TRANSFER OF ARABS IS THE ONLY SOUND SOLUTION FOR PEACE! Posted by Ruth and Nadia Matar, September 30, 2003.

For many years now, Arafat, through his educational system, has inculcated Arab children with hatred of Jews. He has been extraordinarily successful. Aided and abetted by his daily Arab propaganda network directed both to adults and children, Arafat has effectuated a hatred against Jews that is irremediable. He has innovated suicide bombings of civilians, honoring, even posthumously, the maker of bombs and suicide bombers. Generations of children growing up in the Palestinian Authority school system have had ingrained in them that killing Jews is desirable. This inclination has become an integral part of Arab culture. As a result, 1200 Jews have been killed, and literally many, many thousands maimed for life. Arafat promises those who die in suicide bombings to be instantaneously rewarded. He labels them "heroes." There have been so many children growing up with this orientation, that no "true peace" between Jew and Arab can ever be realistically obtained. That Arabs in the future will live side by side in peace with Jews, does not square with the facts, nor with the daily murder of Jews by Arabs. The Road Map, sponsored by the European Union, the U.N., and Russia, as well as U.S. Secretary of State Powell and President Bush, has not taken reality into consideration. The Road Map is essentially the Saudi Arabian solution to the Mid-East problem, and as such is one sided and basically unfair. Radically new thinking is required in order to have peace in the area. Transfer of Arabs from the Holy Land is, without a doubt, the best solution. Once upon a time, that concept was looked upon with disfavor by "liberals." Whereas, they saw no difficulty in transferring Jews out of their homes in historical Judea and Samaria, as far as Arabs are concerned, that was taboo. Yet the fact remains that the Promised Land was promised by G-d to the Jews only. This fact is recognized even in the Koran. Most Arabs came into the Holy Land from surrounding Arab lands within the last 100 years. Transfer could be made to Jordan where the majority of the population is made up of so-called Palestinian Arabs. Or they can be sent back to many of the Arab lands from which these Arabs originally emigrated to Israel. Fair payment can be made to those Arabs who agree to leave the Holy Land. Arabs who wish to remain, can do so, provided they agree to be a citizen of a Jewish State. The United States and the E.U. would have to play a major role in this enterprise. Both of them have been anyhow pouring substantial monies into the area; their monies could be used more effectively for the purpose of resettling Arabs. Transfer would require the cooperation of many of the surrounding Arab States, something with which Arab governments have heretofore not had a very good track record. However, if the U.S. and the E.U. brought sufficient pressure, that problem could be overcome. What is needed is a determination to bring peace to this important area of the world, and there is nothing more logical and simple than to allow for a vibrant democratic Jewish State living peacefully with its neighbors. Transferring Arabs out of the Holy Land not only complies with G-d's Promise, but will definitely assist in making this desired goal possible. The authors founded Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green), a grassroots activist group based in Jerusalem. The group's website address is http://www.womeningreen.org

WILL ISRAEL ATONE? Posted by Beth Goodtree, September 30, 2003.

On Yom Kippur Jews around the world atone for their sins. It is a day for individual prayer, reflection, and forgiveness. But it does not have to be limited to the individual. Israel, meaning both a nation and all Hebrew peoples, is a candidate for atonement too. Over the years I have witnessed a growing phenomenon: that of Jew-bashing by other Jews. For the most part, this form of hatred stems from two sources; curiously, diametrically opposed to each other, yet united by their ignorance and intolerance. Given the climate of the post-9-11 world, both groups feed into a culture that promotes murdering Jews, themselves included. The first group consists of those Jews who hate Israel. Andrew Shapiro, Noam Chomsky, the Sulzbergers, Tom Segev all fall into that category to a greater or lesser degree. And most recently, there is the group of writers who want to prosecute the Israeli military for defending its citizens. While many of these people claim not to hate Israel, their behavior says differently. Adam Shapiro is the Jewish student from Brooklyn who came out in support of genocide bombings and praised Arab terrorism. Noam Chomsky, while saying he has nothing against Israel, writes hateful and frequently inaccurate treatises often quoted by hate groups as examples of why Israel and the Jews must be destroyed. The Sulzbergers are the family that runs the NY Times. When covering Middle East events, they do so with such bias that one might think the victims of terror deserved their fate or that Israel carried out a military offensive without provocation. Meanwhile, Tom Segev is an Israeli historian who travels around the world defending Hamas and other Arab terrorists by comparing these murderers to Menachem Begin and Yitzchak Shamir, thus feeding into global anti-Semitism. And finally, there are the prominent Israeli writers who want Israeli air force commander Dan Halutz to face criminal prosecution for the raid that killed Hamas leader Salah Shehada and 14 others in Gaza City in July. Apparently they are putting the lives of genocidal monsters above that of innocent fellow Jews who would be future victims if not for that raid. Criticizing Israeli policy is one thing, but when that criticism endangers the lives of Jews or fuels anti-Semitic acts, it is nothing less than hatred disguised as free speech or liberal leanings. Aiding and abetting people who would see the destruction of Israel and the annihilation of the Hebrew people, either by word or deed, is akin to assisting in genocide. Such behavior begs for atonement. Then there are the Jews who criticize other Jews for their lack of "appropriate" observance. One's observance or lack thereof is between the individual and HaShem. When one Jew publicly criticizes another Jew about their form of Judaism, they only assist the anti-Semites by giving them fodder for their hatred. By their criticism, they are contributing to the downfall of all Hebrew peoples. The next candidate for atonement is Israel as a nation, or rather as a government. This past year has seen the Israeli government commit not mere blunders, but actual transgressions against the very people it is obliged to protect. Most recently, the Israeli government decided to release hundreds of dangerous criminals despite many warnings about such a move. Since their release, there have been a number of genocidal attacks on Israeli citizens perpetrated by the recently freed prisoners. The latest was a home invasion last week where a 7-month old baby and its father were murdered. All those government officials, especially Ariel Sharon, are complicit in all these deaths, for they were not merely foreseeable, but predictable. No matter what external pressures are put on the Israeli government, the safety and welfare of her citizens must be paramount or the government is working with the enemy by default. Also, the Israeli government recently lessened an assault designed to eliminate a chief terrorist with a history of planning and executing genocidal attacks. The reason? Because some of the terrorist's friends and family were in the vicinity. This terrorist then launched a series of attacks that killed scores of Jewish families. When the Israeli government is more concerned with an enemy's relatives than it is with its own citizens, the Israeli government has become the enemy of its own people. It needs to not merely atone, but to change its behavior. Meanwhile, aside from being a governing body for the citizens living there, the Israeli government is unique in that it is the representative of all Hebrew people and the guardian of all Jewish heritage, past, present and future. This puts an exceptional burden on the Israeli leaders, but one that they must be willing to bear lest they betray all Judaism. The current government seems to be oblivious to this responsibility. By banning Jews from their holy sites, allowing Muslims to destroy any evidence of a Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, and negotiating away land and historical sites that belong to the Hebrew people, the Israeli government has shirked its responsibilities and betrayed the people it is supposed to represent. So will Israel, as a people and a country, atone? I pray that it will and thus be written in the Book of Life for all eternity.

TREASON DU JOUR Posted by Steven Plaut, September 30, 2003.

"Yesh Gvul" (means "There is a Limit/Border") is an Israeli treasonous leftist organization, whose raison d'etre is the organizing of mutiny and insubordination in the military, urging soldiers to refuse to serve and follow orders. It is hailed as a great movement of patriotism and heroism by the very same leftists who foam at the mouth if some settlers try to erect a "settlement" on some empty piece of state-owned land some place in Samaria without the government's permission. THOSE settlers are criminals, violating the law in an anti-democratic manner, and should be tossed in the klink. Anyway, Yesh Gvul, joined by several members of Israel's Literary Left (Sami Michael, Amos Keinan, Natan Zach), have filed a petition with the Attorney General to open an investigation into the assassination of Hamas Mega-Terrorhoid Salah Shahada in July 2002. As you recall, Israel leveled the Gaza building in which the nazi was cowering, and along with him there died in the raid his own children plus some innocent civilians, several of them children. As a result, Isdrael has since been using toy mini-bombs to off the terrorists lest the boom upset the world's media, minibombs that fail to do the job. Naturally, the Israeli Left did not adopt the position that people who do not like Palestinian children getting killed should insist that Islamofascist terrorists not hide amongst them, or that Palestinians stop engaging in mass murder of Jews so that Israel will not have to hunt them down. Instead, the Israeli Leftists have been whining that this assassination represented some sort of human rights atrocity by Israel. Unlike the US whacking the two sons of Saddam. The Leftists would rather that Israel take no military actions at all against the terrorists and simply sit back and allow them to mass murder Israeli children riding buses. Gosh, you think maybe the PLO, which sits back and protects the rights of all terrorists to take cover among civilians, might be the REAL culprit responsible for the deaths of any Palestinian civilians? That is an imponderable, screams the Left. The Left's "logic" is very simple. The only way they wish for Israel to fight terrorism is through complete capitulation to the demands of the terrorists. The Yesh Gvul traitors and their literary fellow travelers are threatening Israel that if the Attorney General does NOT investigate the "crime", they will petition international bodies like the World Court in the Hague and demand that THEY indict Israel. (Alas, Belgium seems to have abandoned its amusement activity of putting the world's politicians on trial in its courts.) The Israeli Attorney General is himself a leftist, and, while he is not quite ready to accede to the demands of the Yesh Gvul traitors, he did volunteer that he himself opposed the assassination of Shahada. Which is just what we all need to know - the personal political biases of the Attorney General himself whose job is to enforce the law and not set Israeli defense policy. Speaking of calls for investigations, how about if we all call on the Attorney General to investigate who exactly is funneling all that cash into the coffers of the Yesh Gvul Treason Organization! The Israeli Minister of Defense declares that the actions of the 27 air force officers who have declared mutiny and insubordination because they oppose Israel's "occupation" are encouraging the terror organizations. Marwan Barghouti, the PLO Uber-terrorist now on trial in Israel for mass murder, demands the court refuse to continue with his trial and instead follow the example being set by the air force officers for peace. But I think he is missing the point. Of course they are encouraging the terror organizations. But that is because the entire Israeli Left is part of an Axis of Evil that unites Jewish leftism with Islamist fascism.

ARAFAT AND 13 PA LEADERS SPONSOR SOCCER TOURNAMENT HONORING TERRORISTS Posted by by Itamar Marcusm, September 30, 2003.

A major soccer tournament glorifying arch terrorists is underway in the Palestinian Authority [PA]. While terrorist glorification is not unusual in the PA, this tournament is striking because it is sponsored very prominently by the heads of the PA, including Yasser Arafat; Saib Arikat; Gibril Rajoub; the Minister of Sport - Abdul Fatach Hamal; the Mufti of the PA Ikrama Sabri; and 10 other senior PA officials. Each of the 24 soccer teams is named for a terrorist or other Shahid [the term of supreme honor designating "Martyrs" - those who died in the combat with Israel] including some of the most infamous murderers. Among those honored are Yechya Ayash, the first Hamas bomb-belt engineer, who initiated the suicide bombings; Dalal Mughrabi, a terrorist woman who hijacked a bus killing 36 in 1978; Abu Ali Mustafa, the Head of the Terrorist Popular Front; Az Adin Al Kassam, the name of the suicide bombers' wing of the Hamas; Raid Carmi, Commander of the Suicide Bomber wing of Fatah, the Al Aqsa Brigades, in Tul Karem; Hassan Salame, Black September terror group, involved in the Olympic massacre of Israeli athletes; Abu Jihad, PLO leader; Thabit Thabit, Head of the Tanzim terror group in Tul Karem; Jamal Mansour of Hamas; Salah Khalif, PLO leader; Salah Drowza of Hamas; Kamal Adwan PLO leader. [Al Ayyam, Sept. 21, 2003] Presenting terrorists as heroes and role models is common practice in the PA. In January, the Palestine Media Watch (PMW) reported on the soccer tournament for 12-year-old boys named after Abd Al Baset Odeh, the suicide terrorist who killed 30 at the Passover Seder in April 2002. As stated, this event is significant as Yasser Arafat and 13 PA leaders have prominently put their names behind this. In addition, it is at the very time the PA is actively courting world leaders to continue promoting the Road Map, based on the premise that the PA has reformed and now rejects terrorism. Itamar Marcus is the director of PMW. Its website's address is http://www.pmw.org.il

EVERY P.A. LEADER IS A "MODERATE" UNTIL PROVEN OTHERWISE Posted by Richard H. Shulman, September 30, 2003.

