We had our bags packed right by the door, and one day it happened. Father rushed in from his visit to the gendarmes and said, "We're going." And so, we went. Up, over the Pyrenees and down into Spain, and then to the legendary ship Serpa Pinto and finally to relative safety - and oh, this is a long story. The short of it is this - we had our bags packed.
Some 60 years later, all of Israel has its bags packed. Who thought it would come to this? But please listen up, O Israel. If you think you're any safer in Tel Aviv than in Gush Katif, think again. They will come for you, too. For the same reasoning that applies to one applies to the other. All of it is territory and all of it is occupied. Ask the nations, and ask the Jewish leaders who tremble and kowtow before the multitudes.
Yes, I understand the logic. Give up on Gaza, give up even further parts of the (Samaria and Judea) territories, and Israel will be secure against being swamped demographically. What's more, the IDF will have less to worry about, and what's even more, the Arabs will be ready for their 23rd homeland. The world will cheer that Israel has shown good faith in the name of peace. Congratulations will arrive from Kofi Annan, George Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Jack Straw and Tony Blair. So the thinking goes, and it certainly appears to be good politics.
Even if all that made sense politically, my gosh, the symbolism! The symbolism overwhelms all the politics, and I mean the symbolism of Jews, in Eretz Yisrael, waiting by the door with their bags packed. How old a story is this? The story is as old as Pharaoh himself, only this exodus is self-inflicted and in the wrong direction. This exodus is not the result of 10 plagues, but of one plague - the timidity (perhaps even the corruption) of Jewish leadership.
Most experts tell us that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is in partial mode (like being slightly pregnant), meaning that after his plan to cleanse Gaza of Jews went down to defeat from the votes of Likud, he is approaching Plan B, to do the uprooting bit by bit, piece by piece, so as to assure the world, "Look, I'm doing it, I'm doing your work," and, on the other hand, to show Israel, "Look, I am kosher. I have nothing to hide. See? I have split hooves."
Sharon is indeed the magician people say he is. "See what I can do? I can make Jews disappear slowly or in a snap. Poof. Now you see them, now you don't." Magic.
Of the Likud results, Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert did the math and discovered that minus is plus, a loss is a win. More magic.
Say this for Olmert: truly, he is a wizard of odds.
Indeed, Olmert insists otherwise about Sharon's piecemeal delivery. Not some Jews, but all Jews of Gaza - gone! Plan A is still operative. Yes, Sharon will curtsy to the nations. The reasoning? Not enough people voted, or, who cares? Who cares what the people say if your mind is already made up? Democracy, shemocracy!
Over here in the United States, the person (or the referendum) who gets the most votes wins. Doesn't matter how many people cast ballots. In fact, most local elections get about a 30 percent turnout, and even some nationwide elections grudgingly attract 50 percent of eligible voters. (About the same number of the Likud showed up to be counted.)
Still, a win is a win. Not so, apparently, according to the leadership and opinion-makers in Israel. Editorialists keep reminding us that, suddenly, Likud is only Likud, not Israel. In the flurry of speak, spin, double-speak and double-spin, it is as if that Likud referendum never happened.
To what can this be likened? To a judge warning the jury to disregard and forget the testimony of the witness. After all, we are reminded, the Sharon defeat (60 to 39 percent against) represents but a fraction of total Israel.
We can be sure, however, that had the results gone the other way, in favor of Sharon and Olmert, the headlines would have been entirely different - "THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL HAVE SPOKEN! UPROOTING BEGINS IMMEDIATELY." In fact, it's as if Likud never spoke. Powell and his Quartet hardly mention the will of Likud and express pleasure that Sharon "will go ahead anyway with the Gaza Plan." (Sharon has already offered Bush and the European Union their gift of his disengagement plan, and to prove that he is behaving, three Yesha "outposts" are ready for oblivion.)
Naturally, (one suspects) any plan that reduces the size of Israel (until it is all gone, G-d forbid) brings joy in the morning. Twenty-two Arab nations are too few. One Israel is too many. Any plan that sends Jews packing is a good plan. Any plan that gives more territory to the 300 million Arabs is an excellent plan. Arab territory stretches millions of square miles beyond the entire Unites States. But that is not enough. Israel "occupies" a good earth not even the size of New Jersey. But even that is too much.
Where have you gone Bret Stephens of the Jerusalem Post and Eric Fettmann of the New York Post? Who are your new friends? Your thinking is clever. But all of it still means that Jews live on quicksand. This cleverness still leaves Jews without roots, Israel without sovereignty. Do you truly believe the beast that devours will ever be satiated?
