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Subject: [PNEWS] OPED: Report from a trip to Israel From: Robert and David Tsal <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Report from a trip to Israel by David Tsal If Israelis do not want to help themselves, no one in the world can help them. This is my basic impression from the trip to Israel I have made in October, 2001. This was my second trip to Israel. The first one took place 6 years ago and was filled with fascinating events and encounters with amazing characters a trip of great joy and discovery. Now things were different. I have heard for a very long time that the Sabras (those born in Israel) are truly new Jews. The word "sabra" stands for a cactus fruit, which is rough and spiky on the surface, but soft and sweet in the middle. This is how Israeli Jews were described to me: hard and spiky on the surface, but sweet inside. I was told that they differ from the "old Jews" in their open and direct manner, in freedom they breathe all their lives, in their being unafraid to stand up for their dignity and other basic rights every human is entitled to. I have also read an article on how to fight Jew-hatred, written by an Israeli student at Columbia University. The occasion was a speech by Leonard Jeffries (antisemitic professor) at Columbia. The student was so upset with lack of dignity in American Jews that he longed to return to Israel. What a tremendous article. Here was a true Sabra, just like I have heard. It has made a great impression on me. My first visit in 1997 was essentially exploratory: I did not have any preconceived notion about any sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict. This allowed me to find out some things, so that I would know where to stand. I came out on the "right" (in the Israeli meaning of this term). With time, and especially since the beginning of the new "intifada", I have moved further and further to the right. However, I do not regard the Israeli Left as enemies, but rather as wrongheaded and unpleasant relatives. So much of what they do strikes me as offensive, and deliberately meant to be that way. Though they speak of peace, their attitude is often war-like. In general, I do not believe those who profess to love other peoples while hating or despising their own. Recently I have become aware of the danger of Arab overpopulation. In 20 years the Arab population of Israel will exceed the Jewish population. Since there are zero chances for peace, there is a real danger of second Holocaust: extermination of 5-6 million Israeli Jews. If peace is not achievable, and if Arab hatred is unquenchable (and it looks that way), nothing but the most brutal measures can change the flow of things. And if Israel cannot take care of the current pathetic "intifada", how in the world is it going to handle that problem? This was my mindset when I came to Israel. Perhaps the first impression I had in Israel was that of great relief. Here terrorists were called terrorists. Here I heard the Jewish tradition discussed openly and unapologetically on the radio. "Palestinian opinions" did not overwhelm the airwaves, and Jewish history, including recent history, did not have to be "balanced" by presenting a "Palestinian view". The difference with American sources like NPR and CNN was startling. Only now could I appreciate just how overwhelmingly pro-Arab and anti-Israel American media has become. The sense of liberation made my head spin. I felt like I had just escaped from a weird country, with basically good people and the media managed by Nazis. But this euphoria did not last. Tolerance for Arabs and everything they do permeates Israeli society from top to bottom and from left to right. Shortly before I left, Palestinians used the death of Feisal Husseini to make a "Day of the Arab" in Jerusalem, where Jews had to yield to the Arabs on the street (just like in the Arab countries, where Jews are Dhimmies). About 150 Arabs waving PLO flags took to the streets in Jerusalem, blocking motorists and jumping on cars. Then the Border Guard police cleared the traffic. No one was hurt. Israelis are generally louder, more rude and hot-tempered than Americans. Fights in Knesset are much more common than in the US Congress. Certainly if Jews were to block motorists and jump on cars in Jerusalem, some of them would get their faces bloodied. But nothing like that happens to Arabs. I read an interview with a leader of one of the Israeli leftist feminist organizations. Her approach was that Palestinians who kill Israelis (within the green line) are terrorists, but Palestinians killing settlers are freedom fighters. When she was asked whether the sniper who deliberately killed a settler baby was also a freedom fighter, she responded, "I have to think about it". On many intersections in Tel Aviv I saw "Women in Black" self-satisfied wealthy-looking light-skinned ladies (and a few men) with smug faces. One day in Tel Aviv the leftists brought 750 "coffins of dead Palestinians" to their rally. (Of course, including those who had blown themselves up.) I have not seen it, but I heard many people (more sane from my point of view) talk angrily about it. These are leftists, but the right wingers are not that different. When I remarked that a group of Arabs had not only killed but mutilated two Israeli civilians and that a terrorist of the "Black September" group (which was actually the PLO under a different name) drank the blood of a Jordanian diplomat