Tragic, Senseless Loss

The day before yesterday the Palestinians succeeded in perpetrating their first suicide bombing in Eilat. Unfortunately three people were killed by this poor misguided youth, two owners and an employee of a neighborhood bakery. The terrorist went from Gaza to Sinai (easy to do), crossed our fenceless border with Egypt (apparently, even easier to do), hitched a ride to Eilat and managed to explode himself in the bakery before police closed in on him. This exposes a number of things. One is the lack of security on the Egyptian side of the border. It exposes again the need on our side of the border to build our forces there in order to properly battle the smugglers and terrorists. Apparently in the past year 100 infiltration attempts from Sinai have been stopped. It highlighted the need to build an electronic fence on this border, which has been so effective around Gaza and around the West Bank in preventing terrorism.
The terrorist attack apparently also succeeded. For the previous week it really looked like as if Fatah and Hamas were going to have a full blown civil war. I guess this attack did succeed in reminding the Palestinians who the real enemy is-Israeli men, women, children and vicious bakers in Eilat. As the "moderate" Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said to a rally on January 11: "We will not give up our principles and we have said that rifles should be directed against the occupation." Furthermore, "We have a legitimate right to direct our guns against Israeli occupation. It is forbidden to use these guns against Palestinians. The occupation has perpetrated brutal attacks in Jenin, Beit Hanun and Ramallah." This is the man we want to prop up and think is a viable peace partner. Yet he talks about war.
What is so incredibly sad and tragic about the whole thing is that there could be peace tomorrow if the Palestinians would lay down their weapons and negotiate. Israel is ready. We would close settlements, evacuate tens of thousands of Jews from their homes, even give reciprocal territory for the 3-4% of the West Bank we would probably keep. An agreement could be reached. We all say we want it, a two-state solution. So do the Palestinians, Israel, the UN, United States, the European Union, and Russia. So why isn't it happening? What is holding it up? The Palestinians had a remarkable opportunity 18 months ago when Israel left the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank. Here we gave them on a silver platter without preconditions contiguous territory to really start state building. What happened? Hate is powerful. The Palestinian nationality and national identity is based on hatred of Israel and fighting Israel. I don't think they can conceive of life without this. So instead of building greenhouses and factories in Gaza, they build tunnels into our sovereign territory to attack and kidnap our soldiers. They use their Israeli settler and soldier free territory to launch Kasam rockets targeting our civilian population and to send terrorists through Sinai to Eilat to kill, maim and destroy. What a tragedy. What a waste.
As long as the Palestinian leadership continues to preach, teach, educate Palestinian society that the struggle and dying for the cause, against the occupation is all that matters, they will never have peace. The Palestinians, as a people have only learned how to die. You can't truly be a nationality, a people, a nation, unless you also know how to live. That is one of the secrets of Jewish survival. The Palestinians need to learn this lesson. Otherwise, there will only be more death and destruction.

A National Disgrace

President Moshe Katsav is a national disgrace. I 'm not sure what is more disgusting as someone who is supposed to represent all that is good and decent in Israeli society in addition to being a representative for social unity, the charges that he is facing or last week's diatribe against the state and its institutions. It is repugnant enough that he is going to be indicted for rape, sexual harassment and a few other related charges. As opposed to the case of Haim Ramon where I am inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt based on some things I have heard, ten women came forward after the story broke last summer claiming that Katsav had sexually harassed them or worse. Five cases were not investigated because the statute of limitations had expired. In the end, all of the charges to be filed are based on the testimony of two women.
After the announcement that the Attorney General would indict Kastav, politicians from across the spectrum called upon him to resign. The nation waited, hoping that what would happen is that this seasoned politician, the president of our nation, the head of state would recognize the gravity of the situation and in a dignified way address the nation and resign from office. We all expected him to finally defend himself. No Israeli politician goes quietly into the night; however there are ways to accomplish this. What the Israeli public was treated to last Wednesday was our president angrily striking out, lambasting the media, the police, the attorney general, politicians and even pulling out the race card, declaring that it was persecution by the elites because he is Sephardic. Now here is a man who has reached the top, who symbolized what even an Israeli from the humblest of origins can achieve, who still could be a force for unity, but who instead, as head of state, decides to become a force for disunity. It was a disgusting, shameful performance which dishonored the office of the presidency, the State of Israel, its institutions and its people.
Now, it is true that the media does over blow things and go on witch hunts. However all you have to do is look at how they go after politicians across the ethnic stream (although Arab members of Knesset seem to be off limits) to realize that Katsav was not singled out. It is also true that the police have a habit of leaking information to the press which is pretty disgusting in of itself and is something which needs to be addressed, however it does not excuse Katsav's behavior. He needs to resign. The fact that he only request (and was granted) a leave of absence is also a national disgrace. The president of Israel should be someone we respect, not an embarrassment.

Hello 2007

The year 2007 has begun with plenty of uncertainty. I wish I could say with confidence that it will end on a more positive note, however that is not possible. Despite the beefed up UNIFIL force in southern Lebanon and the presence of the Lebanese army everyone knows and has admitted that Hezbollah has rearmed. "Ceasefire" or not, Kassam rockets continue to fall on Sederot and other towns, kibbutzim, and villages within range. The world does and says nothing because, as BBC's Radio Four news announced, that despite all of these kasam's being fired, the ceasefire is holding. Translation: Israel hasn't responded to these attacks yet. When they do, then the ceasefire will be broken.
Another example of how the European media's moral compass is so skewed is the response by many to the execution of Saddam Hussein. Some newspaper editorials calling that a crime or pontificating that it does not bring back the victims or that it is barbaric, etc. etc. etc. It's sad that such a large part of European media/intelligentsia have forgotten that evil does exist in the world and must be confronted, defeated and punished. Trial, conviction (if guilty), followed by punishment means that justice is served and the guilty party stands accountable. Hussein was a criminal who viciously ruled his country for close to 25 years, killing, torturing, and massacring hundreds of thousands of his own citizens. What happened to him was justice. Remember the Nuremburg Trials at the end of WWII? The punishments meted out after a trial? Justice.
In Israel itself we are still dealing with the aftermath of the failed war in Lebanon and a mediocre and arrogant leadership who are spending their time maneuvering to save their pathetic political or military careers while engaging in blame game politics. It not the easiest thing in the world to live in a country that is so misunderstood and misrepresented and misunderstood by the world. Sometimes I feel that Israel is the Western World's sacrificial lamb to the forces of extremism. We have become the western democracy that everyone loves to hate, and I'm not just talking about the Arab world.
It's too bad, because there is so much potential here. Despite the war in Lebanon this year, it is projected that our gross national product grew 4.5% to 5% in 2006. We continue to demonstrate that we can be a light unto the nations. Israel is a leader in the development of computer technology, cell phone technology, medicine, biology, physics, agricultural science, water reclamation and many other disciplines. The whole world benefits from all of this. Perhaps someday that is what the world will concentrate on when reporting about Israel. Perhaps they will also concentrate on places where there is a greater need such as Darfur or the Congo, where millions have died, while the Palestinian issue has tied up the UN in knots and has been one of the contributing factors to this organizations failing to live up to its own charter.
What's left? There is always hope. I love Israel. It is truly an amazing and wonderful place which has overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to achieve what it has achieved. However, the effort to someday become a "normal" country is beginning to resemble a Sisyphean task. I hope I'm wrong. One can always hope.