The State Dept. is trying to get a P.A. state established. The P.A. has drafted a constitution, however, that submits to Islamic law that renders non-Muslims second-class citizens subject to a special tax, and that calls for stoning adulterers and amputating limbs of thieves (except for Arafat and cronies, of course). The State Dept. neither objects nor comments (Prof. Howard L. Adelson, Jewish Press, 9/19, p.54). The Road Map has failed, but Pres. Bush, running for re-election, won't admit it. Unable to uphold the fiction of Arafat as a moderate, and then of Abu Mazen as a moderate, now the US is pretending that Qurei is a moderate. Having claimed that the "moderate" Mazen couldn't combat terrorism unless Israel made concessions that foster terrorism, the US now claims that the "moderate" Qurei can't combat terrorism unless Israel makes concessions that foster it. After the ceasefire turned out to be phony and a ruse for rearming the P.A. terrorists under Mazen, Qurei now demands that Israel submit to such a ceasefire or he won't take the job of Prime Minister. Pres. Bush goes along with that, to give the appearance of making progress. Bush is a captive of the Road Map. Israeli leaders think that they must go along with what the US wants. They anticipate praise for doing so. PM Netanyahu expected it when he gave away most of Hebron, but found himself facing new US demands, once Hebron was mostly off the table. He was paid the wages of appeasement. The basic problem is that Muslim Arabs consider themselves never to have lost a war. They never surrender. They just make an armistice, letting their enemies call them treaties, until the balance of power shifts from the enemy to them. Thus peace cannot be made with the Arabs (Emanuel Winston, Jewish Press, 9/19, M1). Victory over the Arabs must be decisive and rougher than what modern people deem palatable.

SAVE NO'AM FEDERMAN's LIFE! Posted by Eallan Hirshfeld, September 30, 2003.

[Noam Federman is a right-wing activist and former Kach spokesman, who has been acquited 35 times in the 14 years the police have accused him of various alleged underground 'actions' against Arabs. He was again jailed in May 2002, accused of being the 'mastermind' behind a new 'Jewish terrorist underground, which was accused of planting an explosive near an Arab school in eastern Jerusalem.' However, the indictment against him only accused him of supplying weapons to one of the other suspects. A court ruling remanded Federman to jail without bail. He appealed and in June 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that there was little proof of his participation in the 'terrorist activities' and he could not be considered dangerous to the public. He was then put under house arrest until recently. Now, he has again been arrested and placed under a 3-month administrative detention. Yesterday, Federman called on the state to charge him with a crime if there is evidence against him or to release him. A few days ago, his wife, Elisheva, told Arutz-7's Yosef Zalmanson, "They all know that he is not guilty of anything, and the proof is that they've had plenty of opportunities to convict him and haven't been able to do so. They know that if they brought him to trial, nothing would stick. He just finished 18 months of house arrest; do they really think he was carrying out terror from his home?" ] Action must be taken before a wonderful Jew is murdered before our very eyes. Yes murdered by our own right wing/Shabak Government. They couldn't pin any thing on him so they placed him under house arrest for a year (try it for a week!). When that did not work, erev Rosh Hashana they arrested him and our Defence Minister (nothing else to do) signed a 6 month administrative detention order! Now where have they placed Noam Federman? In the Ashmort lock up (Beit Lid junction). This place is reserved for security prisoners, i.e., the most dangerous Arab murderers. There are no prayer facilities etc etc. Before they get some one to do him any harm please contact any one you know to have him transfered to a prison with a Torani section. This is a matter of Pikuach Nefesh, HELP! What is all the fuss about? He wrote a booklet called "Know your Rights." Worthwhile reading if you live in Israel.

A TALE OF TWO LEADERS Posted by Yashiko Sagamori, September 29, 2003.

Even the very worst of our enemies possess some redeeming qualities. Hitler, for instance, made the trains run on time. In a more recent example, the two sons of Saddam Hussein who should've been captured, given a fair trial and hanged for their crimes or, possibly, spared in exchange for some important information, chose to take their destiny into their own hands and died fighting a battle they knew they could not win. I can offer you at least two reasons why good qualities of our adversaries should be acknowledged. First, we are supposed to be the good guys, and good guys are supposed to be fair. Second, good qualities make our enemy stronger, so we should be aware of them to better defend ourselves. That's why, when I heard President Bush call Chairman Arafat a "failed leader," I began comparing the two leaders and their accomplishments. Yasir Arafat became a leader of a terrorist organization at the time George W. Bush was still a teenager. In 1967, after Egypt, Syria and Jordan suffered their devastating defeat in the Six Day War, they decided to delegate the task of destroying Israel to Arafat. With their support, Arafat expanded his organization by co-opting the entire Arab population of Gaza, Judea and Samaria into the PLO, instantly turning it into the biggest terrorist organization that had ever existed. Since then, he has been carefully and ruthlessly weeding out every hint of opposition, which eventually resulted in practically unanimous support for him among his subjects. He has ruled for murder and by murder, but the political consequences of his murders were calculated with subtlety so meticulous that even the bloody trail the man left wherever he went could not impede his most important achievement. His most important achievement to date is the successful promotion of his terrorist organization as a nation that has been deprived of its ancestral land by brutal Zionist invaders. He patiently and skillfully maneuvered international public opinion into accepting him as a legitimate leader of that mythical nation. He even led Israel, his main enemy and intended victim, into agreeing, in principle, to grant him statehood on parts of Israel's land. The astonishing scale of his success allowed the New York Times to describe the Israeli security fence in an article published on September 17, as a "barrier dividing what [Israel] considers its land from Palestinian territory." That example demonstrates how easy it is for Arafat's followers, including the aforementioned newspaper, to cross the line dividing the truth from what our enemies would like us to believe. What makes this accomplishment an even greater feat is the fact that most people he had to deal with - US Presidents and Secretaries of State, Israeli PM's and Foreign Ministers, European leaders, all kinds of misguided human rights defenders, the assorted UN mob, and so on - were born and educated long before the myth of the "Palestinian people" was invented. They all knew the truth, but it didn't stop them from following Arafat's lead. What is especially remarkable about his leadership style is that he has never lied about his genocidal intentions. The PA Charter spells out its purpose - the destruction of Israel - in most explicit terms. During the Oslo years, Arafat was subjected to tremendous pressure by President Clinton to amend the Charter. He never did. He never caved in. In fact, he has never caved in during his entire career. When Clinton, in pursuit of his ignoble Nobel Prize dream, pushed him into a corner, Arafat issued a written promise to amend the offending clause. But the PA legislature, which is the sole power that can amend the Charter, has never convened to consider the measure. Arafat has been routinely issuing statements in Arabic that contradicted promises he had made earlier in English. Many times he was caught; many times he was pressured to repeat in Arabic what he had said in English. He always managed to convey his true meaning to his mob, as if the victory sign that he so readily flashes to crowds and cameras were an Arabic equivalent of crossed fingers. Never has Arafat or his PA done anything that might have been interpreted as a sign that he was negotiating in good faith, that peaceful coexistence with Israel might be acceptable to him under any conditions whatsoever. What passed for negotiations with him was nothing but explicit blackmail: give us whatever we happen to be demanding at the moment or we will continue killing you. And the killings always continued, whether his demands were met or not. Come to think of it, how could it be otherwise? What could the "Palestinians" possibly offer? What do they have that might be of any value to Israel - or anyone else? Israel has a single demand: stop the war. None of Israel's many conciliatory gestures have ever been reciprocated. None whatsoever. And despite that, the international community has continued providing Arafat and his terrorist organization with political and financial support. In addition to being one of the worst mass murderers in modern history, Arafat proved himself an extremely successful thief as well. It is a well known although little advertised fact that he has embezzled several billion dollars from the moneys sent from all over the world to support his destitute subjects. And here is another sign of his great leadership: not a single European government, not even the government of the United States has ever considered stopping their financial support of Arafat's terrorist organization. They all keep sending him money, knowing that whatever he does not steal, will be used to finance terrorism against Israel. In 2000, he once again proved his outstanding leadership at Camp David where he did not allow himself to be lured into statehood at the price of abandoning his genocidal war against Israel. He literally, physically ran away from Barak's unbelievable offer whose generosity surprised even Bill Clinton and his Secretary of State, Madeline Albright. Madam Secretary used the occasion to demonstrate that her last name had not been awarded to her on merit: she ran after Arafat, yelling to the guards to close the doors before he had a chance to escape. Fortunately, Arafat ran faster and the incident did not deteriorate into a brawl. Arafat went home to Ramallah and started an intifada that is still going on today. Once again, he easily manipulated public opinion around the world into believing that the blame for it lay with Ariel Sharon because of his visit to the Temple Mount. It didn't matter that Sharon was exercising the most basic right of any citizen of any sovereign country to move freely within its borders. It didn't matter that Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount, including every little detail of the timing and entourage, had been coordinated with the Waqf. It didn't matter that even if Sharon's visit to Temple Mount had constituted a provocation, Arabs had a choice to react on it or ignore it, and even if they decided to react, they still had an option - purely theoretical of course, since we are talking about Arabs here - of doing it in a nonviolent manner. On November 6, 2000, the New York Post quoted Mahmoud Abbas saying that the intifada was not a spontaneous popular response to Sharon's "provocation," but had been planned by the PA for months in advance. In other words, it was in the works while Arafat was enjoying himself at Camp David with Clinton and Barak. The life of Arabs in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria hasn't been pleasant even during the best of times. The intifada resulted in a virtual collapse of whatever used to pass for society among them. Despite all their suffering, the people calling themselves "Palestinians" have remained fiercely loyal to Arafat. According to every opinion poll ever conducted among them, they wholeheartedly support Arafat and his cause - the destruction of Israel. They gladly sacrifice their own children's lives to that cause. They happily send their children to school and summer camps where they are turned into suicidal maniacs. Isn't it a sure sign of truly great - albeit evil - leadership skills to have not just your own people but the entire world follow you, regardless of the truth, contrary to common sense and against their own interests? Mr. Bush's own Administration has proved that it was out of its league competing with Mr. Arafat's leadership skills. When, frustrated by his blatant refusal to support the American efforts to end the war, the United States forced elections in the PA, Arafat ran practically unopposed and won effortlessly. When later the United States refused to talk to him, he named his puppet Mahmoud Abbas Prime Minister and watched his enemies making fools of themselves talking to the puppet as if it had any real power. Finally, when Arafat replaced the old puppet with a new one, Mr. Bush called him "a failed leader" and immediately suggested that he would be willing to deal with Arafat's new "government" if only it included Muhammad Dahlan and Nabil Amr. In other words, President Bush condemned Chairman Arafat's leadership style precisely because the latter refused to do the former's bidding. Am I missing something here? I don't think so, but I am afraid President Bush is. So, here we have two leaders. One of them heads a terrorist organization. He has been openly and consistently pursuing the same vision - the destruction of Israel - throughout his remarkably long, remarkably difficult and remarkably bloody career. He has been patiently, lovingly preparing a new Holocaust, and the majority of people in supposedly civilized countries, have supported him throughout his struggle. Although he has used doublespeak generously whenever the situation called for it, he never veered away from his goal and never misstated it. Usually, his lies are so artless, so obvious, that they could only succeed with those who badly want to believe him against all evidence. That's because they are designed not to trick his supporters but to give them an excuse, no matter how transparent, to continue their support. The utter contempt implicit in such an approach has never deterred his followers in Europe, America, and even Israel. The other one is the president of the only remaining superpower on the planet. His predecessors were often called leaders of the Free World, but this time that unofficial title somehow has failed to stick. He is the Commander-in-Chief of a military force whose budget exceeds the combined military budgets of all the other nations of the world. During his watch, his country suffered the most devastating attack it has ever seen in its entire history. Instead of using the awesome power at his disposal to protect his country and restore peace in the world, he didn't even dare to honestly identify the enemy. Instead, he clumsily attempted to recruit new allies among his sworn enemies - and failed, predictably. As a result, we are now in the middle of a war that's not going too well - not because the US Armed Forces are not succeeding in achieving the goals set before them, but because their Commander-in-Chief has failed to set meaningful goals. He antagonized most countries that had traditionally supported the United States. Desperate to please his opponents, he betrayed Israel - the only sincere ally the United States has left in the whole world - and did it with crudeness that mercilessly exposed his gaping lack of professionalism and direction. Although American taxpayers provide 25% of the United Nations budget, he has lost the last vestiges of leadership the United States had had in that utterly failed, corrupt organization, united mostly by it's members' opposition to the U.S. and hatred towards Israel. His pursuit of globalization has resulted in the heaviest job losses this country has seen in recent decades. He is presiding over the worst economic decline since the Great Depression. His only real achievement - the tax cut - is far too insignificant in scale to turn the economy around and help the hurting families. Presented with a precious opportunity to work with a Republican majority in both Houses, he has been helplessly pushing ideas lifted from the Democrats' agenda, paving the way for the Democratic party to snatch the power out of his weak hands and lead this country in the direction Hillary Clinton had set for the previous tenant of the White House. And do you know what is the worst aspect of President Bush's failures for the American voters? That come November 2004, there will be no one better to vote for. So, which of the two leaders has really failed?

