I do not always watch the 8 PM TV news here in Israel, which is the hour of the national news. Last week, since it was freezing outside with lots of rain, thank G-d, I was curious to see how our Israeli TV reporters were explaining the delays of George W's war due to the extorting Turkish leadership.
The lead story was the most important one that I have seen or that most of you in the Diaspora have not yet heard through the local networks. The military correspondent, Ronny Daniel, was inside a bulletproof command car being driven by Colonel M. inside the Casbah of Schechem (Nablus).
We watched as the soldiers of the IDF Golani unit 202 were going from house to house inside the 700 year old Casbah of Schechem. Since last Passover's massacre in Netanya on Seder night, our IDF has been in and out of Schechem, unable to finish the 'job' because Arik Sharon knowingly allowed his coalition partner, the former ?Defenseless? Minister Ben-Eliezer of Labor, to run for his party leadership while running down our IDF.
We sat back with our mouths wide open and frozen in anger and disbelief as Ronny Daniel, Colonel M. and soldiers entered an Arab's house in Schechem. The cameras were filming the three floor 'find' of the IDF Golani heroes that day. The 'family' of Arab men, women, and children were escorted out of this house before the IDF engineering unit began to cut apart the tiles of the kitchen floor. The area below the kitchen was filled with hundreds of bags of nails, bolts, and screws in quantities that were apparently more than ACE Hardware's supply in your local mall. The heating and soldering machines were assembled with oil, gas, and combustible materials for the next tens of bus bombs being assembled.
On the second floor of this 'residential house of militants, activists, and residents' (sic), the cameras followed the explaining Colonel M. and our correspondent, Ronny, and we watched as more of our IDF soldiers were removing the walls of the 'kids' bedrooms' to find hand grenades and guns that the Arabs had received and stored. On the third floor of this house, the camera crew captured the bomb belts, their pieces and parts, with all sizes, colors and widths of belts; again, more choices than your local belt rack in Nordstrom?s.
As the officer and soldiers went to the next house in search, a soldier began to shout excitedly about his find in this house. We watched again, and saw dynamite sticks and fuses inside kids' school bags - bags that our kids use to carry schoolbooks. There must have been dozens of assembled school bags with bombs inside. Cellular phones and clocks, the alleged methods of detonation by remote control for some of the Arabs' terrorist devices, were discovered, as well.
The Colonel M. stated to the correspondent inside Schechem's Casbah that the IDF is now here for months to clean up, capture and destroy as much of these terrorist tools as possible. The questions we at home had were: why did we leave, enter, leave, enter, and now have to come back again in the past months?
I turned off the TV, as I knew that this rare habit of watching the news was dangerous to my health, but tonight's coverage of why we and our soldiers have to go house to house to search and destroy, rather than utilize our air force in one night, will not be covered by the CNN, BBC, or Reuters anti-Semite club members. Instead, we will be faced with possible IDF injuries, or G-d forbid deaths, in the coming weeks of this long-delayed action by the IDF under Shaul Mofaz. Mofaz is a defense minister who also knows what the word ?offense? means - because we Jews cannot do that which others can do in utilizing nonstop aerial bombing (remember Afghanistan last year?).
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Harvey Tannenbaum writes from Efrat.
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Spend Passover with Arutz Sheva at a resort in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Kfar Pines (near Hadera). Click here for info.
The lead story was the most important one that I have seen or that most of you in the Diaspora have not yet heard through the local networks. The military correspondent, Ronny Daniel, was inside a bulletproof command car being driven by Colonel M. inside the Casbah of Schechem (Nablus).
We watched as the soldiers of the IDF Golani unit 202 were going from house to house inside the 700 year old Casbah of Schechem. Since last Passover's massacre in Netanya on Seder night, our IDF has been in and out of Schechem, unable to finish the 'job' because Arik Sharon knowingly allowed his coalition partner, the former ?Defenseless? Minister Ben-Eliezer of Labor, to run for his party leadership while running down our IDF.
We sat back with our mouths wide open and frozen in anger and disbelief as Ronny Daniel, Colonel M. and soldiers entered an Arab's house in Schechem. The cameras were filming the three floor 'find' of the IDF Golani heroes that day. The 'family' of Arab men, women, and children were escorted out of this house before the IDF engineering unit began to cut apart the tiles of the kitchen floor. The area below the kitchen was filled with hundreds of bags of nails, bolts, and screws in quantities that were apparently more than ACE Hardware's supply in your local mall. The heating and soldering machines were assembled with oil, gas, and combustible materials for the next tens of bus bombs being assembled.
On the second floor of this 'residential house of militants, activists, and residents' (sic), the cameras followed the explaining Colonel M. and our correspondent, Ronny, and we watched as more of our IDF soldiers were removing the walls of the 'kids' bedrooms' to find hand grenades and guns that the Arabs had received and stored. On the third floor of this house, the camera crew captured the bomb belts, their pieces and parts, with all sizes, colors and widths of belts; again, more choices than your local belt rack in Nordstrom?s.
As the officer and soldiers went to the next house in search, a soldier began to shout excitedly about his find in this house. We watched again, and saw dynamite sticks and fuses inside kids' school bags - bags that our kids use to carry schoolbooks. There must have been dozens of assembled school bags with bombs inside. Cellular phones and clocks, the alleged methods of detonation by remote control for some of the Arabs' terrorist devices, were discovered, as well.
The Colonel M. stated to the correspondent inside Schechem's Casbah that the IDF is now here for months to clean up, capture and destroy as much of these terrorist tools as possible. The questions we at home had were: why did we leave, enter, leave, enter, and now have to come back again in the past months?
I turned off the TV, as I knew that this rare habit of watching the news was dangerous to my health, but tonight's coverage of why we and our soldiers have to go house to house to search and destroy, rather than utilize our air force in one night, will not be covered by the CNN, BBC, or Reuters anti-Semite club members. Instead, we will be faced with possible IDF injuries, or G-d forbid deaths, in the coming weeks of this long-delayed action by the IDF under Shaul Mofaz. Mofaz is a defense minister who also knows what the word ?offense? means - because we Jews cannot do that which others can do in utilizing nonstop aerial bombing (remember Afghanistan last year?).
--------------------------------------------------------
Harvey Tannenbaum writes from Efrat.
--------------------------------------------------------
Spend Passover with Arutz Sheva at a resort in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Kfar Pines (near Hadera). Click here for info.