B"H
Figuring Out the Whole Picture
American Yated Neeman June 2, 2000
The Ishmaeli Police
An Arab passing through the Ramat Elchonon neighborhood in Bnei
Brak grabbed a young girl and started dragging her away. The child managed
to escape and then the Arab continued and fell upon another girl. At this
point, several Jews who were passing by fell upon him and threw him to the
ground. Someone phoned the police to come. The Arab tried to escape, but
was held firmly down. Ten minutes went by and the Bnei Brakers called the
police again. In the meantime, a large group of onlookers gathered around.
The Arab was still on the ground, unshackled.
Someone suggested tying him up, but everyone was afraid. Everyone
knows what happens to someone who dares impinge of the rights of a
terrorist.
A half an hour had already passed. They phoned the police again.
The phoner shouted in his handle "Come already!" But nothing happened.
Someone tied the Arab's hands together with a belt.
Several furious citizens approached the Arab, and one was about to
beat him. He was warned by the others that he'll get into a morass if he
does. Then one of those present took initiative and declared, "Friends, I
know how to get the police here." He phones 100, and speaks into the handle
"There's a crowd of people here beating an Arab!"
Within four minutes -- get this -- within four minutes of this
sentence being said, the police arrives. The fury of the crowd was almost
directed against the policemen who clearly demonstrated that they couldn't
care less about what happens to the citizens of Bnei Brak. The only thing
they're concerned about is who hit the Arab.
This chilling vignette which happened two Thursdays ago speaks
louder than a 100-page report on the political situation in Israel today
and shows with razor-sharp precision what is transpiring in the State.
When Police Commissioner Alik Ron shot at an escaping Arab car
thief who had attempted to run over a policeman two weeks ago, he was
attacked by Israel's media. All the commentators who censured the
commissioner emphasized the fact that the thief was an Arab. One of them
impudently asked Ron, "If you knew that the thief was an Arab, would you
still have shot him?"
One can't help but read this line again and again to be sure one's
eyes are not deceiving one. The question itself posits as a given that if
the thief would have been a Jew, there would have been no problem shooting
him. In the eyes of this editorialist, shooting at an Arab is an act which
not only requires more courage and justification than shooting at a Jew,
but is clearly more heinous.
Jewish blood in the Jewish State is today cheaper than Arab blood.
The above surrealistic stories are comprehensible in the light of
two incisive comments made by gedolei Torah in the past century about the
incipient Zionist movement. Rav Chaim Brisker (d. 1926) said that the
Zionists' real goal was not to create a State to deliver the Jews' from
their sufferings in the Golus, but to eradicate their attachment to Judaism
and G-d by creating a new identity based on secular nationalism. His son,
the Brisker Rav, said that to realize their goals, the Zionists are capable
of even murder.
At the founding of the State, the secular leaders immediately put
into operation several strategies to wean away the majority of Israel's
citizens from Jewish observance. In addition to maintaining tight control
over the economy (Histadrut) which allowed them to discriminate against
religious Jews and reward with jobs those who toed the secular line and
sent their children to the "right" schools, the media, army and educational
systems were also utilized as vehicles of intense brainwashing. Subtle,
repetitive slanderous media reporting to malign the religious and dati
populations in the country was utilized to brainwash other sectors of the
Jewish population to despise them. Vastly disadvantaged conditions were
given to religious schools and religious school networks so the citizens
would be attracted to the far improved conditions in the secular schools.
Both boys and girls were subjected to forced draft so they could get the
necessary "re-education" in the army to become good secular citizens.
Although the Zionist leaders succeeded in these efforts considerably, they
began to realize in the years after the Yom Kippur War that their victory
was not decisive.
The first one to point out just a few years after the State's
founding that they would fail was the Chazon Ish. He said that the
secularists decree upon themselves "kores v'ariri", and the natural
increase of the religious will overcome them.
The numbers of the secularists have been diminishing due to late
marriage, minus population growth, and a high percentage who do not even
marry. In contrast, all but a tiny percent of the religious and datiim
marry, they marry young, and they have an increase rate of between 3-5% a
year. Every elections, the percentage of Knesset members belonging to the
religious parties grows.
In addition, the tshuva movement has become a substantial force on
the Israeli scene. Over half a million Israelis said last year that they
are drawing closer to Judaism. We should not forget to mention that the
territory conquered in the 1967 Six Day War included some of the nation's
most beloved ancient shrines where for the past two millennia Jews from all
over the world came to pray. The Kosel, Maaras Machpelah, and Kever Rachel
are just a few rallying points that constantly remind the nation of its
religious roots and serve as an inspiration to return to them.
To offset the growing power of the religious in the past decade,
the State imported hundreds of thousands of Russians and Ethiopians, at
least half of whom were non-Jews. This strategy, however, had limited
effectiveness. Not only did the immigrants have an extremely low increase
rate (0.5%) but they tended to be nationalistic and could not be counted on
to vote for the left.