HOW THE INTIFADA STARTED Posted by Leo Rennert, September 30, 2003.

On the third anniversary of the Palestinian intifada - with no let-up in sight - readers deserve more than the revival of a discredited myth about its inception, i.e., that Ariel Sharon's walk on Jerusalem's Temple Mount triggered the uprising after a "breakdown" of negotiations at Camp David ("Palestinians Demonstrate For Arafat," Sept. 29). Several aides to Arafat, the real instigator of the intifada, confirmed over the last three years that Sharon's presence on the Temple Mount was a pretext, but not the cause, for resumption of Palestinian violence against Israel. Arafat spent millions to import weapons. Former President Clinton and his chief U.S. mediator, Dennis Ross, hold Arafat responsible for rejecting a statehood plan that would have given Palestinians what they often say they want - the Gaza Strip, virtually the entire West Bank and half of Jerusalem. A growing number of Palestinian critics, largely ignored by the Western press, have come to the same conclusion about Arafat's massive miscalculation. There's overwhelming evidence that Arafat nixed the deal and gave terror groups inside and outside his security forces a green light to kill Israelis because he would not abandon his jihadist dream to recover Israel as well.

WHERE ARE THE MEN? Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, September 29, 2003.

A lot of us try to tie-up loose ends on the personal front before Yom Kippur. We attempt to cover old debts, purchase overdue wedding gifts and mend friendships. Usually there's a sense of relief when we finally take care of that unfinished business. However, trying to go into a New Year carrying this overwhelming load of national baggage is impossible. So I have an idea... When the 5764 express to Oslo pulls into the station, I suggest that we all load our collective Jewish luggage onto the train, but refuse to board. You may have to kiss that baggage goodbye, because I'm going to do all I can to bomb the tracks. Israeli pilots, move over! Even though I have vertigo and doubt if I could fit my rather wide girth into a cockpit, I'm ready to fly. How many g's can this mother take? Well, I figure that the blood pressure changes and decrease in the flow of oxygen to my brain that I undergo every time I have to absorb the news of yet another terrorist atrocity is the equivalent to the rapid nose dive of any modern fighter jet. You letter-signers from the IAF are a disgrace to an already embarrassed nation. We have far more respect for the guys on the frontlines - you know those security guards who protect the entrances to our offices, stores, hotels and places of entertainment. They're far more sensitive and benevolent than any of you elite "humanitarian" psuedo-heroes. I was hanging out with one of them the other day in Jerusalem and watched as he lovingly pet and fed a stray cat. Like a little kid, he proceeded to describe to me, in great detail, the various stray animals of the neighborhood and how he takes care of them. I could have sworn that I was holding a conversation with Forest Gump and yet, I felt so safe. I doubt this security guard had the technical brains to maneuver an F-16, but he was doing a good job of protecting the inhabitants of the building, as well of the rest of the living creatures in the area. Move over fighter pilots, Israel has new heroes! You guys get to push the buttons in your hi-tech flying toys, but that unsophisticated guard may get an up-close and personal look at the whites of a terrorst's eyes before he gets a chance to pull a trigger. But I have no doubt that he would fight tooth and nail (literally) to stop an attack. This puts a whole new spin in the concept of "separating the men from the boys." It seems that in another curious twist of fate, our naive children, young men and quite a few women have inherited the chutzpah that you elitists have misplaced (maybe you left it in the hotel room when you took your last European vacation?). Where are the men? Are Jewish men so removed from their basic survival instincts that they refuse to take-up arms when their women and children are being slaughtered like sheep? Where is the rage? At the onset of Oslo, the Israeli Right had a well-organized, highly effective protest movement in place. The people had a voice and the Knesset members heard us-whether they wanted to or not. Yes, three years into the clamorous demonstrations, there was a devastating political assassination -under highly controversial circumstances. But, have we relinquished our G-d given (some would say democratic) right to express ourselves because of the miserable failings, and scheming of Israel's internal security and political apparatus? It's the ultimate in tragic irony that we're afraid to return to the streets in protest because somebody might get hurt? If only our leaders cared for us, like we care for our leaders. Where are our leaders? What really happens to our former heroes once they sit in the Prime Minister's chair? Years ago, when this mess began, my husband used to infuriate me when he would would interrupt my urbane, westernized political rantings with his very crude Israeli explanations. "A small U.S. envoy sits under the Prime Minister's desk with a nutcracker..." You know, I think he's right. Sharon is more concerned with commitments to President Bush than he is about his obligation to protect and lead his own people. He's willing to watch his citizens go up in flames, rather than risk inflaming the region and jeopardizing America's vital interests. According to the Jerusalem Post, in a pre-Rosh Hashana Yediot Ahronot interview, Sharon admits to having once promised George W. Bush that he would not harm Arafat. Sharon also said that it is "very difficult to guarantee that if you grab and take him, he will not be harmed. In any event we will have to take American considerations into account. It is possible that their estimation that this will cause them problems in the Middle East is correct..." That quote may contain the answer to a disturbing question that still stumps the scholars. Nothing angers me more than the ongoing prattle that takes place in academic circles as to why the allied forces didn't bomb the tracks to Auschwitz. When all of this is over (it will eventually end and there will be better days for our people in the Land of Israel) and while we're still calculating the final body count and assessing the damages, a lot of murmuring male voices will make themselves heard via electronic and print media. Everyone from Jewish day school rebbes to Swedish diplomats will ponder the big question. I can just see holocaust survivor turned politician, Tommy Lapid rehashing with talk-show icon and son, Yair Lapid, as to "why we didn't bomb the tracks to Oslo." Meanwhile... every Diaspora Jewish leader of all of the has-been American/Israel advocacy group, that once successfully championed the slogans "we are one" and "never again," will be encouraging "soul searching." What these community leaders fail to understand is that Jewish America buries more Jewish souls in a day then Israelis bury bodies in a year. Some of us won't be tuning-in to the blabber, as we'll be too busy picking up the pieces and recreating and rebuilding a vibrant Jewish State. That's a lot to bite off and chew before the Yom Kippur fast. But when Jewish blood is at stake, some of us loathe the very thought of being stoic and accepting. Ellen Horowitz lives on the Golan Heights with her husband and six children. She is a painter, writer and co-founder of helpingisrael.com. She can be contacted through her website http://www.artfromzion.com

DEREK PRINCE: LOVER OF GOD, LOVER OF ZION Posted by Dutch W. Griffin, September 29, 2003.

This was written by the Jerusalem News Wire (JNW) editorial staff, and appeared in JNW September 28, 2003. About six weeks before he died Wednesday, globally renowned and beloved Bible teacher and Christian author Derek Prince told a visiting US Senator international developments today indicated that God was busy restoring Israel and judging the nations of the world. This affirmation of Prince's belief in the centrality of Israel to events shaping our lives was shared with hundreds of believers and fellow lovers of Zion who gathered in a Jerusalem church Friday for a glorious funeral service to send the 88-year-old Briton "home." After the service, the worshippers followed the coffin through the busy pre-Rosh Hashana city streets to a quiet Christian cemetery in the heart of western Jerusalem, laying Prince's body to rest just meters from where the most recent 'suicide' bomb attack took the lives of seven Israeli Jews. Prince saw in Islam's virulent hatred of Israel a major force being used to push Jews and Christians closer together after centuries of animosity, suspicion and fear. Revelation in Jerusalem "The pastor, teacher and author, who considered Jerusalem his hometown, was discharged from the British Army and re-entered civilian life in the ancient city at the end of World War Two, four years before Israel's national homeland was reborn. One night in 1946, while standing near the Mount of Olives, he had been awakened to the integrality of the land and people of Israel to the Bible, and consequently to himself as a Bible-believing Christian. As he described it, he realized that "geographically, the Bible is set in the land of Israel; historically, its theme is the people of Israel." Detached from this geographical context, countless historical and prophetic passages of passages of Scripture were "meaningless." The destiny of Israel and the Church   Among the more than 45 books authored by Prince on a wide variety of subjects of interest to Christians were "The Last Word on the Middle East" (Derek Prince Ministries, USA, 1982), and "The Destiny of Israel and the Church" (Word Publishing, Milton Keynes, 1992). In the latter he writes: "Christians from Gentile backgrounds owe their entire spiritual inheritance to Israel. One appropriate way for them to acknowledge their indebtedness is to stand by Israel in the midst of their present pressures, and to uphold them with faithful intercession." Prince saw that the anti-God forces in the world, including Islam, were being used to push Christians and Jews closer together after centuries of animosity and persecution. While many Israelis and Jews in the United States have commented recently on the strength of support for Israel that exists today in the evangelical Christian world, especially since the outbreak of the Oslo War (Al-Aqsa intifada) Prince already noted back in 1982 that: "The State of Israel ... is beginning to realize that its firmest and most influential friends today are found among Bible-believing Christians worldwide." Israel the watershed   Prince believed that the restored nation of Israel was a watershed, a line of separation between nations, and that God would judge nations on whether they stood with His restoration purposes for Israel, or opposed them. "Rulers and nations will determine their own destiny by how they respond to what God does for Israel," he wrote. "God has revealed clearly in His Word that He intends to restore Israel, and that He requires all other nations to cooperate with His purpose. Any nation that rejects the revelation of God's Word has, in effect, rejected God Himself, and must suffer the consequences." God is judging the nations   According to a close friend of Prince's who spoke during the funeral service Friday, US Senator Sam Brownback had visited the then ill-weakened man in his Jerusalem home about six weeks ago, and asked him how he understood what was happening in the world today. Struggling to get the words out, Prince had finally managed to answer: "God is restoring Israel. And God is judging the nations." Jerusalem Newswire is an independent Jerusalem-based, Christian-operated news service providing daily coverage and commentary on events in and relating to Israel. For more news, commentary and analyis, visit Jerusalem Newswire (http://www.jnewswire.com).

ARABS ARE STILL STEALING ISRAELI BEEHIVES Posted by Richard H. Shulman, September 29, 2003.

