Hebron Etzion
_______ Bloc Betar Jerusalem
/Kiryat \ _______ ______ _____________
/ Arba \ / Efrat \ / \ / \_______
___/ \____/ \__/ \____/ Maaleh Adumim
######### #### #### # Tekoa ______
# # # # # # # # _____ / \
# # # # # ### ##### / \ / \
# # # # # # # # # _/ \____/ \_
### ## #### #### # #
"Rebuilding Jewish Life in Judea, Israel"
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JUDEA ELECTRONIC MAGAZINE Vol.10, No.3 Sivan-Tamuz 5762/May-June 2002
***********************************************************************
Website: http://www.womeningreen.org/judea OUR 10TH YEAR!
Contents:
Murder in Judea:
* Adura: Danielle Shefi, Age 5, Shot in Bed; 3 Others Killed
* Karmei Tzur: Young Couple, Reservist Killed
Jewish Heroes:
* A Soldier of the Jewish People
* If You Receive This Letter
Media:
* Daily Alert -- For People Who Need to Know
* X-Rays of the Aftermath: Effect of Palestinian Anti-Personnel Bombs
Inspiration:
* We Are as Lions
* Why Are Settlements Growing?
* The Jewish People Speak -- and Send Pizza
* Army Reservists Volunteer for More Service
* Neve Avraham - A Lesson of Loving-Kindness
Clarity:
* There's a Terrorist in the House
* Why Don't I Care About the Palestinians?
* The Israeli Arab Riots of October 2000
* Ehud Barak - One Year Later
**********************************************************************
ADURA: DANIELLE SHEFI, AGE 5, SHOT IN BED; 3 OTHERS KILLED
Five-year-old Danielle Shefi, murdered in an Arab terrorist attack
on 27 April 2002 on the Jewish village of Adura in the South Hebron
Hills region of Judea, was killed when two Arabs disguised as IDF
soldiers infiltrated the community and began firing automatic weapons
into homes. Seven residents were wounded, including one seriously and
three listed in moderate condition.
At around 9:15 a.m., the terrorists cut a hole in the Adura
security fence, then began advancing on the first homes they saw. They
shot through the windows of several homes and broke into at least one
other.
Danielle was killed when a terrorist entered her home in the
morning and shot her as she lay in her bed. Her father was at the
synagogue for Sabbath morning prayers. Photographs of the little girl's
bedroom show her Mickey Mouse sheets soaked with blood. Danielle's
grandfather, Kiryat Arba resident Yitzchak Ben-Hevron, is a survivor of
the 1929 pogrom in which 67 Jews were slaughtered in Hebron by their
Moslem neighbors. Her father, Yaakov, later said:
"I was in the neighbor's house at the time, and when I heard that
terrorists were shooting in the rooms in my house, I thought I was
alone in the world. The reason why I still have a wife, and two
children, is because of the bravery of my wife [who hid the two other
children, aged 1 and 4; they were lightly hurt]. The terrorist came
into Danielle's room - just five years old, an angel! - and she thought
it was an Israeli soldier, and she looked at him with wide eyes as he
started to shoot at her!
These Palestinian terrorists, when they have guns in their hands,
they simply don't care who they're shooting - even little children."
Also murdered in the attack were 45-year-old Katya Greenberg, shot
in her bedroom; her husband Vladimir was seriously wounded. In
addition, two members of the town's emergency response team, Yaakov
Katz, 50, and Arik Becker, 23, were killed in an exchange of gunfire
with the terrorists on the street.
Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said that the international
community should see the images from inside Danielle Shefi's bedroom
"to see what a real massacre looks like."
(Arutz Sheva News Service, http://www.Israelnn.com, 28 Apr 02)
**********************************************************************
KARMEI TZUR: YOUNG COUPLE, RESERVIST KILLED
St. Sgt. Eyal Sorek, 23, and his wife Yael, 21, were murdered in a
terrorist attack in Karmei Tzur in the Etzion Bloc of Judea on 8 June
2002. Yael was nine-months pregnant with their first child. Maj. (res.)
Shalom Mordechai, 35, of Nahariya was also killed in the gun battle
with the two terrorists; he is survived by his wife and two sons,
Shaked, 9, and Ro'i, 5.