after killing him, I immediately heard, "yes, but that is not out of hatred, it's just an Arab tradition". This from an "extreme right-winger". Excuses for Arab behavior abound. Leftists blame it on the "occupation" and poverty, right-wingers on Arab tradition, the religion of Islam, the British rule and the "peace process". Both blame previous Israeli governments. Anything and everything but the Arabs themselves. Larisa Gershtein (Jerusalem Deputy Mayor) is the only one who has had a realization that the mutilators and the blood-drinkers are the first to be held responsible, and that just as they disregard the norms of humanity, no norms of humanity should be applied to them. But in this she is completely alone. I have seen the Dolphinarium disco, the scene of the worst carnage since the start of the recent "intifada". (Alas, it is not the worst any more.) There is a monument in front, with signs in Hebrew, English and Russian, and many, many flowers. And directly across stands a mosque with a tall minaret, with bright, cold neon lights, for everyone to see who is the real master. A cruel scene. But I was the only one seeing the cruelty. The Israelis who accompanied me did not share, or even understand why I am angry at the mosque. I have always been suspicious of anyone who loves other cultures and despises one's own. There are plenty of Jews in Israel who love Arabs, yet have little love for other Jews. There is a psychological problem here. With time it became clear to me that in the mind of many Israelis too, Arabs are human, but Jews are not quite. It is not that Israelis are completely devoid of hatred. Many kinds of hatred exist: for the religious Jews, for Sefardic and Russian Jews, and of course for the left and for the right. But the most obvious and the most justified one the hatred for the Arab I have not found. This has practical results. Wives and children of terrorists continue to get aid from Israeli government as "widows" and "orphans". Israeli army goes to ridiculous extent not to hurt one innocent Arab, thus endangering itself and civilians (both Jewish and Arab). The roads that are closed after each terrorist act are soon reopened, "so that the Arabs will not starve". Of course, this allows a new terrorist to come through, but Arab starvation seems more important than Jewish lives. There is a divide between things Arab and Jewish. Jewish houses on the territories have slanted tile-covered roofs, the Arab roofs are flat. The water tanks on top of the Jewish houses are different color from the Arab ones. The pine is the "Jewish tree", Arabs do not plant it. Jews do not plant the olive it's an "Arab tree". I said that the oil for the menorah was made from olives and that olives play key part in the Chanukah story, and therefore the olive is as Jewish a tree as any. I also said that flat-roofed houses are also perfectly Jewish, because that was how David could see Bath Sheba on the roof. I was told that I am right, and that this division is one more problem that comes with occupation. It seems to me that all a Jew needs to do to combat this particular problem is to build a house with a flat roof and plant an olive tree. This looks like a perfect place for personal initiative. But it is not done. The division of trees and houses into Jewish and Arab makes Israeli settlements feel incomplete, as if Jews only half-own the land. Maybe this was the real subconscious reason for the division. While I was there, Israel was visited by the President of Croatia. As I heard him denounce the Holocaust and ask for forgiveness for the role Croats played in it, I suddenly felt that the old Nazi Holocaust is becoming irrelevant. The life-and-death struggles of today and the threat of the Arab Holocaust of the future overwhelmed it. I felt mildly good about the Croatian President saying these things, but mad at politicians (both in Israel and outside) for allowing the present to become so dark. Time and time again I would tell Israelis how awful it is for me to see Israel humiliated by European and American reaction, by their support of Arafat, by refusal to call Fatah, Force 17, Tanzim terrorist organizations and to acknowledge murder of Israelis as terror. My anger stood above theirs. The smarter Israelis said that I should not get angry at America and Europe because nothing else can be expected from them when Israeli government itself continues to play games with terrorists and when Peres is about to meet Arafat once again. I had nothing to say to this, I felt they were right. It is important to say that there is no "left" and "right" in Israel in the American or European sense of the word. In that sense, all Israelis are on the left. The "right wing" corresponds to American moderate left, and the "left wing" to the radical left. And the fight between them is like those endless fights between the different branches of the left. It is ideological and personal, the stakes are small, and therefore it is particularly vicious. The divisions between the right and the left are vicious. Not only newspapers, radio and TV stations are divided, but so are sports teams, companies, stores, areas, towns. There is hardly a person that can avoid being classified as one or another. I heard a comedian described as a right-winger, and an object of the left's reprisals. My Hebrew textbook contained a story about a good man named Shimon and a bad man named Benjamin. Judging by the year of issue, this was a not-too-obscure hint at