Israel's 450 beekeepers manage 80,000 hives. Since the hives are widely dispersed, the keepers cannot watch all. Arabs are stealing hives in large numbers. So great is this theft, that many keepers either no longer can get insurance or find the premium beyond their means. The most afflicted areas are nearest the Green line. It takes only a few minutes (absent those supposedly evil checkpoints) to drive the swag over the Green Line and into the P.A. (which generally lets in enormous amounts of stolen property, theft being a major Arab industry). The beekeepers have had to move the remaining hives away from the Green Line. In fact, the whole dairy and crop industry that used to exist there have been so ravaged by constant Arab rustling and other thefts, that it has withered. The thieves have trained beekeepers to handle stolen hives. Sometimes, however, their objective solely is economic warfare. Hence the many hives found chopped up, rather than missing. Years of productive effort and investment are destroyed in an instant. (Israel tries to build up the P.A. economically, while the P.A. tries to break Israel down, economically. Israel's policy-making is misguided. It vindicates the Talmudic warning, "If you are merciful to your (irreconcilable) enemies, you'll be cruel to your friends.") Israeli police found 350 stolen hives inside a truck. At $500 apiece, the Arabs had expected to make $175,000, for just a few hours of theft. Another time, a moshav security guard came upon a group of Arabs stealing beehives. They all fled except the driver, caught licking honey in the truck. He was ready to turn states' evidence against his collaborators, but the prosecutors closed the case, alleging "lack of public interest." When beekeepers produced proof about widespread theft in one area, the police told them they had to switch the border guards to where Arabs were killing each other. Beekeepers have been forced to patrol their own property, while the police "are busy protecting the Juarish Arabs..." Judges usually sentence convicts to only three months. The Beekeeper's Council would like that multiplied (MEPF, 9/18 from Miriam Gardner, American Yated Neeman). As the US demands, Israel transfers funds to the P.A., while the P.A. wages economic warfare against Israel. That is an example of inhumane US policy and neurotic stupidity on the part of Israel. Imagine the crime wave if there were two states "side-by-side!" At least P.A. villages do not now extend up to every part of the Green Line, and Israeli police can raid the P.A. to recover some hives. Between what Arafat's Arabs steal from Israelis, and what Arafat steals from his people and foreign donors, thievery is the P.A.'s major industry. The wholesale P.A. theft of livestock, equipment, cars, and computers, that is driving Israeli agriculture out of border areas, makes "P.A." unofficially stand for Pirates Autonomy. One answer is to deduct the costs of Arab crime from excise taxes remitted to the P.A.. Better would be to eliminate their autonomy, remove them from the area, reclaim the Jewish patrimony there, and regain secure borders. The leftist Israeli prosecutors bear indirect guilt. Not only do they impose low fines on Arab criminals engaging in economic warfare against Israel. They often refuse to prosecute the thieves. Their allegation of "lack of public interest" is a poor excuse. It encourages Arab criminals. That same allegation is the phony excuse for not prosecuting the Rabin government's agent provocateur, Avishai Raviv, whose crimes against democracy were among the most subversive.

THE MARTYR OF JOSEPH Posted by Steven Plaut, September 29, 2003.

[This article is reposted exactly three years after the events in question took place.] On Rosh Hashana, 2000, Madhat Yusef became a martyr to the Oslo "peace process" and the policies of the Israeli government of Ehud Barak. Madhat was a nineteen year old Druse soldier serving in Israel's border patrol. He was murdered by PLO bullets, but allowed to bleed to death by the government of Israel. Like many in his Druse town of Beit J'an, Madhat served in the same border patrol in which his father had previously served his country for 25 years. And like American Jews who work on Christmas Day to allow their countrymen to celebrate their holidays, Madhat was doing guard duty at Joseph's Shrine in Nablus/Shechem on the Jewish New Year when he was murdered by PLO stormtroopers sent out by Yassir Arafat. Joseph's Tomb is a shrine in the center of Nablus. The town lies between the Mountain of Blessings from the Bible, Mount Grizim, and the Mountain of Curses, Mount Aival. In the Bible the Israelites are evenly divided between the two mountains by Moses so that future Jew will feel that he is in the center between the two, that the fate of the entire nation is in the balance and depends on his own individual behavior and actions. In the middle, between the two mountains, is the shrine where the bones of Joseph lie, carried to the Promised Land by the Israelites according to Joseph's last will and testament, all as documented in the Bible itself. In this glen, Ehud Barak tipped the balance on Rosh Hashana 2000, toward cowardice and national suicide. According to the Oslo Accords (the formal written ones, not the de facto ones where Israel makes endless appeasements for peace and the PLO wages war) it is agreed that Joseph's Tomb in Nablus, like Rachael's Tomb near Bethlehem, should remain in Israeli control and under Israeli sovereignty. The PLO pledges freedom of access and respect for Jewish religious shrines. In reality, Joseph's Tomb has become a sort of Jewish Alamo. It is the scene of daily violence by the PLO. Jews take their lives in the hands to go there. A handful of courageous yeshiva students stay there, guarded by some soldiers and border patrolmen. The students have refused to listen to Israel's Lobotomized Left, urging that they abandon Joseph's Tomb in order to avoid "provoking" the poor Palestinians with their presence. The students live under permanent siege, and PLO "police" routinely attack people trying to enter or leave the shrine. Things are not much better at Rachael's shrine. It is all an indicator of what Jews can expect to happen at the Western Wall if Israel's Left ever has its way and the Old City of Jerusalem is handed over to the PLO. For years the PLO has sought to ruin Jewish holidays with violence. Two years ago Arafat decided to send the Jews a Succos holiday greeting in the form of a pogrom, launched after Israel had decided to allow Jews to visit an old Maccabee Tunnel near but not under the Temple Mount. Arafat fabricated a story of how the Jews were endangering the Al-Aqsa Mosque and polluting it with their proximity, and ordered his stormtroopers to open fire. Purim has for years been the open season for Arab atrocities, including bombings. And this year (2000) Arafat decided to order pogroms on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. It was all a part of the "Al-Aqsa intifada" as it was officially named by Arafat. For years we have been saying in this corner that the entire Oslo "peace process" will produce, instead of peace, nothing but the metastasis of violence from the "territories" into pre-1967 Israel, where Israeli Arabs will be radicalized, nazified, and will turn to terrorism. The Rosh Hashana pogrom proved how correct this prognosis is. The official excuse for the pogrom was that Likud leader Arik Sharon had gone for a walk on the Temple Mount, where the two Temples of the Biblical era once stood. Jews are only allowed to visit the Mount as tourists. They are not allowed to pray there and even silent lip-movement by a Jew can get him arrested. There was not a serious danger that Sharon was about to pray there, as it is doubtful he knows how. The control over the Temple Mount had been turned over to the PLO at the start of Oslo. Before that it had been administered by Jordan ever since Moshe Dayan abandoned any attempt to exercise Israeli sovereignty over the most sacred ground in the world for Judaism. The pathetic government of Yitzhak Shamir had ordered that all Israeli flags be removed from the vicinity of the Mount to avoid offending Moslem hypersensitivities. The Mount is de facto under PLO sovereignty and flies the PLO flag. At Camp David, Barak had offered formally to recognize PLO sovereignty over the Temple Mount, along with turning over nearly the entire West Bank to the PLO Reichlet. But Barak had balked at granting an unlimited "right of return" into Israel for Palestinian "refugees," which the PLO was demanding. As a result, Arafat was looking for an excuse to launch pogroms. He has been taught in Pavlovian manner over the past decade that the best way to get concessions from Israel is through violence. On Friday, Erev Rosh Hashana, the PLO-paid and PLO-appointed preachers of the Al-Aqsa Mosque ordered Arabs to attack Jews randomly, to "protect" the Mosque that no one was threatening. Some violence had begun when Arabs attacked Jews on the Thursday before Rosh Hashana weekend and sent 25 Israeli policemen to the hospital. Then on Erev Rosh Hashana, the pogrom was officially launched at Arafat's command and quickly spread into Israeli Arab towns, lasting throughout the holiday weekend. Throughout the Galilee and also south of Haifa, Israeli Arabs blocked roads, attacked Jewish picnickers and motorists, assaulted police. In Nazareth, the town of the Christian Prince of Peace, Arabs screamed "Kill the Jews" and attacked any Jew they could find. Violence broke out in the Negev Bedouin town of Rahat, a hotbed of anti-Semitism. There were violent riots in Jaffa, in effect the downtown of Tel Aviv. Jews in more remote settlements or rural positions were told to stay home and not venture out onto the roads. It was as if 1947 had returned, where the entire Jewish population was under siege. Molotov cocktails were tossed at Rachael's Tomb. The Jews praying at the Western Wall were twice evacuated due to assaults by the pogromchiks. At the Neve Dekelim settlement, those praying in the synagogue had to grab weapons and sit at the windows when the synagogue was attacked. Seventy policemen in Jerusalem were sent to the hospital. Near Kalkiliya an interesting event occurred. There, "joint patrols" between the PLO and Israel are supposed to be carried out under an Oslo agreement. On the eve of Rosh Hashana, a jeep full of PLO "police" was patrolling alongside a jeep of Israeli border patrolmen. Suddenly the PLO Gestapo fired point blank into the Israeli jeep and murdered Yossi Tabje in cold blood. Tabje was a 27 year old Jew from Ethiopia. His mother had died in Ethiopia when he was three years old, after which he came to Israel with his brothers under Operation Moses. He had served in the army as a paratrooper and had been awarded the Presidential medal for heroism. He was due to be married shortly. He was a brother in blood of the Druse border patrolman Madhat Yusef, on duty in Joseph's Tomb. (It will be interesting to see if the assimilationist-liberal organizations in the US, like the Reform RAC or like the ADL, will have anything to say about this hate crime and racist murder of a black man by the PLO.) But perhaps the worst violence was at Netsarim, a small isolated settlement south of Gaza City. Under the Oslo Accords, the PLO agreed to respect Netsarim and protect it from violence. In reality Netsarim has become the Stalingrad of Oslo. It is the subject of yet another "controlled carnage" agreement, of the sort Israeli politicians so love. (Similar agreements long operated in Lebanon.) Under this "agreement" the PLO organizes daily violence and siege of the Jewish men, women and children in Netsarim, and just as long as things do not get "too far out of hand," Israel sits back and allows the violence to occur. The problem is that every so often the PLO-led violence at Netsarim DOES get "out of hand." An Israeli soldier was murdered outside the settlement last week (2000). Over the holiday weekend, the PLO ordered that Netsarim be stormed. PLO "police" were openly leading the pogrom and firing at the Israeli troops with the machine guns they received from Israel. The Jews returned fire for a change. In the crossfire, some of the pogromchiks were pacified to death. Now as it turned out, a French film crew was on the spot and captured footage of a 12 year old Palestinian boy being shot to death outside Netsarim, while his father was wounded. The world media had a new poster child and the PLO had a new martyr myth. What exactly happened there? Muhammed Adira and his father were minding their own business while standing in the midst of a mob of pogromchiks attacking Israelis with machine guns and Molotov cocktails. The father of the 12 year old boy insists they were merely out shopping for a (stolen?) car, and surely everyone knows that Arabs routinely go shopping for cars next to Netsarim in the midst of pogroms. Anyway, the Israeli Commander of the Gaza Battalion insists the boy was hit by bullets fired by the PLO's stormtroopers (later confirmed by a German camera crew and others). No doubt CNN and Haaretz will neglect to mention this irrelevant detail. In any case, the boy may have died because the ambulance trying to evacuate him was fired upon and its driver killed. The PLO has a long track record of firing at ambulances. No one seriously thinks Israeli troops have ever shot at an ambulance. Meanwhile the Lobotomized Left was showing how it could stick to its blinders even in the midst of anti-Jewish pogroms. The police, led by leftist officers and commanded by Professor of McCarthyism Shlomo Ben-Ami (himself later crucified by the Orr Commission - SP), said the pogroms were all the fault of Arik Sharon. As usual the Jewish victims of Arab violence are to blame. Most of the rest of the Left chimed in amen. The US State Department agrees that Sharon is completely to blame. Haaretz ran editorials and Op-Eds blaming the whole pogrom on Arik Sharon's stroll. I have little doubt that if it were printing in the 1940s, Haaretz would run daily banner pieces about the sufferings of SS officers killed by savage partisans and the tribulations of their poor children. Peace Now ran an obscene ad saying that not only was Sharon responsible for the pogroms over Rosh Hashana, but also of course for the Sabra and Shatilla massacres in Lebanon (in which Arabs killed Arabs). The Haaretz "reporter" Amira Hess, self-styled "expert" on Arabs although she speaks no Arabic, who recently called in the San Francisco area for the eradication of Israel, wrote a "news report" claiming that Arafat had not ordered the pogrom and it was all because "things got out of his control." Barak's government adopted the same line. Such things always remind me of those people who insist Hitler never ordered any atrocities against Jews, wished them no harm and it was all the work of his underlings who were out of his control. But let us return to Madhat Yusef defending Joseph's Tomb from the Philistines. Whose name in Arabic means Joseph. Under siege in the Israeli Alamo in Nablus. The PLO stormtroopers at the direct orders of Arafat firing into the shrine. Yusef is badly wounded by a PLO bullet. The medics do what they can for him. They radio out for help. There is a large Israeli military base atop the Mount of Blessings nearby, on Mount Grizim. But Ehud Barak has issued orders. Israeli troops are to do nothing to "provoke" the Palestinian savages. They are to cower and hide, much like they are ordered to do at the Lebanese border. They are to do everything to avoid situations wherein they might be required to use their weapons. They are to wait for our PLO "peace partners" to restore order. Yusef's comrades desperately dial out for help. The base nearby has tanks and APCs that could be used, if necessary, to disburse the pogromchiks and open the road to the Alamo, allowing Yusef to be evacuated and rescued. But the army has its orders from Barak, the head of the post-Jewish and post-survivalist "peace government." It sits back. It does nothing. The same Israeli military that rescued the 250 hostages being held in Entebbe suddenly cannot rescue a single Druse soldier bleeding to death in Nablus. Mathat Yusef is lying on the floor. He lies there for hours while the Israeli army sits back waiting for the same PLO "police," who are firing into the shrine, to restore order. Like Will Travis, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett, in his Alamo Yusef simply bled to death. Remember his Alamo!