The attacked occurred shortly before 3 a.m. when two Palestinians
dressed as IDF soldiers entered the new Tzur Shalom neighborhood of
Karmei Tzur - named for Dr. Shmuel Gillis who was murdered over a year
ago by terrorists - and began firing at residents sleeping in their
thin-walled mobile homes. Eyal Sorek, an elite combat unit fighter, was
killed when he went to the door to fire back, and his wife when she
came to help him. One of the terrorists was finally felled by the
commander of the IDF reserve unit that arrived on the scene, but not
before three Israelis were killed and five others wounded. It was
reported that the commander later found three bullet holes in his
uniform and helmet, one of which grazed his head. The second terrorist
fled to the nearby PLO-controlled town of Halhoul. The army found many
grenades and much ammunition on the body of the first terrorist.
Yael, nee Kandel, was studying to be a math teacher. She was due to
give birth in a matter of days. Her father, Yehuda Kandel, was informed
of the tragedy Sabbath morning, but did not tell his wife or family
until after the Sabbath had ended. Yehuda had been awarded a medal for
his bravery in the Ammunition Hill battle in Jerusalem in the Six-Day
War.
Eyal Sorek was to be discharged from the army this week. He studied
in the pre-military yeshiva in Atzmona and had volunteered for an extra
six months of army service. He and his wife are the 14th husband-and-
wife couple to be murdered by Palestinian terrorists during the 20-
month-old Oslo War.
Malky Zonnenfeld, spokesperson of the South Hevron Hills Regional
Council, told Israel Radio, "The media keep asking whether there was a
fence around the neighborhood or not, or whether there was a guard or
not. These are all just excuses, designed to make people feel better.
There is only one reason why there are attacks, and it has nothing to
do with fences: It is because there is an evil Palestinian Authority,
and it has to be defeated, period."
(Arutz Sheva News Service, http://www.Israelnn.com, 9 June 2002)
*********************************************************************
A SOLDIER OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
Liron Nagler-Cohen
During the fierce fighting in Jenin, Israel's Commander-in-Chief,
General Shaul Mofaz, came to inspect the fighting forces in the area.
He gathered the commanders and officers for a briefing and suddenly
noticed that one of his Major Generals, Avraham Gutman, had a long rip
in his army shirt. He immediately asked him about the tear and Gutman
told him that his mother had passed away the day before and that he had
just come from the funeral. Gutman is a religious Jew and tearing one's
garment is a custom of mourning.
General Mofaz immediately ordered him to return home to sit Shiva
(the 7-day mourning period) for his mother. Gutman refused, and told
the following story.
He described how he had volunteered to join his unit when he heard
that they had been called up for Operation Defensive Shield. In the
midst of the second day of battle in Jenin, Gutman received a phone
call from his 92-year-old mother.
His mother said, "I have two things to tell you. The first is that
as a commander in the field you have a responsibility to bring your
soldiers back home, safe and sound." Then she said, "Remember Avraham,
you are my revenge against the Nazis." With that she hung up; several
hours later she passed away. After the funeral, Gutman told his family,
"I am returning to battle. I have no choice. This was my mother's last
request."
Every single Jew in this country is over 3000 years old. It is that
fact that truly guides their lives.
(_Hatzofe_, 3 May 02; from Moshe Kempinski,
http://www.shorashim.net)
**********************************************************************
Jewish Heroes
IF YOU RECEIVE THIS LETTER
Golani Brigade soldier Gad Ezra, 23, was killed while helping a
wounded comrade in Jenin on April 4, 2002. After his death, his fiance,
Gilit Meizlik, received the following letter in the mail:
"My dear Galit. If you receive this letter it means that something
has happened to me. My love, I feel on one hand that there is nothing I
want in the world more than to be with you, to love you and to make a
home and raise a family with you, but on the other hand there is
nothing I want more than to go out on this operation and to strike
these villains such a blow that they would not even think of any more
terrorist attacks, and that they will have to take into account that if
they continue, we will hit them where it hurts the most, and always be
ready to pay the price. I'm prepared to be the price.
Don't be angry with me, my love, but at times like these my
feelings of concern for all of Israel are greater than for my private
life.
