The Shards of Illusion (continued)
	It is not even surprising any longer when a bus gets bombed in Jerusalem and Jewish bodies are strewn all over the place.  Rabin not even attempting to visit the scene is not surprising.  His delay in the negotiations with the PLO is more insulting than if he had merely carried on as if nothing happened.  Shimon Peres claiming that these are just the victims of peace is such an old line that I don't even hear it any more.  The arguments are all there: peace has no such thing as victims, how many victims do you expect will result from this misconceived notion of peace, how quickly do you hope to give all the Jews over to our enemies?  The calls of the realistic President Weizmann to stop the negotiations permanently go unheeded, and the popular demonstrators are left to cry in the wind. For the first time in the history of Israel, it is demonstrably outside the interests of Israel, as defined by the Israeli government, for Jews to live there.  The Zionist dream has been killed by the Israeli government.  When demonstrations begin to annoy the government, the first people that Rabin,  Peres and Aloni lash out at are the settlers, the religious zionists, and the American immigrants.  It is no accident that these three groups are the ones most vocal in their opposition to the policies of the Rabin regime.  For it is they that have the most to lose.  The holiest sites of Judaism are all under direct threat from this regime, as are the homes and communities of one tenth of Israel's Jewish population.  Americans, and other immigrants of choice come to Israel to take their place in the Zionist adventure and realize the dreams of a hundred generations of Jews.  They perceive the dangerous course the Rabin regime has set for Israel, and feel threatened by it.  They react, and are then termed anarchists. The old adage has been proven true: if the Arabs stop trying to destroy Israel, it will destroy itself.  Jews are now easily more secure in most countries in the world than they are in Israel.  This all is the tragedy of Israel, and like most other tragedies it has been brought on the nation by the deadly combination of Yitzchak Rabin and Shimon Peres. What I saw in Israel this month pained me greatly.  I am watching the potential demise of the dream of a Jewish renaissance in Israel.  Most tellingly, I watch from the Diaspora. Copyright 1995.  Reproduction in electronic or print formats by permission only.