The dream of the early Zionists that the State will replace the
religious identity of its citizens with a nationalistic formula has utterly
failed. And the present day leftists in power had to decide fast what to do
before the reigns of power completely slip out of their hands.
The only ones in the country who consistently vote for the left and
who will never support a Jewish state are the Arabs.
Many commentators and political analysts particularly in the last
few weeks are astonished that the State is engaged in a process of suicide
and self-destruction, and warn Barak not to be naive as to where his failed
policies will lead the nation. But to a perceptive observer, it is obvious
that Brak and his friends are dismantling the State with calculated intent.
Now that the State is not fulfilling their hopes, and even worse, now that
the State they worked so hard to create is speedily being taken over by the
religious, they would rather not have a State. And if they can't have it,
they don't want the religious to get it either. They would rather destroy
the State even if it means sinking themselves with it.
The left has reached the inevitable conclusion that its only hope
to remain in power in years to come is if they join together with the
Arabs. The Arabs reproduce at even higher rates than do religious Jews, so
they can be relied on to steadily retain control of the country. When Peres
and Beilin began their clandestine ties with the Palestinians a decade ago,
this is where they were headed. It was impossible to say this treason
openly to the citizenry, but they worked on a multi-pronged plan which
would eventually get them where they wanted. The populace was to be
assured that the goal of negotiations with the Arabs was to finally attain
the elusive utopian peace that the Jewish citizens have always tried to
pursue with their Arab neighbors. Only a few minor concessions were to be
promised to the Arabs, for which the Arabs promised to behave and agree to
make peace with the Jews. When the Arabs would demand more, the government
would "reluctantly" cave in. A whole lexicon of terms and excuses would be
created to bamboozle the public into believing that peace was being made.
Once the Israeli population swallowed the latest concessions, excuses would
be found to make more. This was the pattern that was replayed time and time
again.
To what degree will the secular elite go to retain their grip on
power? In the past they made deals with the Hizbollah to only send
Katyushas to Kiryat Shemona and to avoid the leftist secular kibbutzim in
the north. But now, in fulfillment of the Brisker Rav's words, they are
prepared to go even further.
The elements of the plan which were implemented so far:
- resuscitating Arafat and reinvigorating his terrorist organization,
- inviting American pressure and threatening to ruin Israel's close
ties with America if anti-peace political candidates are voted in
- using the fig leaf of peace and rapprochement with the Arabs and
Israel's Middle Eastern neighbors to justify giving away Israeli land
- making a series of treaties each of which gave away additional
pieces of Israel and further concessions without requiring the Arabs to
fulfill their treaty commitments
- murdering a prime minister who began to balk on the Oslo accords,
- continue rearmament of the PA despite non-fulfillment of clauses to
limit the size of their "police force" and weapon arsenal, and other
violations like smuggling of heavy arms through tunnels from Egypt
giving more and more trappings of Statehood to the PA including
ability to issue passports, stamps, international telephone code
giving the PA control of all educational, health and police
services in the West Bank and East Yerushalayim
ignoring PA government offices located in the Orient House despite
them being in Yerushalayim under Israel's sovereignty
- a massive media campaign to delegitimize settlers and the religious
and taint the former with an image of fascists and Nazis
- Justice Ministry directives to exact the law and even invent
canards against settlers while ignoring Arab violence and theft against Jews
the establishment of a special Shabak department including use of
agent provocateurs to frame religious settlers and inculcate the Israeli
public with the perception that they are violent, unruly and fascist
- employing a weak, appeasement military policy whenever Arab
violence breaks out, and punishing soldiers who dare to act decisively to
Arab violence
- allowing the election of Arab Knesset members and Arab parties who
openly are agitating for the destruction of the Israeli state
- appointing professed supporters of Hamas and PLO to the
highest-ranking and most sensitive positions in the State including Deputy
Defense Minister and member of the Knesset Foreign and Defense Ministry
- pushing for aid from donor nations for the PA despite knowledge of
its massive corruption
- payment of billions of dollars to Arafat's personal bank account
instead of through a responsible surveillance banking mechanism
- no deduction from Bituach Leumi payments to the PA for Israelis who
were defaulted by Palestinian creditors, as required by the Oslo Accords
- no recourse in Israeli courts for Israelis who were cheated or
injured in car accidents by Palestinian Arabs
- the police closing their eyes to Arab violations of Israeli law,
and massive Arab violence and theft (although sometimes permitting
citizens' grass roots groups to try and recover their stolen property by
themselves)
- joining in the farce with President Clinton at the vote of the PA
Legislative Council "annulling" the clauses speaking of Israel's
destruction (which still appear on the PLO's web site today)
- a special arrangement with the PA for Israeli VIPs to get their
stolen cars returned within a day
- little or no reaction to Arab anti-Israel and anti-Jewish
propaganda in the media and in the school textbooks, or maps published by
the PA showing "Palestine" stretching over present-day Israel
- allowing Arab entry to Jewish settlements in Israel while not
permitting Jews to do the same
- favored treatment for Arabs by Israel's justice system
- disinterest in moving the U.S. embassy to Yerushalayim and
scotching the passing of a law by Congress affirming that Yerushalayim in
Israel's capital and will be stated on American passports
- freeing of terrorists who only committed terrorism before the Oslo
accords, then those who attacked Jews after the Accords but didn't kill
them, and even now those who killed Jews.