THE ISRAELI LEFT: LOVE THINE ENEMY, HATE THY BROTHER Posted by Ariel Natan Pasko, September 29, 2003.

There they go again. The air has just cleared, people have just calmed down after the last wave of terrorist bombings, and Israel's lemmings are driving toward the precipice again. After recently going to meet Yasser Arafat at his Ramallah compound to show solidarity with him and act as "human shields" to protect him from any Israeli action; the Israeli far-Left has begun what they call the opening of a "street campaign" in the coming months. A group called Peace Now (why not peace last Thursday?) and a few thousand protestors gathered on a Saturday night at "ground-zero - " Rabin Square in Tel-Aviv - to call for Israel to uproot the Jewish settlements in Yesha, Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank") and Gaza and an end to the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The Peace Now demonstrators also denounced the Sharon government's policy of "Targeted Killings," assassinating leaders from Hamas and the other terrorist groups, saying the policy creates an endless cycle of violence. All blood is red, and I guess Israel's lemmings can't tell the difference between the blood of innocent Israelis cut-down in the "act" of living their lives, and the blood of sociopathic murderers, whom Israel targets in self-defense before they can kill innocent Israelis again Returning to the darkest day's of the Left's slander campaign - initiated by Yitzhak Rabin himself - against the pro-Land of Israel forces, former Labor Party Member of Knesset Yael Dayan revived the theme of "settlements vs. the poor." She emphasized the economic cost of the settlements, saying that the government was still pumping huge amounts of money into them, while other Israelis were going hungry. She pointed out that each year 5,000 children in the country slipped below the poverty line. What has she done to help them? Other than to try to impoverish other Israelis and their children of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza by forcing them out of their homes and into the street? Why didn't she suggest cutting government monies spent on the museums, theaters, concert halls, dance companies, sports contests, and other secular-western cultural activities that the elites of the Left, labor's worker committees, and kibbutzes benefit from in disproportionate numbers, receiving tickets at government-subsidized prices? Has she ever suggested that the Kibbutz Movement - about 110,000 people - repay the Israeli government the tens of billions of shekels the government has laid out over the years to cover the Kibbutz Movement's debts? Why did the Israeli taxpayer have to help the economically inefficient darling of the Left? Most of that debt was incurred, to keep up the Kibbutz Movement's standard of living - which is above that of the average Israeli - while failing economically. Where's the Left's outrage about that, while other Israelis were going hungry? The left-wing Haaretz newspaper just released a "special report" about the amount of money, some 45 billion shekels, Israeli governments from the Left & Right have spent on "settlements" since 1967. But whereas most of the money spent on the Kibbutzes was simply for "creature comforts," money spent on Jewish communities in Yesha was for basic infrastucture; much of it would have had to be spent anyway, developing areas for Jews to live in, even within the "Green Line" pre-1967 Israel. But don't worry, you can count on the Israeli Left to obfuscate that also and try to "prove" how expensive "settlements" have been. Has anyone seriously contemplated the costs of moving "settlers" - i.e. the almost 250,000 Jewish citizens in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza - back within the pre-1967 Auschwitz borders? Forget the housing costs, a sizable figure itself. What about the other infrastructure costs, including education, the costs of economic dislocation, and health care? Who says that it will save the government money to move Jews back into the 1967 borders? Has anyone seen a serious study with real analytic data to back up the Left's utopian claims? It's not much different than the Left's original claim that "peace" was just around the corner, if we all accept the Oslo dream. Israel just needed to revive Arafat from political death, bring him and his terror crew into the country, reward him with a base of operations, and the Messiah would be soon be coming. We've all seen how well the Left's claims worked out there. It just never quite worked out the way they imagined, and it won't this time either. The Left in Israel is hell-bent on squashing the settlement enterprise and ending Jewish control over it's historic heartland in Yesha, whether it brings "peace" or not, whether it saves the government money or drives it further into the red. So it doesn't matter if facts aren't on their side, anything to divert the attention of the masses away from their failed "peace" policies and against the Jews of Judea and Samaria passes muster with them. Their demagogic behavior reminds me of October 2002, during the height of the Left's previous hysteria campaign against settlements, when far-left Meretz MK Yossi Sarid said, "All of the settlements were created by law-breaking and violence, and I hope the spread of this cancer will end quickly. The outposts are worse than suicide bomb belts." Similar to MK Sarid's remarks, then Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg (Labor) called the people at the Gilad Farm in Samaria, "Jewish Hamas." Just because they were protesting the expulsion of people from their homes on legally owned Jewish land, that for political (that is to say, leftist) purposes, the Sharon government found convenient to expropriate, they're called "Jewish Hamas"? They are "Worse than suicide bomb belts"? MK Avraham Burg (Labor), no longer Knesset speaker, is up to it again. He recently turned to Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein with the intention of filing criminal charges against the "Forum of Rabbis for the Jewish People & the Land of Israel," numbering some 500 religious leaders. The rabbinic organization has released a statement that the Israeli government does not enjoy popular support for its policies vis-a-vis the Quartet's Road Map plan nor particularly for any steps towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. The Road Map negates Torah law explained the rabbis, and as such, anyone contributing to advancing the Road Map agenda is guilty of violating the Torah commandment of "You must not stand idly by your brother's blood," because of all the terrorism that has taken almost 1,200 lives during the "peace process." Rubinstein stated that the written proclamation does not constitute a violation of Israeli law. He then added that following the release of the proclamation by the rabbinic organization; he met with some of the more "influential" rabbis, warning that they must tread carefully since their words may spark civil disobedience or violence. But Burg prefers to continue to try and suffocate any opposition to the Left's "peace dreams." In a similar vein, ultra-leftist Meretz MK Zahava Gal-On just asked the Attorney General to look into a recent Jerusalem Post editorial she says had "words of incitement to murder" in it. The Jerusalem Post editorial said, "The world will not help us; we must help ourselves. We must kill as many of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders as possible, as quickly as possible, while minimizing collateral damage, but not letting that damage stop us. And we must kill Yasser Arafat, because the world leaves us no alternative." Where is Freedom of the Speech? Where is Freedom of the Press? When was it ever "incitement to murder" to call for the death of the enemy in wartime? Only in Israel, only on the Bolshevik Left. Labor Party leader MK Shimon Peres has been celebrating his 80th birthday recently. Peres told an international peace symposium held as part of his 80th birthday celebrations, "I believe it was right to give [Yasser Arafat] the Nobel Peace Prize because he did three things that no other Palestinian leader did," Peres told a round-table discussion which featured three other Nobel laureates. "He declared publicly that he recognized the State of Israel; no other Palestinian leader dared do that so publicly. Second, he said he would abandon terrorism, and third he agreed that peace would be based on the borders of 1967 and not 1948." At the peace symposium, Peres said that Arafat made a mistake by failing to dismantle terrorist groups opposed to peace with the Jewish state. "He spoke against [them], but did not act against them," Peres said. There, you have Peres' total whitewash of Arafat and the Palestinian Authority: ignoring Arafat's involvement in illegal arms smuggling, such as the Karine A arms boat affair; Arafat's funding - as head of Fatah - Marwan Barghouti's Fatah-Tanzim and Al-Aksa Brigades terrorist activities; and Arafat's general incitement to violence, regularly calling for "Jihad, Jihad, Jihad," i.e., killing Jews. According to Peres, Yasser "spoke against [them], but did not act against them." Lies, lies, lies... During the Left's slander campaign against "settlers" last October/November, just before the Labor Party created an excuse to walk out of Sharon's National Unity Government and call for new elections - which Sharon and Likud later won - MK Yossi Sarid said the settlers had started a revolt that the government had to destroy. "If the settlers' revolt is not crushed, it will be the end of democracy," he said. Similarly, then Agricultural Minister Shalom Simchon (Labor) said that the actions of the "right wing," in reference to the protests against expelling people from Gilad Farms, "endanger the existence of the State of Israel." Really? Over 850 people killed and thousands injured from terrorist attacks in the last three-years alone, don't endanger the existence of the State of Israel? Arafat's War, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hizbollah, Syria, Iran, they don't endanger the existence of the State of Israel? Only a bunch of idealistic kids on a barren hilltop somewhere in the middle of the historic Jewish homeland endangers the existence of the State of Israel? A telltale sign of how sick the Left in Israel has gotten, can be seen in this more recent example, some participants at the Saturday night rally reported that a number of people in the crowd booed when the Israeli national anthem, "Hatikvah," was played at the close of the demonstration. So much for their intellectual consistency, honesty, and concern about the Israeli Right and Jewish settlers "destroying" the State of Israel. The leftists clearly couldn't care less. This article appeared on Front Page Magazine (http://www.frontpagemagazine.com) September 26, 2003.

URGENT! SAVE ARIEL Posted by Mike Evans, September 29, 2003.

