In 1929, the Arabs rampaged through Hebron, on a killing spree that managed to almost wipe out the Jewish population of the city at the time. Now, the grand-children and great-grandchildren of those killers have attempted a similar act with their recent massacre in Hebron. These vermin imbibe hatred with their mother?s milk, and then in the Palestinian Authority-directed educational system. A system that builds on their hatred of the Zionist dream, and glorifies the complete and utter destruction of the Jewish state.



There are those editorialists who would twist the facts as if the ?settlers? are endangering the civilian population of Israel. I can?t help but compare this ?rationalistic labeling? technique with that of the California Coastal Commission. At a recent meeting with my neighborhood, they had a problem using the word ?tree?. Every time they had to refer to the fifty-year-old- palms they were cutting down, the code word was ?encroachment?. The same technique is applied with the word ?settlers?. When they are spoken about, it's like they are some endangered species, whom the Israelis are trying to save from extermination. The 450 ?settlers? who are living in that hallowed city of Hebron, are, to the Jewish people, the same people, and people who speak the same language and practice the same religion and are the same nationality as their brothers in greater Israel. There is no special ?settler-land? or ?settlements?. The Jews in Hebron are civilians who are living on property owned by Jews for centuries. It had been stolen by Arabs. The fact that these people were not allowed to return to their homes earlier does not negate the legitimacy of their claims to the land.



Over twenty years ago, I traveled to Hebron as a journalist. I went to report on the bravery of the few who had barricaded themselves in. They were to grow to almost five hundred people. I was impressed with their perseverance and the fortitude that they were exerting in their rights to live in the homeland of their ancestors. How could there be more hallowed ground than the burial place of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Israel is a Jewish homeland, right? Frankly, I don?t give a diddly-squat about the plight of anyone living there other than the Jews. Nobody else seems to care about the rights and blood of the Jewish ?settlers? or civilians who are living in Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Jerusalem, or anywhere else either.



If there is another terrorist attack in the United States, I?ll bet that America?s response will be immediate and violent. That?s as it should be. However, the same goes for Israel. Every country has to have the right and responsibility to protect its citizens. Why should there always be a ?special? code of ethics for Israel? How many mornings must I wake up to the television?s ?special announcement? of another group of school children being bombed on their bus while on the way to school? Or, of mothers and their babies being shot dead while reading bedtimes stories in their homes? Now, the killers not only claim credit, but also give press conferences for Arabs worldwide to rise up to ?exterminate? the Jewish state. Enough!



The Israelis have a cancer within their country that, unless removed, will destroy them. It won?t come from the bullets of the Arab police (although, I remember my columns of outrage after the Oslo accords, when Shimon Peres outfitted the enemy with a gun for every house). No, I believe it will come through the ballots that the Arabs enjoy in this oasis of democracy of the Middle East, through their right to decide the leaders of Israel. Their birthrate is tremendous and they will take over the political system.



While we all hear about the Arab ?refugees?, little is said about the Jews who fled the Arab countries. Anyone who is familiar with their history knows that there were once great Jewish communities in Arab countries. Today, there are a minimal amount of Jews in those countries. They were driven out and their communities lost forever. They can?t go back and claim their property. They have no right of return. Roughly 850,000 Jews were stripped of their property and forced to flee Arab and Muslim lands, because of hostility triggered by the formation of the State of Israel.



The idea of being forced by democratic values to house, educate and give medical care to the Arabs in Israel, whose one goal is the destruction of their host, is intolerable! If they hate the Jews as much as they obviously do, then let them leave. Encourage them to leave. Pay them to leave. Maybe even the Arab countries that confiscated the property of their Jewish citizens could move their Palestinian brothers into that Jewish property. After all, the Arabs talk about ?financial restitution? so let the Jewish land in their countries, that the Jews in Israel can never return to, be it. But, the Arabs of Israel have a homeland to go to, a Palestinian homeland - Jordan.

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Arlene Peck is an internationally syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess. She can be reached at bestredhead@earthlink.net.