As if by rote, out trotted the alleged leadership of Israel to condemn the attack, but…. Ehud Barak expressed his sorrow over the incident, but proclaimed that “this one attack will not break our determination to reach peace with our neighbours.” Other government ministers uttered similar nonsense.
I think it’s about time that Ehud Barak finally realize that peace is not even a dream these days. He himself stated, barely six weeks ago, that “Arafat is not a partner for peace”, and that “there is no partner” among the Palestinians. Now, after 43 Jews lie dead and countless people have been orphaned and widowed, that same Barak states that we must remain strong in our determination to reach peace with these very same non-partners.
Arafat’s response was not long in coming. Within a few hours he was proclaiming that the Palestinians would escalate the violence against Israel. This is the man that Barak claims we must negotiate peace with.
Ehud Barak’s nonsense is, unfortunately, not new. His government has fallen because of it, he has resigned the Prime Ministership because of it, and it drives him still to reach some sort of hallucinatory agreement that will not even last long enough for the signatures to be completed.
There is one other reaction that is also not surprising. Meretz MK Mossy Raz, formerly the spokesman for Peace Now in Israel, is one of this country’s leading anti-Semites. I do not use that term lightly. But Raz has proven for years, with practically every unwelcome utterance of his mouth, that his interests are diametrically opposed to Jewish preservation. According to a report in today’s Jerusalem Post, Raz “called on the police and army to do everything within their power to prevent what he described as ‘extremist settlers’ from perpetrating violence against Palestinians in acts of vengeance. ‘The settlers should be aware that any attempt to remove Palestinian vehicles from the roads will be met with a harsh response by the police,’ he said.”
There are a number of elements in Raz’s statement that sicken me. First, he insists on referring to a quarter of a million Jews as extremists, simply because of their chosen place of residence. Forget about the fact that they do more to defend this country, simply by getting up in the morning and going about their business, than Raz has ever done. They are “extremists” and deserve to be punished if they step out of line.
What bothers me even more, though, is Raz’s position that “the police and army should do everything in their power to prevent violence against Palestinians,” and that “any attempt to remove Palestinian vehicles from the roads should be met with a harsh response by the police.”
Where has Mossy Raz been all these months. When Arabs kill 43 Jews, orphan countless more, wound and maim in the thousands, and wreak such havoc that law-abiding citizens are afraid to venture out of their homes at night, Raz doesn’t say a word. Not one tear shed for Jewish life lost. Not one word uttered against the campaign of murder and mayhem that our “peace partners” have unleashed against us.
It is indeed a real shame that Israel needs to suffer people like Mossy Raz. If he would come out and proclaim loudly against the violence that Ehud Barak calls peace, then perhaps his words wouldn’t bother me so much. But he doesn’t.
The media is making a big deal today of the Yesha Council’s announcement that they hold Barak and Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami personally responsible for the deaths of Binyamin and Talia Kahane and the orphaning of their six small children. But what both the media and the Yesha Council have missed is that it is people like Mossy Raz who are truly responsible.
Mossy Raz and his friends in Peace Now have given aid to the enemy by taking public positions in support of continued terrorism and anti-Semitic rampage. They are in contravention of the “Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance” that remains on the Israeli books. And in my opinion, they should be tried criminally under the charge of treason to the Jewish State.
For years it has been taboo to state this opinion. But when 43 Jews are killed in Israel due only to their Jewishness, and when our supposed leadership has the gall to condemn Jews who protect themselves while remaining silent as the murders are committed, all taboos are broken.
Copyright 2001. Yehuda Poch is a writer living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