Peres and Netanyahu. Even the children of people from one group are subject to reprisals of another. Before the formation of Israel, Shlomo Yakobi was a member of Lehi, hated by the Hagana. After the war, Hagana, Lehi and Irgun were united, yet hatred persisted. Completely false accusations about rape and drunken orgies in Lehi were printed in papers. Shlomo was shot at and almost killed by the people from the army special unit merely because he was from Lehi. All his life he never was able to receive the trade union card something every working Israeli possesses. It was hard to find a job, so he opened his own business. His daughter, not a right-winger by views, had great difficulty getting a job at an airplane factory. Truth and clarity are the first losers in the endless arguments between the right and the left. One may begin with the most clear and precise arguments, yet soon enough one is forced to confront counter-arguments of mind-boggling stupidity. Or one begins to argue about meanings of words. Everyone sticks to one's opinion and is busy inventing justifications. Arguing for arguing's sake eventually replaces the original goal for which one started the argument. Sense of reality is diminished. I have heard from right-wingers that "activating and persuading" the left-wingers is the most important thing right now. Again, Jews are busy debating (i.e. verbally fighting) Jews. The real danger the Arabs is obscured. Unlike Americans, average Israeli voter does not seem to possess a healthy degree of conservatism. Many Israelis are recent immigrants from either Middle East or Eastern Europe, and had no experience of democracy prior to arrival. They keep switching parties, endlessly being persuaded by one or another politician who promises them the world and a storehouse of treasures. They keep being disappointed that the promises are not kept and the politicians switch completely as they get into power. They keep accusing their prime-ministers of "corruption" (they see not fulfilling election promises as a form of corruption). Things have gotten so bad that I kept hearing from the right-wingers, "In the secular world there is no legitimacy to either Jewish or Arab point of view. Both living in Yesha and killing/mutilating Jews, both the Jewish desire to be alive and the Arab desire to kill Jews are equally legitimate or illegitimate. Only religion gives us the ground to support our view". I was walking with my friend along the King George Avenue in central Tel Aviv, when I saw a swastika in the dust on a window. Apparently some of the Russians who pretend to be Jews in order to come to Israel have turned antisemitic. I wanted to erase the swastika, but my friend wanted it to stay. "Let the people see it," he said. "Maybe then they will force the government to take measures against the antisemites." Here I saw the difference between America and Israel. I am far from Libertarian, but in America I do not trust the government, nor do I expect anything but the most basic functions from it. Wherever possible, I prefer to rely on private and personal initiative. My friend in Israel curses the government all the time, but in the end he still relies on it to do what people might as well do themselves. Sharon too has done terrible damage. I have heard it from so many Israelis, "If Sharon continues the policies of Rabin, Netanyahu, Peres and Barak, then there must be no alternative to them indeed." And Sharon's combination of (usually) right-wing words and (usually) left-wing action has stolen the language from the right wing. Now a call for strong action against Arab terrorists is often met with, "that's just what Sharon says". Go try to explain that what Sharon says and what he does are different things. There is much concern of what others might think of Israel's actions. I constantly encountered responses like "this cannot be done because American (European, world) pressure will not allow it." Anything that suggested at friendship and support from the USA was exaggerated, while everything to the contrary was ignored. When I tried to explain that in my view America, Europe, and the rest are already dead-set against Israel and will accuse it of all kinds of evils as long as it exists, few people believed me. It is as if Israel is a powder box, and Arafat has already lit the fuse. And Israelis are staring at the fire getting closer and closer, but too afraid that the world will punish them if they pull the fuse out. It seems like Israeli Jews have become "heavy", that they have a lot to lose. They spend their time inventing arguments why they should not act, why they need to move over just one more bit and to allow Arab terror to continue. This is the key difference between the current situation and the situation in 1945-47. At that time Jews were "light" and had nothing to lose. It seemed not unlike the time before every catastrophe in the galut. The Jews who ran from German pogroms to Poland, or from Ukrainian Chmelnitsky pogroms to Portugal and England, or from Spanish expulsion to the lands of the Turkish empire, traveled "light". They had little money, few possessions, no property. They were useless to a robber, and ready to move on if the conditions in the new land proved unacceptable. So they often had to be given special privileges to stay in the new land. Then the Jews would establish themselves, and through great labor of generations would accumulate wealth and property (at least some Jews), acquire possessions, learn