Let us for one moment examine what is going on here. Yasser Arafat, according to all intelligence assessments, has orchestrated a week of violence against Israel the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the founding of the State. His followers have unceasingly hurled bombs and live ammunition at Israeli soldiers and civilians. Residents across the country are afraid to venture out of their homes or far from their workplaces. Highways throughout Israel have been blocked to Israeli traffic because Arafat has deemed it appropriate.
But in the press – particularly in Israel’s staunchest ally, the United States – has seen fit to blame Israel for this unrest. The Associated Press even resorted to publishing a picture taken at a highway interchange in Samaria of an injured Jewish man being defended by an Israeli soldier. Problem is the caption claims it is an injured Palestinian being attacked. The caption also claims the picture was taken on the Temple Mount, despite the presence in the picture of a gas station, something that doesn’t exist anywhere close to the Temple Mount.
An Arab child, who was taking part in a live-fire riot against Israeli troops in Gaza and was killed when the troops tried to defend themselves, all of sudden becomes the victim of Israeli aggression. How dare the Israeli soldiers even think of defending themselves or Israeli citizens against such peace-loving marauders and murderers.
At the same time, an Israeli soldier was shot in the neck and lay mortally wounded near Joseph’s tomb. For more than four hours Palestinian gunmen prevented Israeli rescue teams from extricating this soldier until after he had died. The American media didn’t even mention the barbarism of that act. They didn’t claim that the Arabs were murderers or that their wanton aggression has no place in the midst of peace talks.
Even in Israel itself, the government is tripping over itself trying to figure out why the Arabs have resorted to such violence when peace was, apparently, at hand. A committee has been formed to examine ways in which Israel is mistreating the Arabs.
Excuse me, dear readers, but the charade has gone on long enough. Israel is not at fault for Arabs shooting Israeli soldiers or civilians with impunity. Israel is not to blame for defending itself against such murderers.
What Israel, and the rest of the world with it, most certainly is to blame for, is continuing to believe that Yasser Arafat and his band of merry murderers he calls the PA are in any way interested in peace. What they are really interested in, which Israel’s true right wing has been saying all along, is finding ways of killing Jews or otherwise getting them out of Israel.
Peace means the removal of the use of force as an option in settling disputes. Peace has never existed between Jews and Arabs in Israel. Instead of removing force as an option in settling disputes, the Arabs use force for no reason in order to spark new disputes. Israel is then blamed when they show restraint in responding (how much worse it would be were Israel to actually clamp down and force an end to these attacks) and the Arabs win another round.
The Israeli left, and even the center, would do well to stop deluding themselves into believing that peace is a possibility with Arafat as a partner. They would do better to begin improving the strength of Israel in order to defend themselves against the war of which this week is merely a harbinger.
And the rest of the world would do well to finally figure out that Arafat is not a statesman or a peacemaker. He is a murderer, a terrorist. He is deserving not of the world's plaudits but of the excommunication that is meted out to others of his kind like Saddam Hussein. He is deserving not of the Nobel Peace Prize, but of an unmarked grave and the everlasting condemnation of humanity.
Copyright 2000. Yehuda Poch is a writer living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
