In response to the mortar attack, Israeli forces fired tank shells at the source of the mortar fire. Arafat's forces cleverly fired their mortars from the middle of a refugee camp, and when Israeli forces returned fire, a 4-month-old baby was killed.
Prime Minister Sharon quickly apologized for the death of the baby, and told a meeting of the Likud Knesset faction, "I am sure that our forces had no intention of harming a baby. ? We will make every effort to try to avoid tragic cases like this. Children and babies should not be involved in this terrible war that we want to end."
Contrast this with Yasser Arafat's reaction when 10-month-old Shalhevet Pass was targeted and shot by a sniper in Hevron in March. The Jewish residents of the area had not been shelling Palestinian neighbourhoods. Rather, a gunman purposely sited Shalhevet with his high-powered rifle, and shot her in the head as she strolled with her parents in the courtyard near her home.
Rather than apologize, rather than call for an end to the violence he himself has started, rather than show any humanity whatsoever, Arafat publicly commended the gunman and praised the murder of a baby. In another mortar attack on a Jewish neighbourhood in Gaza barely a week later, another infant was very nearly killed. He remains in hospital six weeks later recovering from his injuries, but with permanent brain damage as a result of that attack.
We now have two babies killed and one maimed within a seven-week period. All due to the ongoing violence at whose root sits Yasser Arafat. This is the same Yasser Arafat whom Bill Clinton made his most frequent guest at the White House, the same Yasser Arafat to whom Ehud Barak insisted on awarding Jerusalem, the same Yasser Arafat upon whom the Nobel Peace Prize was bestowed, the same Yasser Arafat whom, even today, the United Nations thinks can do no wrong.
It is to this same Yasser Arafat that leaders of the Israeli extreme left including Yossi Sarid, Yossi Beilin, and Mossy Raz have gone running in an effort to undermine the State of Israel. It is this same Yasser Arafat whom Shimon Peres still believes is a partner for peace. It is this same Yasser Arafat to whom a new leftist protest coalition wants to open a back channel in an effort to further weaken Israel's position.
Any civilized society will know that this is not the way baby-killers should be handled. If a person is so inhumane as to purposely take the life of an innocent baby, that person should be deprived of his own life immediately. So much more so when three babies have already fallen victim to his murderous rampage.
And yet, Beilin, Sarid, Raz, Peres, and the rest of their comrades insist on associating with Arafat at the expense of Jewish society and western civilization. There is a maxim that you can tell a man by who his friends are. To associate with the worst criminal alive speaks volumes about the criminals leading the extreme left.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Sharon was asked, among other things, whether Yasser Arafat is a target of Israeli assassins. His response was that Israel does not target political leaders.
That response was proper and honorable. But it is not relevant to this instance. Yasser Arafat, much as he would like the world to believe he is a political leader, is nothing more or less than a mass murderer. He is a murderer of babies, young parents, the elderly, and anyone else he deems a proper target. He is the worst murderer alive today. He has even endangered the people he claims to lead, as proven by Monday's death of another baby.
Sharon's response was wrong. Rather than playing to the Beilins, Sarids, and Pereses of Israel, Sharon should instruct that Arafat be targeted. Arafat should be the prime target. The sooner the world is rid of him, the better off the world will be. And the sooner Israeli leaders stop paying attention to Beilin, Sarid, and Peres, the better off Israel will be.
Copyright 2001. Yehuda Poch is a writer living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