I love you and I'll always love you, and I'm sure that at the
moment that whatever happens to me happens, you will be on my mind and
I'll leave the world knowing that I was as happy as I could be because
of you."
(_Maariv_ Weekend, 16 May 02, p. 24)
**********************************************************************
DAILY ALERT -- FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED TO KNOW
http://www.jcpa.org/daily
After repeated requests for such a service, in May 2002 the
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
launched the Daily Alert, a hyperlinked digest of the top news stories
and commentary on Israel and the Mideast, offering an insider's
overview of breaking news from the world and Hebrew press.
Daily Alert is prepared by a team of professionals at the
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and is transmitted from Israel by 8
a.m. EST, Monday through Friday. Back issues are archived.
To subscribe to the Daily Alert, send a blank email message to:
daily-subscribe@jcpa.org.
*
Sample Listing from Daily Alert:
X-RAYS OF THE AFTERMATH: THE EFFECT OF PALESTINIAN ANTI-PERSONNEL BOMBS
Suicide bombs are packed with spikes, nails, screws, nuts, bullets,
ball bearings, and even rat poison. Dr. Michael Messing, a radiologist
from Evanston Northwestern Healthcare in Illinois, saw one young man
with 300 individual metallic fragments imbedded in his body from head
to toe. [Note: This article includes photographs of x-rays and CT
scans.] (WorldNetDaily.com)
**********************************************************************
X-RAYS OF THE AFTERMATH: THE EFFECT OF PALESTINIAN ANTI-PERSONNEL BOMBS
Mandi Steele
[To view the accompanying photographs of x-rays and CT scans, see:
http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27778]
[PHOTO: Front view of a pelvis imbedded with nails and metal
fragments.]
X-rays taken from victims of suicide bombings reveal pieces of
metallic fragments embedded in their skin, muscles, organs and bones,
says Dr. Michael Messing, a radiologist from Evanston Northwestern
Healthcare in Illinois who visited the victims of suicide bombings
while at the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. Suicide bombers pack their
bombs with nails and other objects so even survivors of suicide
bombings will suffer from the bomb's effects.
They're trying to maximize the number of people they kill and
injure," said Messing of the terrorists. "The nails fly like bullets,
head first, penetrating skin, flesh and bone. The unprecedented wave of
suicide bombings has presented a whole new set of medical challenges."
[PHOTO: Front view of an abdomen imbedded with nails and metal
fragments.]
Rabbi Immanuel Yosef Legomsky, a neurotherapist, says "[The
Palestinians'] goal is to do as much damage as possible and destroy
functional life where they fail to actually kill. Their result is that
often those who live and their relatives suffer much more than those
who die," he said.
[PHOTO: Side view of lower back and abdomen. Note orientation of
whole nails that entered head first.]
At a Tel Aviv nightclub June 1, 2001, a suicide bomber left 15-
year-old Alona Shportova with serious brain damage and paralysis. She
also had some of her limbs lacerated. In the suicide bombing of Dec. 1,
Eran Mizrahi suffered a nail through his skull. He was celebrating his
16th birthday at a restaurant in Jerusalem. His injury left him
paralyzed and in a catatonic state.
Messing said one of the victims he saw while in Jerusalem had
around 300 individual metallic fragments within his body. The metal
fragments, measuring from millimeters to centimeters, were imbedded in
the young man literally from head to toe, he said.
"Several of the fragments penetrated into his vital organs. He
sustained a punctured colon, a collapsed lung, and a lacerated liver
and kidney. I could actually feel the nails under his skin where they
had burrowed and lodged," Messing recalls.
The victim underwent painstaking hours of exploration to try to
remove the metal fragments that were accessible.
"He suffered multiple organ injuries, but was saved with successful
emergency room care and surgery," he said. "Other victims suffered
amputated limbs, severe burns, fractures, lacerations, paralysis,
deafness and blindness."
Sometimes the fragments will cause more damage if they are taken
out, Messing said, so some of the victims live the rest of their
agonizing lives with shrapnel still inside of them.
"It is common knowledge here that light injury can be losing a
limb; medium is nearly dead or doubtful if he will live or radically
altered functionality," Legomsky says. "Serious almost always means
most of these victims wish they were dead physically."
"Terror is traumatizing our society -- victims, their families and
friends, witnesses, health and law professionals, and children," he
said.