The designs of the nations could not be more obvious. For the Olympics, Greece refuses to name Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland, but more famous for chairing the Israel-bashing bonfire of the vanities at Durban, is given a seat at Columbia. Academics and diplomats from east, west, north and south insist on boycotting Jewish Israel, which is virtually the only place in the Middle East where Arabs enjoy freedom of expression and Christians are free to attend church.
Few tears were shed over the murder of a pregnant Israeli woman and her four daughters. Amnesty International finally got a grip and serviced a rare voice of pity for Tali Hatuel and her family. But the headlines could find no ink for the weeping of their blood. No apologies were demanded of the Arab world. None given. (But see how fast we run to them in contrition for our alleged sins of "abuse".)
In an act timed to reward this latest genocide, and in a sacrificial bounty to a generation that has no heart, hours after the Hatuel slaying, the UN General Assembly voted to give the Palestinian Arabs complete sovereignty over Gaza, the "West Bank" and East Jerusalem. The vote was 140 to 6, a sign of plans to come.
The big plan, the real plan, the master plan, is to set all of Israel packing. Sorry to be so blunt. But that's how it is. They can fool the rest, but they can't fool me. I know the tricks. I am wise to the abracadabra that turns showers into ovens... and in we marched. I am acquainted with their sleights of hand that levitate people from home and land... and out we go.
Uri Geller can bend a spoon with his mind. That is nothing compared to what they can bend with their boycotts, resolutions, accords, Quartets, road maps and peace processes.
But let's pretend that Olmert's plan succeeds by whatever trickery he uses as the self-anointed king of post-Israel. Okay, so here's another plan. If it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander (and I do hate cliches, but here it fits). If Jews may not live with Arabs in Arab lands (a rule in most of the Arab world? and soon to be in Gaza?), then let's be fair. Arabs, therefore, may not live with Jews in Jewish lands. This means that the million-and-a-half Arabs who live in Israel must be sent packing as well.
Fair is fair. Ethnic cleansing is ethnic cleansing, and should work both ways. Anyone who singles out Jews exclusively for ethnic cleansing is surely a bigot.
Of course, no one wants to be called a bigot in this age of political correctness.
So, if we go, they go; and let Daniel Barenboim go with them and forever fiddle Wagner in Ramallah.
Some 60 years later, all of Israel has its bags packed. Who thought it would come to this? But please listen up, O Israel. If you think you're any safer in Tel Aviv than in Gush Katif, think again. They will come for you, too. For the same reasoning that applies to one applies to the other. All of it is territory and all of it is occupied. Ask the nations, and ask the Jewish leaders who tremble and kowtow before the multitudes.
Yes, I understand the logic. Give up on Gaza, give up even further parts of the (Samaria and Judea) territories, and Israel will be secure against being swamped demographically. What's more, the IDF will have less to worry about, and what's even more, the Arabs will be ready for their 23rd homeland. The world will cheer that Israel has shown good faith in the name of peace. Congratulations will arrive from Kofi Annan, George Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Jack Straw and Tony Blair. So the thinking goes, and it certainly appears to be good politics.
Even if all that made sense politically, my gosh, the symbolism! The symbolism overwhelms all the politics, and I mean the symbolism of Jews, in Eretz Yisrael, waiting by the door with their bags packed. How old a story is this? The story is as old as Pharaoh himself, only this exodus is self-inflicted and in the wrong direction. This exodus is not the result of 10 plagues, but of one plague - the timidity (perhaps even the corruption) of Jewish leadership.
Most experts tell us that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is in partial mode (like being slightly pregnant), meaning that after his plan to cleanse Gaza of Jews went down to defeat from the votes of Likud, he is approaching Plan B, to do the uprooting bit by bit, piece by piece, so as to assure the world, "Look, I'm doing it, I'm doing your work," and, on the other hand, to show Israel, "Look, I am kosher. I have nothing to hide. See? I have split hooves."
Sharon is indeed the magician people say he is. "See what I can do? I can make Jews disappear slowly or in a snap. Poof. Now you see them, now you don't." Magic.
Of the Likud results, Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert did the math and discovered that minus is plus, a loss is a win. More magic.
Say this for Olmert: truly, he is a wizard of odds.
