Good and evil cannot co-exist. One or the other. Therefore, Israel can never co-exist with a Palestinian Arab state. Side-by-side in peace and security, as promised by President Bush and Prime Minister Sharon? Won't work. Jews believe that murder is a sin. Islamist Palestinian Arabs believe that murder is a blessing. Israel's tyrannical Leftniks may think up a thousand different ways to chop up the Land, but the reconciliation they have in mind can never happen; not while Islam is aflame, and using the Palestinian Arabs as its shock troops.
Is it sinful to say that Muslim fanaticism is worse than Nazi fanaticism? Well, for all of their unspeakable horrors, the Nazis, at least, cared (to an extent) about their own, and not until the end, did they send out German children to simultaneously kill and die and serve Moloch. The enemy we face today is far more treacherous, and more difficult to defeat, than anything humanity has faced in the past, for these are Terrorists Without Borders. They place no value on human life. On the contrary. To kill and die is good.
We're told that this war on terror is a war against evil-doers. Wrong.
These are good-doers. Just ask them. Socrates said that no man knowingly does evil. These people, then, are actually doing good, in their own eyes. If they knew they were evil, they would capitulate. They would express their remorse for committing murder, except that they see themselves as saviors.
All despots, and all ideologies, like Islamism, figure themselves as "repairing the world." So what if they have to murder, rape and plunder to achieve their goals?
Osama bin Laden sees himself as purifying the world, as did Hitler. All it takes is getting rid of everybody else.
But has there ever been a photo of a Nazi mother proudly sending off her child to commit suicide/murder? Of smiling Palestinian mothers, yes. How do you defeat an enemy like this ? how do you reconcile? Modern Israel has known this enemy for more than a generation. Bush is just finding it out in Iraq, but refuses to learn. He keeps saying we're making progress, as more and more Iraqis leap and dance upon our Blackhawks Down. It's like fighting an ocean. Scoop up all you want, there's always more.
As we build "security barriers" all over Iraq, we punish Israel (downsizing our loan guarantees) for doing the same against the same enemy. (Bad signal, Mr. Bush.)
The Arab news media, reporting on Bush's speech in England, mock him for his crusade to spread democracy. Their editorialists are telling Bush to take his democracy and shove it, in addition to telling him that democracy cannot be imposed. They are right. Tyranny can be imposed. Islamic radicalism can be imposed. Not democracy.
Without knowing it, the Arab news media have taken a page from Kierkegaard and given it their own twist: "Freedom is a punishment," he wrote, "not a reward." So here's a beauty from the Egyptian press, and written without irony: "Bush has forgotten that the Arab and Islamic peoples prefer to be ruled by a dictator such as Saddam Hussein than by a democratic president of the likes of Bush."
Plainly, to them, we're the bad guys.
All that I have just said (and I am switching tracks) should be cause for arrest according to some in Israel, under the post-Rabin "incitement" laws that have snagged Israeli Noam Federman, among others. I haven't the space here to go into all that, so I refer you to Ruth Matar's November 13 analysis on IsraelNN.com, titled "Administrative Detention Abuse". Disturbing, if you're thinking of visiting Israel, and share the views above, and most disturbing if you're thinking of Aliyah.
In a nutshell, a citizen can be held in Administrative Detention for up to six months without being charged. Originally, the law was meant to detain Arab terrorists, but, as a backlash to the Rabin assassination, it's being used by Israel's Left to intimidate and entrap any Israeli who fails the "I Love Oslo and Geneva" test. Or the "I Love Rabin" test. Or the "I love the terrorists" test.
Federman, apparently, scored low on all of the above and sits in jail. And what exactly did he do? Far as I can tell, something akin to failure to pay for a parking ticket.
Is this the Israel that awaits us if we plan to visit or make Aliyah? Is Israel for the Left only? Anyone else need not apply? Anyone else can be arrested?
For those of us with a heart for Israel, this is confounding. Mixed signals abound. Tourism Minister Benny Elon is due here, in the U.S., in a few days to encourage tourism under a program called "Project Go Israel." A couple of weeks later, in Israel, the directors of Arutz Sheva radio (which has already been shut down by the law; yes, under Sharon's government) are to be sentenced for the crime of being loyal to the Zionist ideal.
So where do I "go", Mr. Sharon, if I planned a career in radio at Arutz Sheva, which you insist on prosecuting?