- allowing the Islamic organization and Palestinians to radicalize
Israeli Arabs and Druzes
- intensifying media libels against the religious and the settlers
- allowing the Arabs free reign on the Temple Mount to make massive
internal changes even at the expense of destroying ancient Jewish artifacts
and archaeological evidence
- imprisoning Jews who try to recover Jewish artifacts from the
Temple Mount thrown on garbage dumps by Arabs
- major rewrite of Israel's textbooks and history books by
post-Zionist educators and historians which leave out facts which favor the
Jews while trying to indoctrinate the Arab view and present Arabs as
innocent victims
- trying to create a mood of demoralization and defeat by talking
about how the nation is so tired from its wars
- dropping all pretense to reciprocity
- permitting 50,000 Jordanian Arabs to unofficially enter Israel to
work despite publicly denouncing the return of the 1948 refugees
- ignoring increasing incitement and maligning of Israel by Egyptian,
Jordanian and Syrian press and governments
- permitting massive illegal building all over Arab towns in Israel
totaling thousands of empty housing units awaiting the eventual return of
Arab refugees
- placing access roads to Jewish settlements in the PA's control
- giving prominent exposure to fringe groups like "Four Mothers" who
protest the army in Lebanon so the army can claim national support to
leaving Lebanon.
- prohibiting the soldiers to attack forcefully in Lebanon at the
Hizbollah infrastructure
- forcing the Israeli soldiers to play a cat-and-dog strategy with
Hizbollah terrorists which increases Jewish casualties but also wins public
approval to pull out of Lebanon
- abandoning Israel's Christian allies in Lebanon to their fate
- tolerating Arabs to visit Jewish towns in Israel proper which they
claim belonged to them before 1948
- agreement to take part in negotiations to supervise Israel's
nuclear capacity
- giving back Arab villages to the PA that will effectively encircle
Yerushalayim's outlying Jewish neighborhoods and give a corridor to Arafat
to reach the Temple Mount.
The above long list -- which is by no means complete -- can be
summarized into two basic strategies: appeasing the Arabs by giving into
all their demands, and delegitimizing anyone who wants Israel to retain its
Jewish, independent status. Notice from this list how after the Israeli
public were fed and swallowed one frog, the next frog was ready to be
shoved down its throat.
During these days Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are working
on the final status agreements. The concessions made until now shows us
unquestionably that the Israeli government is posed to give Arafat
everything that he wants: all of the West Bank, East Yerushalayim, and
return of all the refugees.
But that's not what he or they really want. He wants all of Israel
and they want to eliminate the Jewish state. How can they do this without
igniting a popular insurrection? Despite preparing large segments of the
Israel public through the media propaganda and the educational system to
view the Arabs sympathetically and as justified in their struggle, the
majority of Israel's citizens still opposes folding up the state and
removing the plaque from the door.
You can trust Barak's and Clinton's spin doctors to do a complete
job. Here's a possible scenario of what may happen:
Arafat declares a State. He demands to have West Yerushalayim too,
since he has "conclusive" proof of Arab titular possession of 70% of the
area (he has already declared this). He also wants sections of the Galil
and Negev, Yaffo, and Arab parts of Lod and Ramla. Residents in
Yerushalayim and all over the country are up in arms. After warmongering
blustering by Likud and Labor MKs to sedate the people into believing that
their leaders will really protest this fatal demand, Barak announces that
to avoid "bloodshed" and because the "people are tired" he will accede to
Arafat's demands. (He will of course keep it secret that these demands of
Arafat was coordinated with a few select Israeli politicians just as he has
been coordinating Arab demands with Arafat and the Clinton administration
all along.)
The High Court will then declare that the welfare of the people
takes precedence to the Scroll of Independence founding principles, and
anyway where democracy conflicts with the State's Jewish identity,
democracy always overrules. The legal experts find a way to unite the West
Bank and Israel into one national entity called Palestine.
Because the country is now binational, there will be separation
between church and state. Elections will immediately be held in which
Arafat with the left perpetrate massive electoral fraud while religious and
dati Jews stand by helplessly. Arabs get 40% of the vote, and form a
coalition together with the secular who receive 25% of the vote. All Jewish
organizations, schools and institutions which do not agree to teach the new
State curriculum which includes Islamic studies are no longer eligible for
government funding. The religious and dati populations are plunged into
poverty to support their school systems and Jewish institutions. Secular
schools agree to teach Islam as part of the curriculum (they do now
anyway).
As unbelievable as the above sounds, this is actually the better
scenario. A worse one may be that Arafat decides the time is ripe to push
the Jews back into the sea - including his good friends in the left -- and
he mobilizes his army and joins the Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian armies
to do so. For a sneak preview of what this means, read the account of the
1929 massacre in Chevron.