the new language, become an integral part of the new society, fall in love with the nature and customs of the new place, and thus become "heavy". Antisemitism in the new land would then grow to threatening degrees, just like the antisemitism in the old land. Yet most of the Jews would still cling to the new (by now old) place, refuse to move until too late, and thus perish. Only those who would let go of the material baggage and spiritual attachment and be willing to take risks would survive. I have a very bad feeling that just as the great majority of Jews always clung to their "native" land in the galut and refused to run, so now the great majority of Israeli Jews in their truly native land clings to "let it go as it goes" attitude and refuse to think and to dream, to plan and to act. Only the Arabs are dreaming, planning and acting. I got very tired of indignity the people in Israel were willing to accept. The indignity coming from the international community, the Arabs and the leftist Jews. I felt that in the land where Jews were supposed to be free, I was absorbing that very galutnik, slavish way of thinking from which I had been cured in the U.S. Where were the free-thinking Sabras? Where was that dignity which made the Israeli student at Columbia University long for Jerusalem? Some Israelis told me that it is just terrible that they cannot travel from Israel to anywhere by train. At first I did not see this as distressing. Just take an airplane and go to Europe. There you can go by train wherever you wish. Later I began to understand that this is a symbol of the isolation in which Israelis live. Not only are all the neighboring countries closed to them (legal peace with Egypt and Jordan does not mean these places are safe for Israelis to visit), but in Europe too it is no fun to be an Israeli. I was filled with stories of bad treatment in France, England, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Greece, Cyprus. I was told that in Athens there was only one place where Israelis can eat in peace. All other places treat them very rudely once they find out who they are. Israelis pass the address of this one place to each other. The worst thing of all is that I suspect that this is not quite true. Undoubtedly there must be prejudiced eating places in Athens, but I seriously doubt that only one of them is not. I am afraid that I am witnessing yet another example of Jewish fright and self-isolation, a self-ghettoization, a common phenomenon in the galut. I asked whether there was any place at all where Israelis were accepted. They said that Turkey is still OK. When I pointed out that America should no longer be viewed as a partner, I was met with, "Then we have no one at all. And we cannot survive without someone's help." I asked about Micronesia, which was Israel's partner in 1997." It turned out that relations have turned sour during Barak's administration. The degree of amnesia in Israel differs from person to person, and occasionally reaches staggering proportions. Some remember when Arafat and his "peace" ideas looked like an attractive alternative to the Islamist violence of Hamas. But only a few people remembered how the PLO was chased out of Lebanon, and how Hamas was promoted by the Israeli government as a good, peaceful organization, building schools and hospitals, taking care of garbage collection, water and electricity. And because only a few remembered this, few were able to put two and two together and conclude that whether Hamas or PLO, whether PFLP or DFLP, Arabs remain Arabs, and their most fundamental desire was, is, and will be to exterminate the Jews. One person told me that under Rabin there was almost no terrorism. I tried to remind her about the bus bombings, but she did not remember them. Then she told me that under Barak there was no terrorism, that it only started when Sharon came to power in 2001. She did not remember what took place less that a year ago. I was shocked and at a loss for words. Jaffa was one of the most interesting and beautiful places I saw during my first visit to Israel in 1997. This time, when we reached the edge of Jaffa as we walked from Tel Aviv, we took a taxi. One lady told me that she recently crossed into Jaffa as she walked along the street. Suddenly she realized that there are only Arabs around her. She picked up the things she had bought and ran back. In 1997, the center of Jaffa was full of people: Jews, Arabs, Armenians, Russians and others. Stores were busy, restaurants were full, galleries were doing their business. Crowds of people strolled along, everyone had a good time. Now this place must have become a desert. Jaffa has become dangerous if one is not an Arab, and particularly if one is a Jew. In Israel, even in Tel Aviv, there are now places off limits to Jews. Radio Reka broadcasts in many languages. Russian is predominant, but there is also French, Amharic, Georgian, and some other language I did not recognize. The sound quality is good until about 5 p.m., when another radio station barges in in Arabic. In Tel Aviv I could still hear Reka, but in Jerusalem and vicinity Arabic drowns everything. Of course, many listeners complained. The answer to their complaints was simple: "We used to have a broadcasting tower in Ramallah, but it has been taken over by Palestinian Authority, which is apparently using it to broadcast the other radio. Reka has tried to contact the PA, but never got a response, nor does it expect to get one." On the radio