A Voice from Hebron -- February 5, 1999

There seems to be, deeply imbedded within the Israeli mentality, a powerful paranoia which makes any effort to identify Arabs as enemies of the Jewish people an expression of "racism" which cannot be tolerated. This fear of possibly prejudging our Arab neighbors solely on racist grounds is so repugnant to all levels of the political eschelon as to have rendered our normal sense of survival moribund.

President Ezer Weizman has decided to release Arab murderers from prison, for peace, and, in order to mitigate criticism, he has agreed to reduce the sentences of Jewish prisoners convicted of killing Arabs. The logic, as usual, is full of holes. If the PLO has been forgiven for murdering our children because we now recognize that they were only fighting for their legitimate rights, then how can we free Jews who killed Arabs when, clearly the Jewish effort to fight for our homeland denies the Arabs their rights? It seems that we can no longer distinguish between right and wrong. . . between the Jewish right to our homeland and the deceitful Arab claim to it.

No matter how hard our politicians may try to justify, even to themselves, our current negotiations with those who seek our outright annihilation, I am not convinced that even one honestly believes he is dealing with a potential partner in a genuine peace process. There was a time, not so long ago, when only fringe elements on the left had succeeded in this self­deception. Today we have a right­wing Prime Minister, and the legendary Ariel Sharon, both actively pursuing a dead end course of trying to make peace with terror. The only complaint the left can make is that this extremist government is not committing suicide fast enough for them.

The picture gets even more ridiculous when we find the alleged super right wing, Benny Begin, refusing to join with Moledet, citing that party's desire to transfer our enemies out of our homeland as being racist. The most ludicrous of all is the fact that Ghandi's position only calls for "voluntary" transfer of those of our Arab neighbors who are terrorists. And further, he only calls for this limited expulsion for those particular terrorists who live in Judea and Samaria. The Israeli Arab terrorists have immunity from his transfer plan on the grounds that they are Israeli citizens.

How is it possible for an entire political system to have contracted such a deep seated madness as to justify the right of our enemy to seek our destruction on our own soil? Not only this, but we have been and continue to be, actively assisting our enemies in their efforts to destroy us. We have invited them to set up an entire military infrastructure, with autonomous control, on our sovereign Land. We have given them weapons and closed our eyes as they smuggle in more. We have given them military bases, and have literally ceded large portions of land over which they have established defacto sovereignty, in violation of the most basic intentions of the Oslo agreement. Not one political faction has cried foul. Instead even Mr. Reciprocity himself has accepted the innumerable PLO violations and, in spite of them, continues the madness of giving away more of our sacred homeland to the PLO murderers.

How is it that the office of the Prime Minister has spent such an enormous amount of time publishing itemized lists of the PLO violations of every agreement, and yet fails to acknowledge the fact that agreements which are openly and consistently violated are no longer agreements? By definition, both Oslo and Wye have long ceased to be valid by virtue of this clear and measurable fact. Yet the government of Israel sees the need to continue to act against our most fundamental self interest even as it cries that it doesn't want to continue a bad agreement! It is my contention that the establishment of a unique and strange "morality" in Israel which re­defines the term racism to mean saying or thinking anything bad about Arabs, even if they are murderous enemies of the Jewish State, has so completely embedded itself into our culture that even those who choose to call themselves "right wing" are no longer able to recognize our enemies as such.

The Jewish State was established to be the homeland of the Jewish people. At the time this was not considered a racist concept. Today it would seem that our entire government, from right to left, thinks that it is. We have replaced the Zionist concept of establishing a safe haven for the Jewish People, with a poor replica of the American credo of a homeland for all peoples. Our Arab enemies have exploited our obvious vulnerability to this absurd "racism" complex and have used it to establish the framework with which they hope to restructure the concept of a Jewish State, to a democratic state with full and equal rights for Arabs, and then take advantage of that "equality" to democratically turn Jewish Israel into Arab Palestine. This is not a clandestine deception, rather an open campaign. Arafat does not want to become an Israeli citizen. He wants to be King of Palestine with Jerusalem as his capital. Tibi does not want to be an Israeli legislator. He wants to take the government of Israel from the Jews and rebuild it as the government of Arab Palestine. I do not blame Tibi and Arafat for working to achieve Arab sovereignty over my homeland. It is perfectly normal for my enemies to hate me and try to destroy me. But how can I explain or tolerate a Jewish government which assists our enemies in these efforts?

I am back to my dilemma of an upcoming election day. Once again I am told that I must vote for Bibi, because Barak is worse. But it is clear to me that both are disastrous to the Jewish people and the Jewish homeland. Only a Jewish leader who remembers why we created this reborn Jewish State is worthy of being elected. No, I do not need a perfect leader. But there must be some minimum guidelines to which a leader worthy of our vote must subscribe. I can think of two simple ones which do not require the candidate to be either the Messiah or even religious. First and foremost such a leader must declare that Israel is the Jewish homeland which cannot be parceled out to others, even for real peace. And secondly, any non­Jew who declares his intention to take any part of our homeland from us must be immediately expelled. If these two minimal concepts of survival cannot be adopted by a candidate, then why should I vote for him? I know, if I vote for the left they will give away my country quicker. But if I vote for the so called right, then I am lending my approval to the abandonment of my homeland! How can such a stance be morally justified?

Election day has not yet arrived. If I find a candidate who can accept those two minimum points as part of his platform I will vote for him. If not. . .