Humanitarians, especially Jews among them, often spout their humanist message in an effort to divest the Jews of their own humanity. Shulamit Aloni is no different. Her efforts are well documented as she wastes no opportunity to remind Jews, and the rest of the world, of how evil we are and how plainly oppressed are the murderers of our people. This week, she took her message to New York.
In honour of the annual Salute to Israel parade, a member of the Israeli government generally addresses a couple of hundred guests at a pre-parade breakfast. members of the Israeli diplomatic staff in New York attend, and the Salute to Israel begins by saluting these representatives in person. This year, Shulamit Aloni was selected by the New York Consulate to represent Israel along with several staff members from the Consulate and the representation to the United Nations. As aloni ascended the podium to speak, she became the subject of verbal assaults from many of the gathered guests due to her rejection of all that is Zionist. Indeed, the event organizers initially refused to allow her to speak because of how ill she represents the Jewish State. Yet, due to unyielding pressure from the Consul-General in New York, Colette Avital, they relented. Avital, you see, is a "good friend" of Aloni's, according to a press report I saw.
During the melee that erupted when Aloni began to speak, she apparently was shoved aside and punched in the stomach. Blame was placed on a religious organizer of the event, who has denied attacking Aloni. Once again, the right is out to get Aloni -- at least in her mind. She was so visibly injured that she walked out on her own power, without even bending over in pain, talking to bystanders as if nothing had happened.
I am not going to comment much on these events.Suffice it to say that while I abhor physical violence, it is perhaps fitting as a taste of what religious Jews must put up with every time they try to hold a legal demonstration or pray at Judaism's holiest site. I have never heard Aloni complain about the treatment they receive.
What I will comment more thoroughly on is the response to the alleged attack from Ambassador Avital. She was quoted as saying, "It is very sad when Israeli diplomats and Israeli officials must be protected by police from Jews. We have arrived at a situation that no one would have predicted, and security is not the only matter that should concern us."
Ambassador Avital shows here how firm a grasp on reality she has. She has hit the nail right on the head. She is absolutely correct. The problem is that in addition to being correct, she has also shown herself to be one of the most selfish representatives it has ever been Israel's misfortune to have. Why should Israeli diplomats and politicians be subject to any life other than that to which they subject their own citizens?
We have indeed arrived at a situation that no one would have predicted five years ago. An Israeli government, duly elected with one of the widest margins between Labour and Likud in recent memory, has seen fit to divide the country against itself, to divest the military not only of its power, but of its morale, and of its mission, to seel out the country to its most-hated enemy, and to offer one tenth of its citizens on the altar of political appeasement and national suicide. Israelis are being killed on the street in numbers unheard of before this government took office. Jerusalem, the very heart of all that is Jewish, is being bargained away for a flimsy and worthless piece of paper. The vilest creature on the face of the planet is preparing to parade on the city of peace and the rivers of milk and honey. Security is, indeed, not the only matter that should concern us. National survival is at stake the very lives of Israel's brave citizens is being snuffed out at will. And Rabin gives us a government that seems not to care. The government that includes Shulamit Aloni.
It is very sad that Israeli diplomats and officials must be protected by police from Jews. It is even sadder that the Israeli police do not protect Jews from Arab marauders and a governmental death wish. The incident in New York is largely one of the government's own doing. If Jews cannot feel safe in their own homeland, Jews everywhere will become desperate. They will lash out at those icons that represent all that has gone wrong with Israel's leadership. They will attack in order to attain for themselves the security and the life the government is supposed to be guaranteeing.
If Jews cannot be protected by Israeli police, then Israeli leaders will likely need to be protected by police from these Jews. It is a shame that with Ambassador Avital's penchant for realism, she does not realize that reality bites. Often those that create an unfavourable situation are those to be bitten first. I can only hope that Rabin realizes this and ends the madness before someone really gets hurt. That is, of course, notwithstanding 145 dead Jews since Oslo.
Copyright 1995. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