[PHOTO: CT scan of head. Metal, bone, blood and air are within
normal brain tissue.]
"The most profoundly wrenching illustration is the now normal
statements of young Jewish children like, 'Soon I may be killed by a
sniper,' 'Mommy, isn't that an Arab next to us, I am afraid,' 'Mommy,
please don't go shopping – I love you and I don't want to be an
orphan,'" he said. "Little children have been brutally robbed of their
childhood and filled with blood-curdling, heart-rending terror." "It
has literally affected the entire nation on a psychological level,"
Messing said.
He said, "The Palestinian martyr's weapon has literally and
figuratively penetrated the hearts, souls and bodies of the Jewish
nation. It is past the time for the civilized world to recognize this
as terror at its worst."
**********************************************************************
WE ARE AS LIONS
At the funeral of Noa Alon in Ofra, next to the graves, Effi Eitam
- head of the National Religious Party - finally took the microphone.
Unlike some eulogists, his voice did not quaver as it boomed through
loudspeakers to the thousands of mourners.
He addressed the Palestinians.
"You are a cursed people and you know we are a blessed nation," he
said. "You will not be able to live here if you place a wall between us
and our land, our nation, our country. We are like a lion and at times
this lion seems exhausted, tired. But we are getting ready to pounce.
Our muscles are taut and when we pounce on you - and it will happen -
it will be your end....The lion's roar, which has been smothered, is
starting to be heard in a war of terrible revenge against those who
stand in the way of this great flow that we are a part of."
(Matthew McAllester, _Newsday_, June 21, 2002)
**********************************************************************
WHY ARE SETTLEMENTS GROWING?
Gil Sedan
[Editor's Note: Tekoa Daled is full - every trailer is occupied
with young couples and singles with a bit of pioneering spirit. Tekoa
Daled is the newest trailer neighborhood of Tekoa, and the latest in a
settlement bloc of seven contiguous hilltops encompassing Tekoa Canyon
and Herodion National Monument. Many of the new residents of these
neighborhoods grew up in Jewish villages in Judea and Samaria, and are
now striking out on their own. Informal reports say this phenomenon is
being repeated in other places.]
Thirty-four years after the first Israeli settlement was
established in Hebron, the Jewish settlement network in Judea, Samaria,
and Gaza continues to grow.
As of February 2002, the settler population was estimated at
230,000, having approximately doubled in the past decade. In Judea and
Samaria, 206,000 Israelis live in 130 settlements. In the Gaza Strip,
6,400 Jews live in 16 settlements.
An additional 17,000 Israelis live in 33 communities on the Golan
Heights, land that Israel officially annexed in 1981.
These figures also do not include some 170,000 Jews living in
Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem.
Almost all Israeli governments, Labor and Likud alike, have built
settlements since 1967. In some cases, the settlements constituted a
return to land that was owned by Jews until Arabs killed or exiled the
Jewish residents, as in Hebron in the 1929 riots or Gush Etzion in the
1948 War of Independence.
During the first decade after the 1967 war, Labor-led governments
were the driving force behind the creation and expansion of
settlements. Labor's approach was incremental, but after 1977, the
first Likud government, led by Menachem Begin, embraced settlements.
In 2000, just before the outbreak of the intifada, the Jewish
population grew by 8 percent.
Prime Minister Sharon said recently that his government will not
consider abandoning any settlements.
Since Sharon became prime minister, according to a Peace Now
survey, some 34 new settlement sites, often new neighborhoods of
existing settlements, have been established.
(JTA, http://www.jta.org, 30 Apr 02)
**********************************************************************
THE JEWISH PEOPLE SPEAK -- AND SEND PIZZA
An Israeli website -- http://PizzaIDF.org -- has given people
throughout the world the opportunity to send pizza and Pepsi to active
duty IDF soldiers, both those on regular military service as well as
those who have left their homes, families, and jobs to serve the Jewish
people as reserve duty fighters.
The deliveries are made in full cooperation with the IDF. Rumors
that pizza deliveries had been stopped because of security concerns
were proven false.
