Uri Elitzur quite correctly reminds us in his article "Belgium and Rabin Square" (Yedioth Ahronoth, Friday, February 14, 2003) that the decision by the Belgian court against Prime Minister Ariel Sharon did not suddenly spring forth; rather, it is due solely to the incitement by the Israeli left against that war in Lebanon and the demonstrations by the left in Malkhei Yisrael Square (later renamed Rabin Square) after Sabra and Shatilla.
Elitzur reminds us about the massacre in the village of Sohmor in southern Lebanon, which, in contrast with the slaughter in Sabra and Shatilla, received no publicity throughout the world. The massacre in Sohmor took place about ten years after Sabra and Shatilla, with the murder of dozens of men, women, and children by South Lebanese Army soldiers, in retaliation for a serious attack conducted by the villagers against them.
As Uri Elitzur writes: "In Belgium they do not know about the Sohmor massacre, it is not mentioned in Israel, and even the Arabs have already forgotten about it, for the simple reason that during the time of Sohmor, the Israeli Prime Minister was Yitzhak Rabin, and Shimon Peres was the Foreign Minister. And therefore no Israeli leftist went into the streets to call them murderers and to demand a commission of inquiry. What turned Sabra and Shatilla into a colossal international story did not take place in the outskirts of Beirut, but rather in Malkhei Yisrael Square." (the plaza where the Israeli Left demonstrates).
What Elitzur writes is correct; the problem with his article is the conclusion that he reaches. Elitzur tells us that the above proves to all of us why it is so important that there be a unity government with the left - for with the left in the government, "they will not fill the [city] squares with demonstrations in which they turn us in the eyes of the entire world into war criminals."
In other words, Uri Elitzur, and many like him in the national camp, call upon us to surrender to the extortion, blackmail, by the left. This probably is also Prime Minister Sharon's line of thought. He is so afraid of demonstrations by the left in the city squares, he has been so traumatized by their criticism and incitement, that he prefers to have them join him, hoping that he will thereby be able to silence them, and prevent them from initiating demonstrations against him. The problem is that in order for the left to agree to this, including them in the government in a token manner will not suffice: the Prime Minister must come with "the goods." He must become "one of them," and continue their disastrous Oslo policy. The new government will have to be based on the basic guidelines of the left (the adoption of the "road map," the uprooting of Jewish communities). Only then will they agree to join him, out of the goodness of their hearts.
And so we are witness to a horrifying phenomenon: whoever calls for the establishment of a "unity" government with the left is actually calling for the Prime Minister and the Likud to totally surrender to the extortion of the left and to adopt their disastrous and criminal policy - and all this, for fear that the left will organize demonstrations against the policy of the government that, according to the will of the voter, should have been a strong national government.
The establishment of a false "unity" government with the left will therefore constitute a clear sign of the weakness and lack of leadership of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
The weekly Torah portion, that of Ki Tisa, teaches us how a true leader would act. Moses descends from the mount with the Tablets of the Covenant, and he sees the people reveling and prostrating themselves around the Golden Calf. Moses does not fear demonstrations against himself by the people, and he does not decide to have the leaders of those prostrating themselves to the Calf join him, in order to form with them a "unity government." A true leader knows that it is impossible to "unify" with sinners and with their way.
Moses understands that he must act quickly and forcefully in order to stop this deterioration: he must completely de-legitimize the Calf, and punish those who bow down to this cursed statue. First, he burns the Calf to the ground. After that, he enlists all those who remained loyal to God. Moses issues the call: "Whoever is for God, come to me," and "all the Levites rallied to him." It was the Levites who received the order to punish the sinners, and so, three thousand are killed by the Levites. After Moses demonstrated leadership and personally punished some of the sinners, the Lord sends a plague against all those who participated in the sin of the Golden Calf.
Thanks to Moses' speedy and uncompromising intervention, which showed the people what is the correct way, and in which path one may not go, Moses sapped their will to repeat the sin, with the result that no one would dare to think any more about the construction of a Golden Calf.