It gets worse. Word has just arrived here in the United States that, giddy from its success in muzzling Arutz Sheva radio, Israel's Left now has its Big Brother eyes on Arutz Sheva's website, www.israelnationalnews.com, upon which millions of us around the world rely for the unvarnished truth. The facts? Israel's Attorney General, Elyakim Rubinstein has called upon the police to investigate Arutz Sheva's website for "incitement." Rubinstein is acting upon a summons from Meretz MK Zahva Gal-On, who, apparently, wants to finish off Israel's nationalist/Biblical voice completely. (I have alerted as many American Zionist Christians as I can to hurriedly protest this Israeli-upon-Israeli censorship, as all the while Israel is burning from its real enemy, Arab terrorism.) A word to Minister Zahava Gal-On and other Israeli Big Brothers: You are an embarrassment to Israel and to the Jewish people as a whole. We thought you had free speech over in Israel. America Is Watching!
So, at the same time that Israel urges us to visit, or make Aliyah, plans are underfoot to advance outpouring rather than ingathering. Besides Beilin's Geneva uproot-the-Jews proposal, the buzz in Israel is about four ex-Israeli security chiefs who have the ultimate plan for making peace with the Arabs ? kill the Jews. I simplify. But these Fab Four Jews-for-Islam say that the "settlers" are fair game for arrest or murder if they refuse to vacate, and promptly. Incredible, but true, and equally incredible - no "incitement" charges against these Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. (Where are you on this Rubinstein, Zahava Gal-On, et al.?)
So why "Go Israel" ? to be uprooted?
Like many others, I do not fit the desired profile. Here's my position. I do not favor transferring the Arabs. I do favor transferring the Intifada. So happens that the Arabs are in that business.
Sharon himself has it two-faced. On the one hand (the Right) he says Aliyah is his "first priority." Thank you. On the other hand (the Left) he's prepared to dismantle any number of settlements.
So why "Go Israel" ? to be dismantled? Or, to be placed in Administrative Detention along with Federman for speaking my mind? (He's often in solitary confinement.)
It gets even worse. Just when you thought it was safe to snuggle up to the Right, along come some members of the settlers' council with yet another plan ? maybe even worse than Beilin's Geneva. Never mind the details, for it's all too confusing and too upsetting. But no other nation on earth - not one! - wheels and deals its sacred territory. Who but Israel is ready to give up this for that, and that for this? Is Israel a nation or a going out of business sale? Where's the pride? Where's the sacredness? Where's the dream? I haven't lost mine, but I am troubled and confused.
To borrow from Bob Dylan, who told politicians, "You're playing with my world." Listen, Beilin, Burg, Mitzna and all the rest, "You're playing with my land."
Yes, I know the argument. We, of the Diaspora, have no right to meddle until we put in our time as citizens. That is, until we make Aliyah. But I argue the contrary. What good are we in a place where we will be told to shut up, or else? Are we not better off shouting from a distance?
But, despite it all: Next Year In Jerusalem!
Is it sinful to say that Muslim fanaticism is worse than Nazi fanaticism? Well, for all of their unspeakable horrors, the Nazis, at least, cared (to an extent) about their own, and not until the end, did they send out German children to simultaneously kill and die and serve Moloch. The enemy we face today is far more treacherous, and more difficult to defeat, than anything humanity has faced in the past, for these are Terrorists Without Borders. They place no value on human life. On the contrary. To kill and die is good.
We're told that this war on terror is a war against evil-doers. Wrong.
These are good-doers. Just ask them. Socrates said that no man knowingly does evil. These people, then, are actually doing good, in their own eyes. If they knew they were evil, they would capitulate. They would express their remorse for committing murder, except that they see themselves as saviors.
All despots, and all ideologies, like Islamism, figure themselves as "repairing the world." So what if they have to murder, rape and plunder to achieve their goals?
Osama bin Laden sees himself as purifying the world, as did Hitler. All it takes is getting rid of everybody else.
But has there ever been a photo of a Nazi mother proudly sending off her child to commit suicide/murder? Of smiling Palestinian mothers, yes. How do you defeat an enemy like this ? how do you reconcile? Modern Israel has known this enemy for more than a generation. Bush is just finding it out in Iraq, but refuses to learn. He keeps saying we're making progress, as more and more Iraqis leap and dance upon our Blackhawks Down. It's like fighting an ocean. Scoop up all you want, there's always more.
As we build "security barriers" all over Iraq, we punish Israel (downsizing our loan guarantees) for doing the same against the same enemy. (Bad signal, Mr. Bush.)
The Arab news media, reporting on Bush's speech in England, mock him for his crusade to spread democracy. Their editorialists are telling Bush to take his democracy and shove it, in addition to telling him that democracy cannot be imposed. They are right. Tyranny can be imposed. Islamic radicalism can be imposed. Not democracy.
Without knowing it, the Arab news media have taken a page from Kierkegaard and given it their own twist: "Freedom is a punishment," he wrote, "not a reward." So here's a beauty from the Egyptian press, and written without irony: "Bush has forgotten that the Arab and Islamic peoples prefer to be ruled by a dictator such as Saddam Hussein than by a democratic president of the likes of Bush."
