These bombings, and the other constant forms of terrorism that continue to plague Israel, have come in the wake of the Mitchell Report released last week. That report unabashedly equates the Zionist enterprise of settling the Land of Israel, with the Arab penchant to murder Jews indiscriminately in any part of Israel. This report is the latest in a long line of international efforts to besmirch the Jewish State and to express the world's continuing antipathy toward the Jews.
One is reminded of the infamous 1976 resolution of the United Nations General Assembly that equated Zionism with Racism. It was one of the few unblemished bright spots on the record of President George Bush the first that he succeeded in pressuring the UN to rescind that resolution. Bush the Second, however, is presiding over the US government that has now adopted the Mitchell Report as policy, sending us back to the days when Israel is considered a pariah state by those against whom it is meant to defend Jewish interests.
So what else is new? Well, to begin with, a significant portion of the Israeli government this time supports the plain anti-Semitism that is being hurled at Israel. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres went on record last week claiming that the Israeli government accepts the Mitchell Report in full - something that other members of the government, including the Prime Minister, do not accept.
While the rhetoric emanating from the Mitchell fiasco is detrimental to Israel's interests, the terrorism being carried out by the Arabs is killing us. Over the weekend, the Jerusalem Post ran a front-page feature article about the porous checkpoints and patrols that are meant to keep these terrorists from Jewish cities and to prevent the murder of Jews. After all, the entire purpose of the Jewish State of Israel is to protect Jews from the anti-Semitism that leads to their death.
During an interview with soldiers and police officers manning a checkpoint near Netanya, groups of Arabs passed right by the officers without the necessary permits, and just kept walking toward potential attacks that could have resulted in scores of other deaths and injuries. When the reporter asked the officers about them, one policeman shrugged and said, "what can we do?"
The Netanya Police Chief was quoted in the same article as saying that, "the IDF is not doing what it is supposed to over there." So begins the scenario of the police and the IDF blaming each other for the lack of protection afforded Jews in Israel.
The reality is that both of them are largely to blame for this situation. The IDF is not defending Israelis, as proven by the continued firing of mortar shells into Jewish neighbourhoods in and around Gaza, and the continued situation on roads throughout Judea and Samaria where to drive is to take your life in your hands. Arabs cross the so-called "Green Line" several times an hour in many places throughout the country, including around Jerusalem and Gush Etzion. They use dirt paths that by-pass checkpoints and show up in Jewish cities ready to carry out who knows what havoc. The IDF knows full well of the existence of these paths, yet does nothing to block these access routes to Arabs. The prevailing attitude is "what can we do".
And the police go right along with it. If the IDF refuses to block these routes there is nothing wrong with having the police do it. Instead, bombs continue to explode in Netanya, Hadera, and Jerusalem, as well as other places in proximity to the "Green Line".
Perhaps that police officer was right, though. After all, if the foreign minister of Israel has no problem with a foreign dignitary stating that the Zionist development of Israel is tantamount to large-scale murder, then the Israeli police and armed forces should have no problem allowing such murder to take place. After all, since Israel is meant to fulfill the Zionist dream, and since that Zionist dream is the equivalent of murder, according to Shimon Peres, the entire purpose of the State of Israel is to murder Jews.
It seems to me that the "D" in IDF now stands for defeatism. That is, at least until the scourge of defeatism, as personified by Shimon Peres and his friends, is removed from our midst.
Copyright 2001. Yehuda Poch is a writer living in Israel. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