The pizza order is delivered to the soldiers out in the field: at
jeep and foot patrols, roadblocks, army bases, and on guard duty. Those
who make the deliveries report that "It is without doubt as tremendous
an experience for us to give them out as it is for the soldiers
receiving them, knowing that people everywhere support them."
One of the most touching parts of the website are the many
inspiring messages that were posted along with the pizza orders:
Know that we are with you -- you are our strength, protection and
pride. This is in honor of our Mother on Mother's Day. She said: 'Don't
send me flowers on Mother's Day. Give it to Israel.' God bless you and
keep you safe. -- New York
Dear Soldier: The Jewish people of the world pray every day for
you. We feel helpless compared to the struggle our brothers and sisters
endure each day. -- West Hartford, CT
The Jewish World owes you a lot.
You boys are doing it for all of us, and believe me, we appreciate
it! -- Rochester, New York
We are so proud to have a strong and mighty army. The whole world
is watching you guys and you are showing them what you are made of.
Thank you for protecting Eretz Israel at this difficult time. We
think about Israel from the time we wake up in the morning until we go
to bed at night. -- the 260 children of the Hasten Hebrew Academy,
Indianapolis, Indiana
We want to thank you for your courage and bravery in these hard
times. Please know that you have our support, and we pray for your safe
return to your families. -- Cayuga Heights (NY) Fire Department,
Company #1
Thanking you for doing the work the rest of the world is too scared
to do.
I marched in the 'Salute to Israel Parade' last week, and wish you
could have seen and heard the support and love of the 100,000 people
gathered to honor you and your efforts. Thank you from an Emergency
Medical Technician from lower Manhattan. What you fight for is precious
and sacred, you will not be forgotten.
The New York City Sheriff's Department is behind you! When you
stand up for Israel, you stand up for us all!
My prayers for you and your families...a 72-year-old retired
Christian businessman.
It is worth fighting for. Thank you.
We appreciate what you are doing for the State of Israel and
ultimately, Jews everywhere. -- Congregation Ahavath Achim, Tyler,
Texas
Your cause is just; your cause is right. Israel stands as a bright
star of freedom and a beacon of hope for the entire world. -- Atlanta,
Georgia
We exist as long as you, Israel, exist!
A small return on the hospitality shown me by the IDF-DMI 1987. Lt.
Col. Joe, U.S. Marine Corps (retired)
When in doubt... shoot; apologize later. You are the front lines
for the survival of democracy and freedom on the planet. -- Denver,
Colorado
You are an example for many to follow. I salute you. -- Rome, Italy
Thank you for fighting for our right to eat pizza without fear.
Remember America will always stand with you. Stay sharp, guys, and
shoot straight.
Thank you for what you are doing, we in Mexico are thinking of you
all the time. Gracias.
**********************************************************************
ARMY RESERVISTS VOLUNTEER FOR MORE SERVICE
A platoon of IDF reservists from the Northern Command, that had
already completed its quota of days of service for the year, decided to
volunteer for additional days of duty to enable some hard-working young
regular army soldiers to get home for a long weekend.
In addition, the IDF approved a request by the Mayor of Or Akiva,
Yaakov Edri, and 15 municipal employees to volunteer for reserve duty.
(From _Maariv_, 22 Mar 02, p. 9)
**********************************************************************
NEVE AVRAHAM - A LESSON OF LOVING-KINDNESS
David Wilder
In 1976 long-time Kiryat Arba residents Moshe and Chaviva Tzachor
noticed a small newspaper article about a recently born baby who had
been abandoned in the hospital due to serious physical disabilities,
including deafness, blindness, and brain damage. Moshe and Chaviva
adopted the little girl, naming her Liat, meaning in English "you are
mine." This was only weeks before Chaviva would give birth to her
eighth child.
The Tzachors refused to send Liat to a boarding school, insisting
that she should receive love and care at home. Over the years, Chaviva
encountered a multitude of challenges related to raising a special
needs child and became familiar with the needs of developmentally
disabled children and their families. Because communities such as
Hebron and Kiryat Arba are far from the closest treatment centers in
Jerusalem, Chaviva opened Neve Avraham in 1989 in a small apartment in
Kiryat Arba, which evolved into a regional Child Development Treatment
Center.