Plainly, to them, we're the bad guys.
All that I have just said (and I am switching tracks) should be cause for arrest according to some in Israel, under the post-Rabin "incitement" laws that have snagged Israeli Noam Federman, among others. I haven't the space here to go into all that, so I refer you to Ruth Matar's November 13 analysis on IsraelNN.com, titled "Administrative Detention Abuse". Disturbing, if you're thinking of visiting Israel, and share the views above, and most disturbing if you're thinking of Aliyah.
In a nutshell, a citizen can be held in Administrative Detention for up to six months without being charged. Originally, the law was meant to detain Arab terrorists, but, as a backlash to the Rabin assassination, it's being used by Israel's Left to intimidate and entrap any Israeli who fails the "I Love Oslo and Geneva" test. Or the "I Love Rabin" test. Or the "I love the terrorists" test.
Federman, apparently, scored low on all of the above and sits in jail. And what exactly did he do? Far as I can tell, something akin to failure to pay for a parking ticket.
Is this the Israel that awaits us if we plan to visit or make Aliyah? Is Israel for the Left only? Anyone else need not apply? Anyone else can be arrested?
For those of us with a heart for Israel, this is confounding. Mixed signals abound. Tourism Minister Benny Elon is due here, in the U.S., in a few days to encourage tourism under a program called "Project Go Israel." A couple of weeks later, in Israel, the directors of Arutz Sheva radio (which has already been shut down by the law; yes, under Sharon's government) are to be sentenced for the crime of being loyal to the Zionist ideal.
So where do I "go", Mr. Sharon, if I planned a career in radio at Arutz Sheva, which you insist on prosecuting?
It gets worse. Word has just arrived here in the United States that, giddy from its success in muzzling Arutz Sheva radio, Israel's Left now has its Big Brother eyes on Arutz Sheva's website, www.israelnationalnews.com, upon which millions of us around the world rely for the unvarnished truth. The facts? Israel's Attorney General, Elyakim Rubinstein has called upon the police to investigate Arutz Sheva's website for "incitement." Rubinstein is acting upon a summons from Meretz MK Zahva Gal-On, who, apparently, wants to finish off Israel's nationalist/Biblical voice completely. (I have alerted as many American Zionist Christians as I can to hurriedly protest this Israeli-upon-Israeli censorship, as all the while Israel is burning from its real enemy, Arab terrorism.) A word to Minister Zahava Gal-On and other Israeli Big Brothers: You are an embarrassment to Israel and to the Jewish people as a whole. We thought you had free speech over in Israel. America Is Watching!
So, at the same time that Israel urges us to visit, or make Aliyah, plans are underfoot to advance outpouring rather than ingathering. Besides Beilin's Geneva uproot-the-Jews proposal, the buzz in Israel is about four ex-Israeli security chiefs who have the ultimate plan for making peace with the Arabs ? kill the Jews. I simplify. But these Fab Four Jews-for-Islam say that the "settlers" are fair game for arrest or murder if they refuse to vacate, and promptly. Incredible, but true, and equally incredible - no "incitement" charges against these Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. (Where are you on this Rubinstein, Zahava Gal-On, et al.?)
So why "Go Israel" ? to be uprooted?
Like many others, I do not fit the desired profile. Here's my position. I do not favor transferring the Arabs. I do favor transferring the Intifada. So happens that the Arabs are in that business.
Sharon himself has it two-faced. On the one hand (the Right) he says Aliyah is his "first priority." Thank you. On the other hand (the Left) he's prepared to dismantle any number of settlements.
So why "Go Israel" ? to be dismantled? Or, to be placed in Administrative Detention along with Federman for speaking my mind? (He's often in solitary confinement.)
It gets even worse. Just when you thought it was safe to snuggle up to the Right, along come some members of the settlers' council with yet another plan ? maybe even worse than Beilin's Geneva. Never mind the details, for it's all too confusing and too upsetting. But no other nation on earth - not one! - wheels and deals its sacred territory. Who but Israel is ready to give up this for that, and that for this? Is Israel a nation or a going out of business sale? Where's the pride? Where's the sacredness? Where's the dream? I haven't lost mine, but I am troubled and confused.
To borrow from Bob Dylan, who told politicians, "You're playing with my world." Listen, Beilin, Burg, Mitzna and all the rest, "You're playing with my land."
Yes, I know the argument. We, of the Diaspora, have no right to meddle until we put in our time as citizens. That is, until we make Aliyah. But I argue the contrary. What good are we in a place where we will be told to shut up, or else? Are we not better off shouting from a distance?
But, despite it all: Next Year In Jerusalem!