Ten years ago, a small portion of our people built a new Golden Calf, named "the Oslo Accords." In the beginning, many danced around the Oslo Calf, but most of them gradually came to their senses, and understood that this was a calf of physical and spiritual death for the people of Israel, a Calf of surrender to the murderous enemy, a Calf that will eventually lead to the total destruction of the State of Israel.
Consequently, the majority of the people voted in the recent elections against the builders of this Calf and against their policy. But, to everyone's amazement, the policy of the erectors of the Calf, the architects and criminals of Oslo, still dominates the country - in the media, in the State Attorney's Office, in the courts, and soon, unfortunately, in the new government as well, so it would seem. All of this is because, until this very day, no one has dared challenge the criminal Oslo mentality.
This must stop. The time has come to smash the Oslo Calf to smithereens and return to the original "Tablets of the Covenant," which bear the inscription, "The Land of Israel for the People of Israel, according to the Torah of Israel." We shall succeed in accomplishing this, not by including the builders of the Calf in the government, and not by adopting their policy, but only if we will act as Moses did - by totally de-legitimatizing the Oslo policy and by punishing the architects and promulgators of the Oslo accords.
In our time, we do not act as did those in the wilderness. Therefore, we obviously are not calling to physically harm the Oslo criminals, but rather to place them on trial in a court in Jerusalem, on the charge of crimes against the Jewish people in its Land. These crimes were expressed, among other acts, by the giving of arms, ammunition, and parts of the Land to Arab murderers - an action that resulted in the murder of more than one thousand Jews, and the injuring of additional tens of thousands.
If we are successful in shattering and utterly destroying the mentality of the Oslo Calf, we will also succeed in smashing the extortion by the left in Israel. Thus, we will finally be able to establish a proud Jewish-Zionist government that is desired by the majority of the people of Israel, and which the countries of the world will respect and honor.
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Nadia Matar is co-chairwoman of the grass-roots activist organization Women for Israel?s Tomorrow (Women in Green). The Women in Green radio programs can be heard, on demand, in English at IsraelNationalNews.com, or in Hebrew at A7.org.
Elitzur reminds us about the massacre in the village of Sohmor in southern Lebanon, which, in contrast with the slaughter in Sabra and Shatilla, received no publicity throughout the world. The massacre in Sohmor took place about ten years after Sabra and Shatilla, with the murder of dozens of men, women, and children by South Lebanese Army soldiers, in retaliation for a serious attack conducted by the villagers against them.
As Uri Elitzur writes: "In Belgium they do not know about the Sohmor massacre, it is not mentioned in Israel, and even the Arabs have already forgotten about it, for the simple reason that during the time of Sohmor, the Israeli Prime Minister was Yitzhak Rabin, and Shimon Peres was the Foreign Minister. And therefore no Israeli leftist went into the streets to call them murderers and to demand a commission of inquiry. What turned Sabra and Shatilla into a colossal international story did not take place in the outskirts of Beirut, but rather in Malkhei Yisrael Square." (the plaza where the Israeli Left demonstrates).
What Elitzur writes is correct; the problem with his article is the conclusion that he reaches. Elitzur tells us that the above proves to all of us why it is so important that there be a unity government with the left - for with the left in the government, "they will not fill the [city] squares with demonstrations in which they turn us in the eyes of the entire world into war criminals."
In other words, Uri Elitzur, and many like him in the national camp, call upon us to surrender to the extortion, blackmail, by the left. This probably is also Prime Minister Sharon's line of thought. He is so afraid of demonstrations by the left in the city squares, he has been so traumatized by their criticism and incitement, that he prefers to have them join him, hoping that he will thereby be able to silence them, and prevent them from initiating demonstrations against him. The problem is that in order for the left to agree to this, including them in the government in a token manner will not suffice: the Prime Minister must come with "the goods." He must become "one of them," and continue their disastrous Oslo policy. The new government will have to be based on the basic guidelines of the left (the adoption of the "road map," the uprooting of Jewish communities). Only then will they agree to join him, out of the goodness of their hearts.