In 1995, due to the increased demand and rapid growth, the Center
relocated to a much larger, well-equipped facility offering
comprehensive diagnostic and therapeutic services including
physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, treatment of
learning disabilities, and psychological services, with holistic health
care, music therapy, art therapy, and the Alexander Technique in
varying stages of planning and implementation. A highly professional
and dedicated staff of therapists provide unlimited love and caring for
every child. Neve Avraham has helped over 1,200 youngsters whose
disabilities have been alleviated and whose developmental delays have
been overcome.
Neve Avraham is seeking assistance to construct a therapeutic
swimming pool, and acquire other state-of-the-art therapeutic tools. To
learn more about Neve Avraham, see: www.neveavraham.org.
(Jewish Community of Hebron, 20 May 02)
**********************************************************************
THERE'S A TERRORIST IN THE HOUSE
On March 28, 2002, an Arab terrorist infiltrated the Jewish town of
Elon Moreh in Samaria, entered the house of the Gavish family, and
murdered four people: David and Rachel, their oldest son Avraham, and
Rachel's father Yitzhak Kaner. St.-Sgt. (res.) Avi Zarbiv, who was
staying in the house next door for the holiday, told Arutz-7 what
happened that night:
"We were visiting in the house next door to the Gavish home.
Suddenly we heard very loud gunshots. We didn't know where they were
coming from, but they were clearly close by. I went outside, with my
gun, to look for the source of the fire. Someone outside shouted to me
that the shots were coming from the Gavish home. I ran towards the
house and saw the daughter-in-law run outside with her baby. She was
the wife of Avraham, one of those who were killed in the attack and who
was an IDF officer who served in the General Staff elite unit. She
shouted that there is a terrorist in the house.
At that stage there were three or four armed people outside. They
were all neighbors who responded in seconds and came outside with their
guns. I stationed the people so that they would cover each side of the
house, with orders to prevent the terrorist from leaving the house and
reaching other homes.
The front door was open, and I cautiously peeked inside. I saw
destruction in the house: the father and mother, David and Rachel
Gavish, lying wounded in the entrance, and I saw the grandfather in the
same condition lying in the den.
I then saw an Elon Moreh resident enter the house through the
kitchen; we had eye contact and called to each other. Then I heard
shouts from the second floor, and I understood that family members were
upstairs.
I dragged the three wounded outside, and gave instructions to
distance them from the house. At that point, another fighter arrived
who I knew had served in an elite unit, and I knew I could rely on him.
Together we returned to the house to find the terrorist. We reached the
stairs where we saw the fourth victim -- the son Avraham. We dragged
him outside, and when I came back in, we saw and identified the
terrorist hiding behind a closet in one of the rooms on the ground
floor. We each let go a long round of fire at him, shooting from
outside the room in the hallway, and the terrorist also returned fire.
Then the door to the room suddenly closed.
We then froze the situation -- we remained in the house across from
the closed room for about an hour. We shot occasionally through the
closed door so that the terrorist wouldn't 'raise his head,' if he was
still alive. We waited in the house for the arrival of IDF special
forces who would proceed to finish the job with more equipment,
soldiers, and the means to protect themselves. We were told by the
commandos who stormed the room that they found the terrorist "full of
holes" but not dead.
The Gavish family was a special family, a real example for others.
All of the sons are in elite units, as was the father.
(Arutz Sheva News Service, http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com, April
8, 2002)
**********************************************************************
WHY DON'T I CARE ABOUT THE PALESTINIANS?
John Derbyshire
Why don't I care about the Palestinians? It is, of course, wrong of
me not to care. It can't be much fun being a Palestinian. You, or your
parents, or your grandparents - plus a couple of generations of uncles,
aunts, siblings, and cousins - have been huddled in some squalid
refugee camp ever since, living off UNRWA handouts. There is no economy
worth participating in. The other Arabs all hate you.
It's just the way these places are. They can't handle modernity,
for some cultural reason we don't understand and can't do anything
about. The Palestinians are Arabs; and the Arabs, whatever their
medieval achievements, are politically hopeless. Look at the last 50-
odd years, since the colonial powers left. What have the Arabs
accomplished? What have they built? Where in the Arab world is there a
trace or a spark of democracy? Of constitutionalism? Of laws
independent of the ruler's whim? Of free inquiry? Of open public
debate? Where in your house is there any article stamped "Made in
Syria?" Arabs can be individually very charming and capable, and
perform very well in free societies like the U.S.A. Collectively,
though, as nations, the Arabs are no-hopers.