I have just returned to Jerusalem from meeting with the mayor of Ariel, Ron Nachman, a dear friend. We talked at length about the safety and security of the more than 17,000 residents of his community. The U.S. and Palestinian Authority are demanding that Israel erase Ariel from the map. The United States will deduct $250 million from U. S. loan guarantees to Israel, if construction on the security fence around Ariel does not meet U. S. criteria. I need your help to end this outrageous policy that once again rewards terrorists. Please add your signature to the Letter of Support for Ariel now! Click Here Israel's foreign minister, Silvan Shalom, has flown to the U.S. to meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell on this issue. The eleven-member Israeli Security Cabinet that includes former Prime Minister and now Minister of Finance Benjamin Netanyahu, and former mayor of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert, now vice prime minister (and my dear friends) will vote shortly on this matter. This is an outrageous situation. Brothers Dbir Anter, 13, and Noy Anter, 12, were killed by al-Qaeda operatives. They lived in Ariel! Their little sister, Adva, was seriously wounded in the same attack. Ariel is in the heart of Israel, twenty-five miles east of Tel Aviv. It has four elementary schools, three middle schools, a high school, and a college with over six thousand in attendance. We must protect these innocent victims of past terror from future attacks. Please show your support of Ariel now. This is the only email you will receive on Ariel. Add your voice to our plea that President Bush stand up to the State Department and "just say no." Show your support to the Israeli Cabinet urging them not to allow the U. S. government to pressure them to abandon the precious residents in Ariel. Safety and security must come before appeasement of terrorists. Bethlehem was abandoned to Arafat and the PA. It is now a war zone. Palestinian Christians, sixty percent of the population, have been so persecuted by the Muslims that they have been driven from the city. Arafat's appetite will not be satisfied with a bite of land here and there, but only by devouring the entire Bible land. A simple fence around Ariel is not politics - it is protection and preservation. It will save hundreds of lives. All the nations fighting against Ariel will vanish like a dream! Those who are attacking her walls will vanish like a vision in the night. (Isaiah 29:7) Please forward this urgent plea to everyone you know. Let's keep it going around the world. You could help save thousands of lives. If America forces Israel to cave in at Ariel, then Jerusalem will be next. For the sake of the children, Mike Evans is the founder of the Jerusalem Prayer Team, which is based in Euless, Texas. Dr. Tim LaHaye, Mrs. Anne Graham Lotz, Dr. Pat Robertson, Dr. Adrian Rogers, Mr. Pat Boone, Dr. John Hagee, Dr. Jerry Falwell, Mr. Bill McCartney, Ms. Kay Arthur, Rev. Tommy Tenney, Dr. A.R. Bernard, Dr. Stephen Olford, and Dr. Jay Sekulow are just a few of the more then 300 Christian Leaders who are part of the Jerusalem Prayer Team. The website address is http://www.jerusalemprayerteam.org

EGREGIOUS ERROR IN NEW YORK TIMES' EDWARD SAID OBITUARY Posted by Leo Rennert, September 29, 2003.

It is puzzling why, in its obituary of Said, the Times starts by accepting at face value his claim that he spent his childhood in Jerusalem and that he and his family were exiled to Cairo when Israel gained independence. Only 11 paragraphs later is there a mention that his story was exposed as a fabrication. Although born in Jerusalem during a family visit, his birth certificate lists the Saids' residence as Cairo. Except for other occasional visits to Palestine, he grew up in comfortable surroundings in Egypt. Does it matter? You bet. As a scholar, Said shot to prominence with a theory that the West victimized colonial people not only militarily and politically but also culturally. To dramatize this total victimhood, he turned himself into its poster child - torn from his roots, sent into exile, haunted by memories of paradise lost. But once he faked his own biography, what is one to assume about the intellectual honesty of the rest of his work? When challenged about his family's actual roots, Said fibbed once more by falsely claiming that he never tried to make himself the issue. Three years ago, he again skirted the truth when a widely published photograph showed him hurling a stone at Israeli soldiers across the Lebanese border. Calling it a "symbolic gesture," he said he didn't even know he was being photographed. Later, Agence France Press confirmed the photo was supplied by none other than Edward Said. Such twisting of the truth usually has consequences for reputable scholars. But Columbia gave him a free pass - a generosity the university did not show when an earlier faculty member, Charles Van Doren, was exposed for starring in a rigged quiz show. Van Doren got an unforgiving boot, while Said continued to pile up academic honors.

MUTINY AND POLITICS Posted by Steven Plaut, September 29, 2003.

The latest project of Israel's Treasonous Left is organizating mutiny in the Israeli Air Force. 27 pilots have signed a petition declaring they will not follow orders if ordered to strike at Palestinian terrorists. They claim they are unwilling to operate where civilians are. They are unwilling to undertake "targeted assassinations." They prefer that Israeli children by mass murdered on buses than their having to dirty their morally pure hands. The only problem is that the terrorists are where civilians are. Mutiny such as this is subject to 15 years in prison although the government and the leftist Attorney General are unlikely to prosecute. If every Israeli soldier only followed orders when those orders happened to appeal to his political prejudices, the country would be fully disarmed, then destroyed and the Jews placed in cattle cars, evidently what the Left seeks. Lest anyone think the 27 are simply squeamish about Palestinian "civilians," they placed an ad in today's papers, no doubt financed by the New Israel Fund, which has never passed over the opportunity to finance Israeli treason. It declares that the pilots are really engaging in mutiny because they oppose the "Conquest." The "Conquest" is the code word used by the mindless Left for Israeli presence of any sense in the West Bank and Gaza and it represents a "conquest" about as much as does the French presence in Alsace or the American presence in Florida. In general, when an Israeli uses the term "conquest" one should immediately assume that the person is a moron and that absolutely nothing the person has to say about anything at all is worth listening to. But the Force Force Traitors and mutineers are instantly the icons of the Caring Left, including Haaretz, and are being hailed by the Jews-for-a-Second-Holocaust, as well as by the Islamist fundamentalists to whom they are allied, and the Eurotrash. Meantime, Israel is hard at work on yet another of those famous capitulations to the Lebanese terrorists. In this case Israel will release oodles of jailed terrorists in order to get the Hizbollah to release the bodies of three soldiers they kidnapped AFTER the Barak WIthdrawal from Lebanon and have evidently murdered, as well as one civilian. For the past 3 years Israel never retaliated againmst any Hizbollah violations or attacks, including the kidnapping in question, claiming it would put the three POWs in jeopardy. Now it appears they were murdered anyway, yet Hizbollah villages have STILL not had their parking congestion problems solved by the Israeli army. The civilian in question is one whose story is unclear. The Hizbollah claimed he was a spy, but apparently he was not, and one rumor here has it he was in Lebanon on a foreign passport for something criminal. Now the Israeli politicians are marketing the upcoming deal, which by the way is likely to IGNORE the plight of missing POW Ron Arad altogether - putting hundreds of terrorhoids back on the streets who will no doubt then take up quilting. It is marketing it by claiming that Jewish tradition demands working to get captives released by paying ransom. Of course it would be nice if Israel's politicians ever actually checked out Jewish sources and traditions before trying to conscript them for political folly. In fact, Jewish sources are quite explicit that NO ransom may be paid for release of hostages if it is excessive, lest it lead to future extortion, and in any case no ransom could be paid if it involved releasing murderers who will murder again once released.

RESERVE PILOTS REFUSE TO BOMB CIVILIANS Posted by Seymour Ginsburg, September 29, 2003.

Noted in the Sun Sentinel, and the New York Times in blazing headlines, "pilots of the Israeli Air force signed a letter refusing to fly missions which would kill Palestinian civilians or serve in the West Bank or Gaza during the 'occupation'." These 27 pilots and peace reservists should be made to pick up the body pieces of Israeli citizens murdered by such peaceful organizations such as Hamas, Hezballah, and Jihad. They should be permitted to help doctors take out the nails, spikes, razors and other sharp metals in the bodies of civilian women, children and others from bombs placed on buses, in cafes, near schools and on street corners. Thank God these peace-at-any-price people are so few in number the press they get is out of proportion to the main population. I wonder why we hear of no Palestinians refusing to fight. It must be every single one of they agrees with the Palestinian agenda. So much for freedom of the press in the West Bank and Gaza.

INEVITABLE DISOBEDIENCE Posted by Moshe Feiglin, September 29, 2003.

[This week a group of IAF pilots wrote a letter to the IAF commander declaring that they refuse to attack targets in the "territories."] Another seam in the Israeli social fabric came apart this week. The boastful slogan coined by former Air Force Commander Ezer Weizmann: "The best men become pilots - and receive the best girls," reflected the elite of Israeli society - the IAF pilots. And now they have given a slap in the face to this society by declaring: "You are not moral." What do people want from the pilots? If the State of Israel has abandoned the elimination of the leadership of the Hamas terrorist organization in order not to harm "innocent people," why shouldn't the pilots do the same? Morality isn't confined to a specific position. Why is Defense Minister Mofaz's morality better that that of the pilots? The State of Israel arose on the basis of a set of values that inevitably led a thinking person to reach the views expressed in the pilots' letter. The guilt does not lie with them but with that set of values. In fact, those who signed the letter did us a favor, by forcing us to examine for ourselves our basic moral assumptions. What gives a soldier in a checkpoint in Kalandia the right to check the bags of a local Arab? Not to shoot him, just check his bags? The amazingly simple answer is: the ownership of the country. If this is our country, then we have the full right to be there and check anyone suspected of threatening our sovereignty. I have the right to ask a person wishing to stay in my home to identify himself, and I have the right to employ force against him if he refuses to leave. But if this is not our country, we have no right to invade the lives of the residents. The State of Israel has declared that the heart of the country, the land of the Bible, the cradle of the Hebrew nation, is not ours, but that we have conquered it. In this we have destroyed the fundamental moral argument. If so, how can the state justify its violent activities in the "territories" (even before mentioning the colonialism of the neighborhoods of Gilo and Ramot in Jerusalem). Israel says that these are acts of self-defense. We have to check the trunk of the Peugeot or make targeted attacks on terrorist leaders because they are killing us. The moment they stop, we will also do so. In other words, our moral right is derived from the right of self-defense. But this is a very weak argument. First of all, they claim that they are killing us because we are occupying their country. Until we leave, taking the last of our dead with us (as Mahmud Darwish said) we cannot make the claim of self-defense, because we are the attackers. Secondly, the Israeli principle of self defense is based on the Western/ Christian principles of morality, in which self defense is permissible only for the weak against the strong. You cannot eliminate those who do not directly present a threat to you. You cannot defend yourself while at the same time killing women and children weaker than you. These two principles, on the one hand the (lack of) sovereignty, and on the other hand, the Christian war morality, form the current basis for the moral ethic code of the IDF. The State of Israel has itself adopted the principles that leave no alternative to thinking, principled people, who wish to be honest with themselves, other than to disobey orders. Until a revolution takes place in the ideological basis for the existence of the state, until we return to our basic Jewish principles, we cannot say that this is our country, and we cannot free ourselves from the bonds of Christian morality when trying to defend ourselves. The result will be that Jewish children will die instead of Arab children, Israeli society will continue to disintegrate, and the IDF will rely on "robot" soldiers after it has lost the best of its combatants.

WHEN AN IDF PILOT DOES NOT BOMB A CIVILIAN TARGET WHICH PROTECTS TERRORISTS, IDF TROOPS DIE ON THE GROUND Posted by David Bedein, September 29, 2003.

On Thurday morning, September 25th, 2003, the IDF surrounded a home in the UNRWA Al-Bourage refugee camp in Gaza, where an armed Arab terrorist leader was holed up. The IDF did not call in an air raid on the house, since a family was there, acting as human shields for the terrorist. Instead, an IDF infantry unit led a ground assault on the home. As the ground assault commenced, the Arab terrorist opened fire and killed one of the Israeli soldiers, Sergeant Avihu Keinan, age 22, of Shiloh. Six other Israeli soldiers were soldiers were also wounded. Other IDF troops returned the fire and killed the terrorist. When the troops entered the house where the terrorist had been hiding, they discovered an impressive arms cache, which included a complement of Kassam rockets and rocket launchers. All this occurred on the same day that 27 reserve pilots of Israel's Air Force publicized a petition in which they declared that they would not participate in any air raids on Arab civilian targets. The petition was widely circulated among hundreds of Israel's reserve pilots by two groups called "Yesh Gvul" and "Courage to Refuse," which have received more than $250,000 from the Shefa Fund in Phi ladelphia over the past two years. The brochure distributed today by "Yesh Gvul" offers financial support for any Israeli soldier who will refuse Israeli army service anywhere beyond Israel's 1949/67 cease-fire line. Avihu Keinan's father pointed to Israel's policy of hesitating to bomb civilian targets that host terrorists as the reason for the death of his son. Yisrael Medad, Shiloh resident, provided the following moving account of Avihu Keinan's funeral: "The last person to speak at the funeral of Avihu Keinan HY"D was his father, Moshe. Moshe opened by saying that he promised that he would not break down and cry and hoped that he would honor his son by keeping his composure. He recalled that the previous evening, the Air Force Commander, in response to the letter of several pilots who will from now on refuse to participate in bombings of "civilian" targets, noted that the IDF was the most moral and ethical army in all the world. Moshe Keinan rejected that. He said that it was this policy that had killed his son. If the IDF commanders who get their orders from the Minister of Defense and the Government of Israel, prefer the deaths of Jewish soldiers, our own children, over the children of our enemies, then this is not moral. He demanded that 270 Captains, 270 Majors, 270 Colonels, 270 Generals all inform the Minister of Defense Mofaz, that they too are willing to put their insignia and ranks on the table. They must demand to be permitted to put an end to this violence. The Government of Israel must know that the army is unwilling to sacrifice soldiers only to be called the most moral army in the world. He asked rhetorically, is this the way the French, the British or the American army acts? He then finished by singing a Yiddish lullaby which he had sung to Avihu when he was a baby (Moshe Keinan is a Chazan, a member of Tel Aviv's Cantorial Choir scheduled to tour the USA and Canada in a few months): "Mein yingeleh...Mein tayareh  (My young one, my cherished one)" David Bedein is Bureau Chief, Israel Resource News Agency, Beit Agron International Press Center, Jerusalem, Israel. Its website address is http://www.israelbehindthenews.com

PERSON OF THE YEAR Posted by David Wilder, September 29, 2003.

The Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShana, is marked quite differently from January first. Whereas the latter is celebrated in Times Square, at gala parties, and the like, most of Rosh HaShana is spend in the synagogue. According to the Jewish calendar, a new 'day' begins at sunset, and so it is that we commenced our year on Friday night with evening prayers. Following the short service, each family returned to its home and began the first festive meal of 5764 (counting from the creation of the world), with the traditional 'signs' or symbols of the New Year, beginning with an apple and honey, while reciting the prayer "May it be G-d's will that we should have a good and sweet year." The next morning, (and the following day too) many Jews spend between five to six hours at the synagogue, reciting numerous prayers, while looking back at the past year in retrospect and looking ahead to the new year with expectation. I participated in early morning prayers at Ma'arat HaMachpela, the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs. It's difficult to characterize one's own prayer, but I found my worship to be troubled. Reflecting on the past year was very painful. For many years, while living in Kiryat Arba before moving to Hebron, I prayed at the same synagogue with my friend Rabbi Eli Horowitz, sitting one row behind him. Year after year I would not only see his prayer, but in many cases actually sense it, especially during the High Holy days of Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur. I was only a few months ago that Rabbi Eli Horowitz and his dear wife Dina were cut down in their apartment, murdered while eating their Sabbath meal on a Friday night. This Rosh HaShana his image seemed to be constantly before my eyes. One Saturday morning, during prayers, a friend of mine said something to me about the year starting off with a "bang." When I asked him what he was talking about he looked at me with surprise and asked, "What, you don't know?" When I shrugged he added, "Negahot - a terrorist infiltrated last night, started shooting, and killed two people." Just as we were sitting down to eat on Friday night, so too, Eyal and Sarah Iberbaum, together with neighbors Shai and Shira Abraham, with some other guests, were dipping an apple in honey. The Iberbaums and Abrahams live in Negahot, about ten miles south-west of Hebron. A community of over thirty families, Negahot faced tremendous hurdles in the past few years as a result of the Oslo Accords because the main approach road to the community was transferred to Arafat and the PA. When the Oslo War began three years ago that road was cut off to Negahot's families, who could then enter and leave their community only from the west. Hebron's archivist, Shlomit Gadot, who lives in Negahot, could get to her office here in Hebron only after a two hour drive, as opposed to the twenty minutes it would take before the main road was closed. Yet, despite the difficulties and terrorist activity in the area, the community continued to thrive. Not only didn't people leave, rather, new families moved in. Negahot families began building permanent houses, allowing them to move out of temporary 'caravan' homes. Eyal Iberbaum, 27 years old, had served in Negahot while still in the army, and after marrying a year ago, brought his bride to live in this beautifully scenic community. The Iberbaums, together with his neighbors, the Abrahams and some other guests, welcomed the New Year with hope and expectation for a happy, sweet, and good year. It was just after nine o'clock when their dinner was interrupted by sharp knocking at the door. Eyal asked twice, "who's there" but received only a garbled, unclear answer. When he slowly opened the door, weapon in hand, a twenty-one year old terrorist from a nearby Arab village opened fire with an automatic rifle, killing Iberbaum. A guest in the house quickly shot at the terrorist, preventing him from entering the home. The terrorist, standing outside, started blasting his rifle at the 'caravan' home, whose walls are constructed of plasterboard. As a result of this shooting, seven month old Shaked Abraham, infant daughter of Shai and Shira, was hit in the chest. Her father, an ambulance driver, together with his wife attempted to resuscitate their daughter, to no avail. She died in their arms. Two other guests were slightly wounded. Soldiers serving in Negahot quickly arrived at the site and within two minutes killed the Arab attacker. It was later learned that the murderer, Mahmoud Hamdan, was recently released from an Israeli prison after serving thirteen months because he planned to blow himself up in a suicide attack against Israelis. An Arab gets a year in jail for attempted murder, is released, and then fulfills his wish by killing a baby and a 27 year old man on the eve of the New Year. At the end of every year, it is customary in certain circles to crown a 'person of the year.' I spent some time thinking about who is my 'person of the year.' In the end, I decided that my choice is not one particular person - rather it is a collective - Am Yisrael, living in Eretz Yisrael - the people of Israel, living in the Land of Israel - they are my 'person of the year.' Sure, people like Rabbi Eli and Dina Horowitz, Shaked Abraham and Eyal Iberbaum. Not only them though - but also Eli and Dina's children, Shaked's parents, and so many others, who have been afflicted by Arab terror which has left hundreds and thousands of dead and wounded. These are the people who are continuing to live - who are not giving up, are not leaving their homes, and have not despaired of their dream. These are the people of the year - and they are not just in Yesha (Judea, Samaria and Gaza). They are from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and Hadera and Haifa, Eilat and Shlomi - continuing to live - to dip an apple in honey, wishing each other a happy, sweet and good New Year, despite the difficulties, despite the pain. This is the real Am Yisrael which has returned home - to our eternal home, our only home, Eretz Yisrael. With blessings from Hebron, with blessings for a happy and better New Year, from all of Hebron's men, women and children. David Wilder is spokesman for the Jewish Community of Hebron. Its website address is http://www.hebron.org.il

TERRORIST' BABY VICTIM IS BURIED TODAY Posted by Jules Segal, September 29, 2003.

Shaked (pronounced ShahKED) Avraham, the 7-month-old baby who was murdered in her home in Negohot on Friday night by a Palestinian Arab terrorist, was buried this afternoon in Kfar HaRoeh, near Hadera. Eyal Yeberbaum, 27, who was also murdered in the attack, was buried in his original hometown of Rehovot late last night. "A chilling aspect of this story," related Negohot's security officer Yuval Levinger this morning, "is that the terrorist was just freed two months ago from Israeli prison in the framework of the gestures towards Abu Mazen - even though it was known that he had been planning to carry out a terrorist attack. And so, a few weeks later, he carried it out." The murderer, a member of Islamic Jihad, had little difficulty making his way into the community, as "bureaucratic difficulties" have left it with no perimeter fence. He approached the caravan of Eyal and Sarah Yeberbaum, who were hosting Shai and Shira Avraham and their baby Shaked for the Rosh HaShanah holiday. Upon hearing a knock on the door in the middle of the meal, they repeatedly asked who it was, and suddenly bullet fire sprayed the room through the door. Eyal and the Shaked were mortally wounded, and the terrorist then began to fire on other caravans nearby, wounding two other residents. Finally, an armed resident from another caravan came out and was able to shoot and kill the terrorist, ending the carnage. The baby's father, an ambulance driver, attempted to resuscitate his seven-month old, but was not successful. Shaked is at least the seventh baby under one year old to be murdered in the ongoing Oslo War of terrorism against Israel. The others were Shalhevet Pass, 10 months old, of Hevron, in March 2001; Yehuda Chaim Shoham of Shilo, five months, hit by a large rock in June 2001; nine-month-old Aviyah Malka in March 2002 in Netanya; Tif'eret Sarah Shilon, nine months, who was one of nine people, including her father and maternal grandmother, who were murdered outside Emanuel in July 2002; and two babies - Shmuel Zargari, 11 months, and 3-month-old Shmuel Taubenfeld of the United States - murdered in the #2 bus bombing last month. Negohot, a growing Yesha community of 31 families - 19 families moved in over the past two years - is situated on the east-west highway between Kiryat Gat and Hevron. Though physically closer to Hevron, its only road to the Jewish Southern Hevron Hills communities passes through PA-controlled Area A - leaving it more "connected" with the pre-1967 areas near Kiryat Gat.

SECOND GUESSING G-D Posted by Rebbetzin Esther Yungreis, September 25, 2003.