Indeed, Olmert insists otherwise about Sharon's piecemeal delivery. Not some Jews, but all Jews of Gaza - gone! Plan A is still operative. Yes, Sharon will curtsy to the nations. The reasoning? Not enough people voted, or, who cares? Who cares what the people say if your mind is already made up? Democracy, shemocracy!
Over here in the United States, the person (or the referendum) who gets the most votes wins. Doesn't matter how many people cast ballots. In fact, most local elections get about a 30 percent turnout, and even some nationwide elections grudgingly attract 50 percent of eligible voters. (About the same number of the Likud showed up to be counted.)
Still, a win is a win. Not so, apparently, according to the leadership and opinion-makers in Israel. Editorialists keep reminding us that, suddenly, Likud is only Likud, not Israel. In the flurry of speak, spin, double-speak and double-spin, it is as if that Likud referendum never happened.
To what can this be likened? To a judge warning the jury to disregard and forget the testimony of the witness. After all, we are reminded, the Sharon defeat (60 to 39 percent against) represents but a fraction of total Israel.
We can be sure, however, that had the results gone the other way, in favor of Sharon and Olmert, the headlines would have been entirely different - "THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL HAVE SPOKEN! UPROOTING BEGINS IMMEDIATELY." In fact, it's as if Likud never spoke. Powell and his Quartet hardly mention the will of Likud and express pleasure that Sharon "will go ahead anyway with the Gaza Plan." (Sharon has already offered Bush and the European Union their gift of his disengagement plan, and to prove that he is behaving, three Yesha "outposts" are ready for oblivion.)
Naturally, (one suspects) any plan that reduces the size of Israel (until it is all gone, G-d forbid) brings joy in the morning. Twenty-two Arab nations are too few. One Israel is too many. Any plan that sends Jews packing is a good plan. Any plan that gives more territory to the 300 million Arabs is an excellent plan. Arab territory stretches millions of square miles beyond the entire Unites States. But that is not enough. Israel "occupies" a good earth not even the size of New Jersey. But even that is too much.
Where have you gone Bret Stephens of the Jerusalem Post and Eric Fettmann of the New York Post? Who are your new friends? Your thinking is clever. But all of it still means that Jews live on quicksand. This cleverness still leaves Jews without roots, Israel without sovereignty. Do you truly believe the beast that devours will ever be satiated?
The designs of the nations could not be more obvious. For the Olympics, Greece refuses to name Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland, but more famous for chairing the Israel-bashing bonfire of the vanities at Durban, is given a seat at Columbia. Academics and diplomats from east, west, north and south insist on boycotting Jewish Israel, which is virtually the only place in the Middle East where Arabs enjoy freedom of expression and Christians are free to attend church.
Few tears were shed over the murder of a pregnant Israeli woman and her four daughters. Amnesty International finally got a grip and serviced a rare voice of pity for Tali Hatuel and her family. But the headlines could find no ink for the weeping of their blood. No apologies were demanded of the Arab world. None given. (But see how fast we run to them in contrition for our alleged sins of "abuse".)
In an act timed to reward this latest genocide, and in a sacrificial bounty to a generation that has no heart, hours after the Hatuel slaying, the UN General Assembly voted to give the Palestinian Arabs complete sovereignty over Gaza, the "West Bank" and East Jerusalem. The vote was 140 to 6, a sign of plans to come.
The big plan, the real plan, the master plan, is to set all of Israel packing. Sorry to be so blunt. But that's how it is. They can fool the rest, but they can't fool me. I know the tricks. I am wise to the abracadabra that turns showers into ovens... and in we marched. I am acquainted with their sleights of hand that levitate people from home and land... and out we go.
Uri Geller can bend a spoon with his mind. That is nothing compared to what they can bend with their boycotts, resolutions, accords, Quartets, road maps and peace processes.
But let's pretend that Olmert's plan succeeds by whatever trickery he uses as the self-anointed king of post-Israel. Okay, so here's another plan. If it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander (and I do hate cliches, but here it fits). If Jews may not live with Arabs in Arab lands (a rule in most of the Arab world? and soon to be in Gaza?), then let's be fair. Arabs, therefore, may not live with Jews in Jewish lands. This means that the million-and-a-half Arabs who live in Israel must be sent packing as well.
Fair is fair. Ethnic cleansing is ethnic cleansing, and should work both ways. Anyone who singles out Jews exclusively for ethnic cleansing is surely a bigot.
Of course, no one wants to be called a bigot in this age of political correctness.
So, if we go, they go; and let Daniel Barenboim go with them and forever fiddle Wagner in Ramallah.