they said (during the news) that Syria's "moderate" foreign minister wrote an article, saying that Israel will cease to exist in 20 years. He based this prediction on the demographic situation, when in 20 years the Arab population was supposed to become larger than the Jewish one, and the Jewish government would simply be outvoted. The announcer on the radio commented that Jews have survived for a long time, and will survive beyond the 20 years. The radio announcer's careless dismissal of an almost immediate danger frightened me much more than the prediction of the Syrian minister. I realized that with such attitudes Israel indeed will cease to exist. I asked others how they viewed the demographic situation. Some told me that "peace will come", others that "a great crisis will unite Jews and force them to use drastic measures." Everyone thought things were supposed to happen by themselves. Some stared blankly. They had no answer, and did not care. Just like in the Soviet Union, humor helps to cope with hopelessness, makes it bearable and promotes passivity. One story is that Arafat came out of his mother's womb dressed in green uniform and with a half-shaved face. He was so unbelievably ugly that all angels, even the angel of Death, turned away. Therefore, Arafat is immortal. Another joke was that the Jews have bribed their way into Paradise, raped the 72 virgins that are supposed to greet each Arab "martyr" and gave them AIDS. This sounds rude and stupid in America, but in Israel it is different. Several people told it to me, including people with impeccable taste. Compared to what Arabs do and say daily, it is not rude and stupid. In Israel this joke is defiant. But it is defiance of a joke, defiance of showing a finger while keeping one's hand in a pocket. In a situation where people have almost no control of their lives, they try to regain it through magic. Israel is no exception. One person told me that terrorist attacks go in waves, and one can "feel" when they are coming and act to protect oneself. Another person said that a particular terrorist attack has happened because that person had violated one of the intricate religious laws that have to do with kashrut or Sabbath. Israeli kids are loud. I usually met them in groups, laughing or chattering in Hebrew, which in their mouths sounds like bird talk. Occasionally they can be nasty. But as I was walking the streets of Bat Yam and Holon, looking at them filled my heart with pain and despair. The future Holocaust will kill them all. Then I had to remind myself that one day they will all be dead anyway. As my frustration with passivity and acceptance of Israelis mounted, I started asking them directly, "What can be done to help". In return I got the same silly phrases: "Boycott Toyota", "Boycott Ford", "Buy Coke, not Pepsi", "Emperor Nero was a hero", "Saint Paul was an asshole". Boring, pathetic and tired. Jabotinsky may have spent years trying to wake Jews to the coming Holocaust, but in this he failed completely. Jews merely laughed at him. For myself, I see no point in being a Cassandra. I need not waste my life telling people the truth which they are not willing to believe. I have to wash my hands. But if anyone really is concerned for Israel's future, the only way to influence events is from within. My advice to them would be: "First, emigrate to Israel. Then attend political rallies, subscribe to "Makor Rishon", join "Moledet" or "Yisrael Beiteinu", vote for the right-wing candidate, raise awareness about the Arab danger, etc. Maybe even take the law into your hands (It may be the right moment for this, because the dangers are indeed great). At least plant olives and pines, build flat-roof and slanted-roof houses, erase swastikas and teach self-reliance to your children. Become the Israelis who want to help themselves. Then you might find in the outside world those who want to help you." After I left Israel, I spent a day in Cyprus and two days in Greece. Everyone I met was very nice to me. But I hid the two Israeli bags with Hebrew letters into my suitcase, hid my Tel-Aviv/Larnaca ticket stab until I could dispose of it "safely", and in other ways tried to hide all signs of Jewish identity. It was not out of fear. I guess I have absorbed collective Jewish obsequiousness from the air of Israel. During my flight to the U.S. I had to force myself to take out my Hebrew textbook and begin studying. After coming to the U.S. I took a shower. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "When will our conscience grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?" ---Eleanor Roosevelt ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||| | PNEWS-L - LISTSERV(tm) is a NEWSLETTER with 23 SYMPOSIUM TOPICS | | TURN OFF topics you do not want - SUBMIT ESSAYS - CRITIQUE ARTICLES | | Highest level of *NET SECURITY* ~ Indexing-Digest-Search-Interface | | Topics= ALERTS,HEALTH,INTERNET,ETHICS,REFUGEES,REVIEWS | | HUMANITY,ANTI-SEMITISM,MISC,TERRORISM,LIBERTIES | | ZIONISM,WOMEN,EMPIRE,NEWS,CONFLICT,CAPITALISM | | OPED,RHETORIC,POINTER,LETTERS,SOCIALISM,LAW | | -*FREE NEWSLETTER*- mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] | | As of January 17th - 3,302 subscribers - On the Internet since 1982 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||| ___ / o o \ ===OO=====OO========================================================== ===== "The Truth may not always win, but it is always right." 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