The State of Israel held elections this week, very important elections. In fact, the very survival of our country hinges on the decisions of Israel's government.
Israel is in a very precarious situation. The Arab enemy - they invented the fiction of a Palestinian people for propaganda purposes - are not only at our doorstep; they are within our very home. They're occupying our holiest religious site, the Temple Mount, and are forbidding Jews to even approach this holy site. They are killing us daily, innocent men, women, children and babies. They are, in truth, equal opportunity killers. Jewish blood has become very cheap again.
Let me give you an idea of how cheap. Here are the figures for the period between September 29, 2000 through January 25, 2003:
16,209 attacks - this does not include attacks with rocks or firebombs.
5,055 injured
724 killed (this figure is equivalent to approximately 40,000 persons killed in America)
Statistics of atrocities do not tell the whole story. One cannot really internalize the human suffering behind them. Six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust is an incomprehensible figure. The thought of an innocent little baby being thrown alive into a roaring oven in Auschwitz makes the Holocaust horror all too real. This was unmitigated, cruel, and inhumane criminal behavior on the part of the Nazis.
Jewish history repeats itself. In the Haggadah, the story that Jews read on Passover, it is written: "For not only one has risen up against us, but in every generation some have risen to annihilate us, but the Most Holy, blessed be He, has delivered us out of their hands." In the last century, the Nazis thought they were going to succeed in what they planned as the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem, the complete extermination of the Jewish people. When the Nazis were defeated at the end of World War II, the Arabs picked up where the Nazis left off. Innocent Jewish children are again being murdered, this time by Arabs. The motivation is the same, the extermination of the Jewish People.
In this week's election, Ariel Sharon's party, the Likud, won with a landslide victory of 38 mandates (the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, has 120 members). The Labor party and the Meretz party, that is the leftist Oslo Architects, who are responsible for the terrible ongoing carnage in their "new Middle East", were punished by the voters and lost heavily the support of the public. Before the election, Ariel Sharon had emphasized that he did not want to form a government with right-wing parties, but that he preferred a Likud unity coalition with the Left. After his overwhelming victory, when his constituents completely rejected the policies of the Left, he still surprisingly proclaimed this view, deliberately spitting in the face of his own supporters.
How does Israel get out of this life-threatening situation?
The morning after the elections, I listened to a re-broadcast of the State of the Union Address by President George W. Bush. He said, with reference to a possible war with Iraq, "If the war is forced upon us, we will fight with the full force of the United States, and we will prevail."
A war was forced upon Israel starting on Rosh Hashana, September 29, 2000. Unfortunately, our government has refused to recognize the Arab assault as a war, and has pretended that this war is just a series of individual terrorist attacks by Hamas, Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, and others, and that it is not coordinated by Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
Our government must stop apologizing. Let's tell it like it is. The Jews are not occupying the Holy Land. It is their G-d-given inheritance. Arafat and his vicious murderers are the ones who are the occupiers.
We have been asked to show restraint in dealing with this Arab onslaught. Unfortunately, this restraint has sent a clear message to the Arab adversaries and the world at large: Jews can be killed with impunity. Jewish blood is cheap.
In the words of Mr. Martin Sherman in his article "Unleashing the Dogs of War": "It is time to convey to the public at home and abroad that Jewish patience is at an end, that Jewish lives are not cheap and the letting of Jewish blood will no longer be acceptable. It is time for this embattled nation to arise, and to cry 'Foul!' Let us unleash the dogs of war!"
It is imperative that Israel finally take its cue from the greatest democratic country in the world, the United States of America. To paraphrase the statement by the American president, "If the war is forced upon us, we will fight with our full force, and we will prevail."
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Ruth Matar is co-chairwoman of the grass-roots activist organization Women for Israel?s Tomorrow (Women in Green). This article was adapted from the Women in Green radio program on Arutz Sheva - Israel National Radio, which can be heard on demand at IsraelNationalNews.com.
Israel is in a very precarious situation. The Arab enemy - they invented the fiction of a Palestinian people for propaganda purposes - are not only at our doorstep; they are within our very home. They're occupying our holiest religious site, the Temple Mount, and are forbidding Jews to even approach this holy site. They are killing us daily, innocent men, women, children and babies. They are, in truth, equal opportunity killers. Jewish blood has become very cheap again.
Let me give you an idea of how cheap. Here are the figures for the period between September 29, 2000 through January 25, 2003:
16,209 attacks - this does not include attacks with rocks or firebombs.
5,055 injured
724 killed (this figure is equivalent to approximately 40,000 persons killed in America)
Statistics of atrocities do not tell the whole story. One cannot really internalize the human suffering behind them. Six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust is an incomprehensible figure. The thought of an innocent little baby being thrown alive into a roaring oven in Auschwitz makes the Holocaust horror all too real. This was unmitigated, cruel, and inhumane criminal behavior on the part of the Nazis.
Jewish history repeats itself. In the Haggadah, the story that Jews read on Passover, it is written: "For not only one has risen up against us, but in every generation some have risen to annihilate us, but the Most Holy, blessed be He, has delivered us out of their hands." In the last century, the Nazis thought they were going to succeed in what they planned as the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem, the complete extermination of the Jewish people. When the Nazis were defeated at the end of World War II, the Arabs picked up where the Nazis left off. Innocent Jewish children are again being murdered, this time by Arabs. The motivation is the same, the extermination of the Jewish People.
In this week's election, Ariel Sharon's party, the Likud, won with a landslide victory of 38 mandates (the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, has 120 members). The Labor party and the Meretz party, that is the leftist Oslo Architects, who are responsible for the terrible ongoing carnage in their "new Middle East", were punished by the voters and lost heavily the support of the public. Before the election, Ariel Sharon had emphasized that he did not want to form a government with right-wing parties, but that he preferred a Likud unity coalition with the Left. After his overwhelming victory, when his constituents completely rejected the policies of the Left, he still surprisingly proclaimed this view, deliberately spitting in the face of his own supporters.
How does Israel get out of this life-threatening situation?
The morning after the elections, I listened to a re-broadcast of the State of the Union Address by President George W. Bush. He said, with reference to a possible war with Iraq, "If the war is forced upon us, we will fight with the full force of the United States, and we will prevail."
A war was forced upon Israel starting on Rosh Hashana, September 29, 2000. Unfortunately, our government has refused to recognize the Arab assault as a war, and has pretended that this war is just a series of individual terrorist attacks by Hamas, Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, and others, and that it is not coordinated by Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
Our government must stop apologizing. Let's tell it like it is. The Jews are not occupying the Holy Land. It is their G-d-given inheritance. Arafat and his vicious murderers are the ones who are the occupiers.
We have been asked to show restraint in dealing with this Arab onslaught. Unfortunately, this restraint has sent a clear message to the Arab adversaries and the world at large: Jews can be killed with impunity. Jewish blood is cheap.
In the words of Mr. Martin Sherman in his article "Unleashing the Dogs of War": "It is time to convey to the public at home and abroad that Jewish patience is at an end, that Jewish lives are not cheap and the letting of Jewish blood will no longer be acceptable. It is time for this embattled nation to arise, and to cry 'Foul!' Let us unleash the dogs of war!"
It is imperative that Israel finally take its cue from the greatest democratic country in the world, the United States of America. To paraphrase the statement by the American president, "If the war is forced upon us, we will fight with our full force, and we will prevail."
--------------------------------------------------------
Ruth Matar is co-chairwoman of the grass-roots activist organization Women for Israel?s Tomorrow (Women in Green). This article was adapted from the Women in Green radio program on Arutz Sheva - Israel National Radio, which can be heard on demand at IsraelNationalNews.com.