I spent some of my formative years in Hong Kong, a barren piece of
rock with zero natural resources, under foreign occupation, chock-full
of refugees from the Mao tyranny. The people there weren't lounging in
UNRWA camps or making suicide runs. They were trading, building,
manufacturing, working — with the result that Hong Kong is now a
glittering modern city filled with well-dressed, well-educated, well-
fed people, proud of what they have accomplished together, and with a
higher standard of living than Britain herself. If the Palestinians had
taken that route, had set aside their fantasies of revenge and
massacre, and concentrated on building up something worth having, I
might have respect for them.
Everywhere you look around the Arab world you see squalor,
despotism, cruelty, and hopelessness. The best they have been able to
manage, politically speaking, has been the Latin-American style one-
party kleptocracies of Egypt and Jordan. Those are the peaks of Arab
political achievement under independence, under government by their own
people. The norm is just gangsterism, with thugs like Assad, Qaddafi,
or Saddam in charge. It doesn't seem to be anything to do with
religion: the secular states (Iraq, Syria) are just as horrible as the
religious ones like Saudi Arabia. These people are hopeless. We are all
supposed to support the notion of a Palestinian state. Why? We know
perfectly well what it would be like. Why should we wish for another
gangster-satrapy to be added to the Arab roll of shame, busy
manufacturing terrorists to come here and slaughter Americans in their
offices? I don't want to see a Palestinian state. I think I'd be crazy
to want that.
(_National Review_, 9 May 2002)
**********************************************************************
THE ISRAELI ARAB RIOTS OF OCTOBER 2000
In the riots in Israel of October 2000, during which 13 Israeli-
Arabs were killed, the Arab rioters attacked Jews in their cars, closed
off a main highway for several days, and caused millions of shekels
worth of damage. In the space of a few days, one regional council in
the Galilee suffered 170 "incidents," including 30 attacks on Jewish
towns, ten firebombs and shootings, 20 roadblocks, 40 rock/brick
throwings, and 70 cases of arson.
(Arutz Sheva News Service, http://www.Israelnn.com, 3 June 2002)
**********************************************************************
EHUD BARAK - ONE YEAR LATER
Speaking in March 2002, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak
concluded: "At Camp David and Taba, we discovered that Arafat wants a
Palestinian state not alongside Israel but in place of Israel. People
who devoted their entire lives toward bringing peace sat in Taba [in
January 2001] opposite the Palestinians and came away with the
impression that they wanted Ramat Aviv [a neighborhood of Tel Aviv]."
(From Amnon Lord, _Makor Rishon_, Yoman, 8 Mar 02)
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*** BACK ISSUES ***
1993 - Vol. 1: Issues 1.1-1.6 1998 - Vol. 6: Issues 6.1-6.6
1994 - Vol. 2: Issues 2.1-2.6 1999 - Vol. 7: Issues 7.1-7.6
1995 - Vol. 3: Issues 3.1-3.6 2000 - Vol. 8: Issues 8.1-8.6
1996 - Vol. 4: Issues 4.1-4.6 2001 - Vol. 9: Issues 9.1-9.6
1997 - Vol. 5: Issues 5.1-5.6 2002 - Vol. 10: Issues 10.1-10.3
Back issues are available through the JUDEA website:
http://www.womeningreen.org/judea/index1.htm
To SUBSCRIBE (free), send an e-mail message with "subscribe" as the
subject to: amiel2@womeningreen.org.
JUDEA Magazine is a bi-monthly electronic magazine produced and
transmitted from Judea, Israel, specializing in stories about the
rebirth of Jewish life in a tiny and unique corner of civilization.
Mail address: Judea Magazine, Yael and Mark Ami-El, Editors; Tekoa;
D.N. North Judea, Israel. JUDEA Magazine is offered without charge on
the Internet. All material may be reprinted with attribution to JUDEA
Magazine and original source as cited. Comments are welcome by e-mail
to: amiel2@womeningreen.org
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Your comments and questions are welcome. Please reply to:
amiel2@womeningreen.org