recognized borders. "There is a positive component of the Saudi initiative, but the details must be negotiated...No party can enforce unilateral conditions. UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 affirm Israel's right to exist in peace, and in secure and recognized borders...Israel cannot discuss the return of Arab refugees...as it would effectively terminate the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish state. "That is why I offered to go to Beirut to meet with the leaders of the Arab States...I take this opportunity to reiterate my proposal to meet immediately with moderate and responsible leaders...I am willing to go anywhere, without any pre-conditions... "From here, I address the Palestinian people. On behalf of the people of Israel, I tell you: We want to live side by side with you in peace...But...you must eschew terrorism... "From here, I address the leaders of the Middle East. Terrorism...threatens you as well...I implore you to accept my initiative for a meeting between us. From here, I address the leaders of the Free World...There is absolutely no equivalence between those who send teenage suicide bombers to kill and maim, and those who take self-defense actions...Only your stand against terrorism and actual sanctions against its perpetrators in the Palestinian Authority, and primarily Arafat, will enable you to make a real contribution to the advancement of peace... "From here, I address the people of Israel...It is my understanding of this crisis that has led me to struggle for the establishment of a National Unity Government, and in order to maintain unity I am sometimes willing to forgo my own pride...I call upon each and every one of you to maintain this unity...With the help of God, together, we can and will triumph." Naming the War Another possibility is the End of the Occupation War... But this war broke out immediately after the Palestinians were offered the end of the occupation...And in large part, this war is being waged outside the areas of the occupation... So anyone who speaks about the End of the Occupation War is lying... Perhaps the Peace for the Settlements War...But this war broke out immediately after Israel agreed to dismantle about a hundred settlements... And in none of their ideological platforms do the Palestinians posit the settlements as a sufficient condition for ending this war... So anyone who says that this war is the Peace for the Settlements War is lying. Merely laundering words. So as I lean on the stone fence across the way, as I watch the highly skilled teams wash the blood off the road, it comes to me that maybe the right name for this war is an awkward, old name: the War of the Life of the Jews. Or a slightly more updated version: The War of the Jews' Last Chance. After all, the inhuman human being who was sent here by a national liberation movement that is not a national liberation movement did not want to kill the people sitting at the bar in [the] Moment [Café] in order to avenge the humiliation of the checkpoints... He did it in an ecstasy of religious hatred the likes of which exists nowhere on earth... And he did it...to chase us out of here. The window-shattered prow of Moment glows...as though the café were a boat that has already been hit by a torpedo and all its sailors killed...but has not yet sunk... [I]t comes to me that...they are sending us a very clear message with their bombs: We cannot bear you. We cannot bear your freedom, we cannot bear your sovereignty...We cannot bear your children, we cannot bear your infants... We cannot bear your happy occasions... We cannot bear the blood that flows in your veins... The explosive device had something of the effect of a small neutron bomb. It hardly touched property, only killed people. The chairs are overturned and the glass is shattered, but the counter is almost unharmed...And in the northeast corner a wall perforated by nails. Bolts and nails. ...A name is needed urgently. Because this killing is not taking place out of the blue. This killing is taking place... because...the laundering of words has accorded it legitimization. This killing is taking place...because in the past few months Israeli politics has infused it with motivation...because in the past few months we have behaved wantonly. We have blurred lines. So we need a name in order to draw new lines...Only one name comes to me: the War of Sovereignty. Maybe the War of Israeli Sovereignty. Maybe the War of Jewish Sovereignty. Because this is the goal of the war...to bring about the collapse of Jewish sovereignty... (Ha'aretz, March 15, 2002) |
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ISRAFAX
EDITORIAL