And so we are witness to a horrifying phenomenon: whoever calls for the establishment of a "unity" government with the left is actually calling for the Prime Minister and the Likud to totally surrender to the extortion of the left and to adopt their disastrous and criminal policy - and all this, for fear that the left will organize demonstrations against the policy of the government that, according to the will of the voter, should have been a strong national government.
The establishment of a false "unity" government with the left will therefore constitute a clear sign of the weakness and lack of leadership of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
The weekly Torah portion, that of Ki Tisa, teaches us how a true leader would act. Moses descends from the mount with the Tablets of the Covenant, and he sees the people reveling and prostrating themselves around the Golden Calf. Moses does not fear demonstrations against himself by the people, and he does not decide to have the leaders of those prostrating themselves to the Calf join him, in order to form with them a "unity government." A true leader knows that it is impossible to "unify" with sinners and with their way.
Moses understands that he must act quickly and forcefully in order to stop this deterioration: he must completely de-legitimize the Calf, and punish those who bow down to this cursed statue. First, he burns the Calf to the ground. After that, he enlists all those who remained loyal to God. Moses issues the call: "Whoever is for God, come to me," and "all the Levites rallied to him." It was the Levites who received the order to punish the sinners, and so, three thousand are killed by the Levites. After Moses demonstrated leadership and personally punished some of the sinners, the Lord sends a plague against all those who participated in the sin of the Golden Calf.
Thanks to Moses' speedy and uncompromising intervention, which showed the people what is the correct way, and in which path one may not go, Moses sapped their will to repeat the sin, with the result that no one would dare to think any more about the construction of a Golden Calf.
Ten years ago, a small portion of our people built a new Golden Calf, named "the Oslo Accords." In the beginning, many danced around the Oslo Calf, but most of them gradually came to their senses, and understood that this was a calf of physical and spiritual death for the people of Israel, a Calf of surrender to the murderous enemy, a Calf that will eventually lead to the total destruction of the State of Israel.
Consequently, the majority of the people voted in the recent elections against the builders of this Calf and against their policy. But, to everyone's amazement, the policy of the erectors of the Calf, the architects and criminals of Oslo, still dominates the country - in the media, in the State Attorney's Office, in the courts, and soon, unfortunately, in the new government as well, so it would seem. All of this is because, until this very day, no one has dared challenge the criminal Oslo mentality.
This must stop. The time has come to smash the Oslo Calf to smithereens and return to the original "Tablets of the Covenant," which bear the inscription, "The Land of Israel for the People of Israel, according to the Torah of Israel." We shall succeed in accomplishing this, not by including the builders of the Calf in the government, and not by adopting their policy, but only if we will act as Moses did - by totally de-legitimatizing the Oslo policy and by punishing the architects and promulgators of the Oslo accords.
In our time, we do not act as did those in the wilderness. Therefore, we obviously are not calling to physically harm the Oslo criminals, but rather to place them on trial in a court in Jerusalem, on the charge of crimes against the Jewish people in its Land. These crimes were expressed, among other acts, by the giving of arms, ammunition, and parts of the Land to Arab murderers - an action that resulted in the murder of more than one thousand Jews, and the injuring of additional tens of thousands.
If we are successful in shattering and utterly destroying the mentality of the Oslo Calf, we will also succeed in smashing the extortion by the left in Israel. Thus, we will finally be able to establish a proud Jewish-Zionist government that is desired by the majority of the people of Israel, and which the countries of the world will respect and honor.
--------------------------------------------------------
Nadia Matar is co-chairwoman of the grass-roots activist organization Women for Israel?s Tomorrow (Women in Green). The Women in Green radio programs can be heard, on demand, in English at IsraelNationalNews.com, or in Hebrew at A7.org.