In my last column I wrote of the anguish and sorrow that fills the hearts of our brethren in Israel nowadays, and I wrote of the all-too real curses that are enumerated in parshat Ki Tavo. There is one curse however, that at first glance, may be difficult to understand, but if you take a moment to think about it, you will realize how poignantly it speaks to us: "And it shall be, if you will not hearken to the voice of the L-rd your G-d to observe and perform all His commandments and all His decrees that I command you today, then all His curses will come upon you and overtake you." (Deuteronomy 28:58). The word "overtake" is puzzling, but upon closer scrutiny, we have to conclude how prophetic these words have proven to be. We have a long history of trying to second guess G-d's word. There are always those who rationalize that the tragedies that befall us are totally unrelated to our abandonment of Torah and mitzvos. They reason that these curses are just so much superstition, and if we would just do "such and such," then all our problems would be resolved. But throughout our long and torturous history, no matter how clever a formula was concocted, no matter how confident we were that this time, we would find a way to neutralize the irrational hatred that surrounds us, the curses always overtook us. Just consider some of the events of the last century and you will see for yourself the sad reality of this prophecy. A Jew by the name of Karl Marx convinced his followers that hatred in the world stemmed from jealousy between the haves and the have-nots, and that it was these economic disparities that rendered the Jews scapegoats. And so, he founded communism, a system that would guarantee the perfect distribution of wealth, a system in which everyone would have an equal share. Many Jews sacrificed and died for this cause. They truly believed that communism would usher in a new era of fraternity and brotherhood. Who would have believed that this very same communism, would not only fail, but would give birth to the most vile and brutal persecution of the Jewish people. - "Alas, the curses shall overtake you..." Theodore Hertzl, a secular Jew from Austro-Hungary, the founder of political Zionism, was convinced that the cause for anti-Semitism was the lack of a Jewish homeland. He was so assimilated that he even expressed willingness to accept Uganda as a substitute, but since Uganda was not to be had, he settled on Palestine. Who would have believed that fifty one years after the founding of the Jewish homeland, that homeland, would become the butt of hatred. "We have nothing against Jews, it is the Israelis and Zionists that we despise," is the politically correct mantra of the new anti-Semites. - "And the curses shall overtake you..." The Reform movement in Germany was founded on the belief that anti-Semitism was provoked by the special Jewish way of life that distinguishes Jews from gentiles. If only Jews would shed their traditions, their mannerisms, their distinct garb, their myriad archaic commandments and enter the enlightened world - if only they would be like all other people, anti-Semitism would cease to exist. Jews gave up their faith, their Torah, and proudly swore their allegiance to "Fattersland uber alles" - "Germany, the Fatherland - above all." Who would have believed that it would be from that very same enlightened, civilized Germany that the most satanic evil ever to be visited upon our people would emerge. - "And the curses shall overtake you.." The events that I described are not from our distant past - rather, they are of today, and we are all familiar with them, but there are still those among us who believe that they can relinquish Torah and mitzvos without consequences - that the curses that we encounter in life are totally unrelated to our lack of observance and our abandonment of the Covenant. They truly believe that all our problems would be resolved if we would just adopt "yet another formula." While the embers of the flames of Auschwitz were still glowing, the advocates of this philosophy found yet another prescription to once and for all eradicate the scourge of anti-Semitism. They scurried to Rome and prostrated themselves before the Pope to inaugurate the dawn of a new era - "Dialogue" The rationale behind this was quite logical. The silence of the Church and its support of the Nazis in Catholic Europe was due to a lack of communication. But now, bridges of understanding would be built. "Dialogue" would be the new antidote for the deadly virus of anti-Semitism. But then came 1967 - the Six Day War, and once again, the balloon burst. As Israel was threatened by annihilation, her leaders appealed to the world community and to the Church, but the nations remained silent as did Rome. The proponents of dialogue tried to call in their cards, but their investment had failed. Rome not only remained indifferent to the plight of the fledgling Jewish state, but lent its sympathy and support to those who were bent upon her destruction. Recently, the age-old blood libels have re-surfaced in contemporary garb. A prince of the Church, Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Meridiaga, who is the Archbishop of Honduras and who, according to Boston Globe reporter James Carrol, is one of a small number of likely candidates to succeed Pope John Paul II, reportedly stated that the accusations of sexual abuse in the Church are a Jewish fabrication! You might wonder how he arrived at such a brilliant conclusion, but then again, how did his predecessors throughout the centuries conclude that Jews slaughtered Christians children and used their blood to make wine and matzoh for Passover' Nothing changes - just the names and the places. Still, you may insist that we are living in the twenty-first century. People cannot just make outlandish irrational accusations built upon a pack of lies. But obviously, they can, and there are myriad people out there willing to embrace them and declare them to be truth. The Archbishop propounds that the Jews were seeking revenge on the Church for its pro-Palestinian/anti Israel stance and most importantly, also wanted to divert attention from the atrocities that they are perpetrating against the Palestinians, so they fabricated this story, and proof of its Jewish origin is that The Boston Globe, owned by the Jewish Sulzberger New York Times family, was the first to break the story. Therefore, it stands to reason that this is a Jewish conspiracy. Now it's one thing for the Cardinal to make such preposterous and virulent accusations, but it is something else again for Rome to remain silent and not call the Cardinal to task. Once again, despite years of dialogue, despite good-will gestures and kow-towing to Rome, the curses have overtaken us. Let us now" consider the tragedies that are befalling us in Eretz Yisroel - the constant barrage of terrorist attacks that result in almost daily carnage. Why do the Arabs hate us so? Why are they bent upon killing us? Why are they obsessed with shedding Jewish blood? Why do they wish to see us dead? Why do they want to eradicate the Jewish State? Once again, our secularists, who deny G-d's Hand in our history have convinced themselves and others that there are valid reasons for all this hatred, reasons that can be overcome: The Arabs suffer from poverty, they live under abysmal conditions, they lack educational and job opportunities, the Palestinians have become refugees, and they need their own state. Who, if not we, should empathize with that? Let's give them what they need, let's give them the land, let's give them financial aid, let's give them the arms to create their own police force. It was this thinking that prompted Israeli leadership to legitimize Arafat and put white gloves on his bloody hands. It was with this thinking that Israel convinced Washington to no longer regard Arafat as persona non-grata, but to accord him all the honor of a diplomat. It was this Israeli thinking that enabled Arafat to win the Nobel Peace prize, and it was this thinking that prompted Israel to sign the Oslo Accords. Oslo would herald a new dawn in Jewish-Arab relations. Israel and her neighbors would enjoy open borders and together build a model state. Israel gave up chunks of her G-d given land, supplied Arafat and his cohorts with funds and weapons, and taught them how to prepare for the establishment of their own state. Who would have believed that that Oslo pact would open the doors to the must brutal and bloody period in the history of the young State, that the arms that Israel gave would be turned against her own sons and daughters? And today, ten years down the road, we are further from peace than ever before. Not only are our borders not open, but now we have to build "fences" to protect ourselves from the killers who live next door. What will it take to awaken those who are still asleep, those who after thousands of years of history still cling to the illusion that we Jews can be like all other nations - that the laws that apply to them can apply to us as well? What will it take to make our assimilated brethren understand that our destiny, our very breath is ordained by HaShem, that we are Mamlechet Kohanim, a priestly kingdom, Goy Kadosh, a holy nation, destined to be a light unto the world, and because of that, there is only one formula, one road map for us and that's the road map that was charted at Sinai. All else is doomed to fail, for otherwise, - "... the curses will overtake us." May HaShem grant that this year of 5764 will usher in a new era of tshuva - return to G-d and His Torah, for that is our only power, our only means of survival, our only antidote to the curses. "If only My people would heed Me, if Israel would walk in My ways, in an instant I would subdue their foes and against their tormentors turn My hand." (Psalm 81). May I take this opportunity to wish all our readers and K'lal Yisroel a gamar chasima tova. Rebbetzin Yungreis heads the Hineni Heritage Center located in New York City. Its website address is http://www.hineni.org

WE ARE HERE! Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz, September 25, 2003.

In order to help us Israelis digest our overwhelming holiday shopping bills, most supermarkets offer a bit of sweet compensation in the form of a receipt which entitles the depleted shopper to a "gift." So while my husband went to load the car, I waited for the head clerk to return to the counter with the Rosh Hashanah bonus. Usually it's a bottle of wine or, at the very least, a small gift-jar of honey. This year I was handed a small package of margarine - an obvious and rather ominous sign of the times. Dumbfounded, I returned to the car with a bittersweet complaint. "Honey, look. It's not even butter!" But when my husband flashed his endearing smile, it took me back. When I was a student, attending an overseas summer program at Tel Aviv University, I would often visit my soon-to-be husband and his brother in their modest apartment in Hertzlia. They were always gracious hosts and would share their meals with me, which consistently consisted of bread and margarine - there was rarely anything else. I was too in love to complain (when you're in love, everything tastes good). But, I couldn't help but wonder how it was that these guys looked far more strapping and wholesome than their well fed American counterparts. That same summer we went camping in the Sinai, our supplies consisted of bread, margarine and water. I didn't complain or need anything else, as I was awe-struck with the majesty of the desert (when you're captivated, everything tastes good). That must have been the secret behind the mann in the desert. As long as the Jewish People were in love, awe-struck and captivated, we didn't need anything else. Ahhhhh, to be young again. I think I speak for at least a few of us when I say that the last three chaotic years have sapped a bit of our strength and youthful optimism. We should look forward to this New Year, because it presents us with an opportunity to rediscover inspiration, clarity and hope. But still, I have my concerns with regards to whats in store for us in 5764. After a year of little sleep (I wrote this piece at 4 AM), I'm afraid that I'll fall asleep this Rosh Hashana. It happens every year. Throughout the last several years, I rarely takes naps during the day and am easily awakened at night - as if on high alert. But come Rosh Hashanah, I listen with great concentration to the shofar service - only to be hounded by irresistible drowsiness throughout the rest of the day. So this year I've begun to peruse my bookshelves in search of inspiring works that are sure to keep me going. I've chosen the teachings of scholarly giants like, Rabbis Hersh, Soloveitchik, Dessler, Kook, and Theodor Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss. I am not being irreverent. Horton Hears a Who is a must-read Rosh Hashana classic (it's also a short book with lots of pictures). Anybody who doesn't think so is probably either a shirker -like that little twerp in apartment 12-J, or a renegade mayor of our small speck of dust - who prefers to attend gala birthday celebrations rather than tend to their responsibilities in an hour of crisis. (NOTE: If you just lost me, you had better borrow the book. Things will become remarkably clear - I promise.) So, when I start to feel drowsy and the formal prayers and commentaries no longer hold my attention, I'm going to go back to a simpler time - and sit down to a cup of tea, and challah with margarine (and a touch of honey). Then I'm going to recapture my youthful optimism by delving into the prophetic wisdom of Dr. Seuss. I'll join the rest of the Whos in Who-ville in the hope that, this coming year, our cries of "We are here!" "We are here!" "We are here!" "We are here!" will be both heard in the heavens and understood here on earth. Wishing all of Our People a truly peaceful and comforting 5764. Ellen Horowitz lives on the Golan Heights with her husband and six children. She is a painter, writer and co-founder of helpingisrael.com. She can be contacted through her website http://www.artfromzion.com

NATION BUILDING Posted by Richard H. Shulman, September 25, 2003.

The Bush administration announced it would withhold some loan guarantees if Israel builds beyond the 1967 border, redlining the Jewish Quarter, French Hill, Ramat Eshkol, and the Mount Scopus-Hebrew University-Hadassah Hospital areas of Jerusalem. Israeli construction there is not prohibited by international law or by the Oslo accords. Arabs in the Territories are building ten times as fast as Israelis, and mostly illegally. The P.A. encourages this illegal building in an attempt to influence negotiations about final borders. Instead of reducing aid to the P.A, the Administration plans to boost that aid from $100 million to $215 million (IMRA, 9/17 from ZOA). Instead of securing the Jewish nation, the US is engaged in Palestinian nation-building. Problem is, whereas US nation-building in Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq was preceded by defeating the aggressors and terrorists, in the P.A. the terrorists still run everything. Who will defeat them? Israel. Eventually, Pres. Bush will get Israel to defeat the terrorists and then secure the area not for Israel but for Israel's Arab enemies. This cruel irony is anti-Zionist. Israel does the US's dirty work, ultimately redounding against Israel and the US. Before Arab autonomy, Israel spent a fortune building networks of schools, roads, water, electricity, and health. What a mistake! Peres and Rabin gave out ammunition and money with which, to their surprise but not to the Right's, the Arabs attacked Israel. The answer is for Israel to conduct not a war on terrorism that leads to an enemy state, but a war on the Palestinian Muslim Arabs, that leads to a Zionist fulfillment.

AN OPEN LETTER TO AVRAHAM BURG Posted by Arthur Cohn, September 25, 2003.

Dear Avrum, I know you - within our long-time family friendship - for many years. I never commented on any of your political statements when you gave them to Israeli newspapers. However, your article "A failed Israeli society is collapsing" is especially disappointing because it was not only published in Israel, but also abroad in the "International Herald Tribune," "Le Monde" (Paris) and "Suddeutsche Zeitung" (Munich). Under these circumstances I cannot restrain myself from reacting to it. I must protest against your level of argumentation and the style of your essay. Your way of presenting issues is irresponsible, undemocratic and lacks basic honesty. It ignores all the great values which are the basis of the Jewish State up to this day. In very general accusations - which are characteristic of the whole article - you say that the Israeli nation (!) today rests on a "scaffolding of corruption." No word about Israel being a state with a most developed judicial system and courts which are open to all parts of Israeli society (Arabs included) in order to supervise justice in the State of Israel and to fight corruption in all its manifestations - a tiny state surrounded by totalitarian governments which are not bound by the rule of law. No word about the vast majority dedicated to Israel without any personal corruption whatsoever. No word about the tremendous job done in Israel with the huge immigration from Russia and Ethiopia. No word about the thousands of volunteers fulfilling a wonderful task for all underprivileged people - from handicapped children to helpless aged persons. No word about the free press of Israel which detects openly any irregularities within the Government and its branches. No word about the unlimited devotion to Israel's security even by regular citizens who endanger their lives in order to minimize the destruction done by terror acts. You write that settlements are "run by an amoral clique of corrupt lawbreakers." The settlements were built since 1967 with the help of the Israeli government (Labor and Likud alike) and even their political opponents know that most of the settlers are great idealists. Far from being corrupt and amoral, they are loyal citizens. It is one thing to advocate removal of settlements, and another to demonize the settlers in such an unjust way. How can you ignore the Jewish historic approach in your analysis of events? One example: Tens of thousands of Arabs worked for many, many years in Israel. Their entry to Israel started to be made difficult only after terrorists were smuggled in with the workers. To speak about the Palestinian difficulties with the roadblocks without mentioning the reasons which brought them about is morally questionable. What is even worse: You invent the lie that Israel has "ceased to care about the children of Palestinians." You describe all of Israel as an inhuman entity and cause with this statement irreparable damage to Israel's moral image. As you surely know, the truth is the opposite: Despite the Palestinian children being educated to become genocide murderers and despite their being abused as shields for terrorists, Israel does whatever possible to avoid unnecessary damage to