A Time To Speak
Vol. II:10 (No. 22)
October 2002
-- Tishri-Heshvan 5763
PARALLAX
Webster: Parallax: the
apparent displacement, or differences of position,
of an
object, as seen from two different
stations or points of view.
* * * * * * *
European graffiti of the
1930s: "Jews -- Go to Palestine"
European graffiti of the
2000s: "Jews -- Get Out of Palestine"
* * * * * * *
"In
peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons."
-- Herodotus
Ten
years ago, Rabbi and Mrs. Seymour Weiss of Texas, moved to Israel with their
six children. The family soon became known for its
many contributions to civic and cultural life.
On
1 October 2002, their eldest son, Sgt. Ari Joshua
Weiss, while on duty with the defense forces, was killed
by a jihad-terrorist. He was 21 years old. There were thousands of mourners at
his funeral on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem -- among them
his maternal grandparents, who survived the Holocaust only to see their
grandchild among those murdered for being a Jew in the Land of Israel.
A few months earlier, Rabbi Weiss had
published an essay on the fears of parents whose children have to stand guard
against the enemies of Israel, and the terrible waste of the young lives that
are lost. He concluded the essay with the words: "Each time a soldier breathes his last,
each time a hero is slain in the noble war against terror, a little bit of each
of us dies with him."
At the funeral of his own valiant son, he asked the thousands of assembled
mourners to sing the old, popular son "Am Yisra'el
Hai [The People of Israel Lives]".
The Jerusalem Post reprinted a
story of another funeral held on Mt. Herzl in 1948,
for Baruch Shapiro, who was 18 years old when he fell defending Jerusalem
during the War of Independence:
[ . . . .]
His father Chaim Shapiro had lost his wife and five
other sons in the Holocaust. He had recently arrived in Israel with the one
surviving youth. When that youth was buried, he too
drew the mourners not only to sing Am Yisra'el Hai but also to dance the Hora.
[. . . . ] He explained it thus: 'I am sure you think I have gone quite
mad . . . . but when the rest of my family were
murdered in Poland by the Germans, their lives ended in silence. They were snuffed out like candles, and no one saw or heard. No
one took notice of who they were, what they had done, or what their lives had
meant.
'[.
. . . ] But this son, this son is different. Baruch
lived to walk upon the holy earth of Eretz Yisrael, and he died defending Jerusalem. Jerusalem! a place we never dreamed we would see in our lifetimes.
Baruch gave his life for all the people of Israel, so they could be free, and safe, and independent. That is not the waste of a life.
It is the celebration of a life [. . . .]"
* * * * * * *
The
Cherie Blair Doctrine, promulgated by the wife of British Prime Minister Tony
Blair, is that young Arabs jihad-killers are driven to their suicide-murder
sprees by hopelessness and despair inflicted on them by their Jewish victims.
Two parents of jihad-killers attribute the their
children's choices not to despair but to ambition for a glorious death:
In October 2002, the father of a jihad-murderer wrote this letter to an
Arabic-language newspaper in London [translation by MEMRI]:
Four
months ago, I lost my eldest son when his friends tempted him, praising the
path of death. They persuaded him to blow himself up in one of Israel's cities.
When the pure body of my son was scattered all over, my last signs of life also
dispersed, along with hope and my will to exist. [. . . .]
But the last straw was when I was informed that the
friends of my eldest son the martyr were starting to wrap themselves like
snakes around my other son, not yet 17, to direct him to the same path towards
which they had guided his brother, so that he would blow himself up too to
avenge his brother, claiming 'he had nothing to lose.
I ask, on my behalf and on behalf of every father
and mother informed that their son has blown himself up: By what right do these
leaders send the young people, even young boys in the flower of their youth, to
their deaths? Who gave them religious or any other
legitimacy to tempt our children and urge them to their deaths? Yes, I say
'death,' not 'martyrdom.'"
Also in October 2002, the mother of another jihad-killer
distributed candy to celebrate her pride. In an interview for the website of Hamas, she told how she sent him off to paradise and his
promised 72 brides:
[. . . .] I wished him success and that Allah might
speed him along in his attack against his enemies. [. . . .] From the first time that I said goodbye, I
asked him not to be afraid [in fighting] against the Jews, as they are cowards,
that he prepare his weapons well before embarking, that he kill [as many] as he
can and leave none alive…. And when he left for his operation, his face was radiant as
if he were meeting the girls of heaven right then and there. I wished him luck and that he enter
heaven and marry the girls as soon as possible.
In the middle of the night, two masked men knocked on the door [of our
house]. As soon as I opened the door they said: Allah
has richly rewarded you. Instantly I knew that Mahmud
had been granted the death he wanted . . . . I told my
husband that Mahmud had been slain
in the glorious attack. I also informed Mahmud's
brother and felt happiness mixed with sorrow. I informed his sisters that I had
known in advance of his attack and that I was even filmed
in a video beforehand. They were astonished at first, but they quickly accepted
my actions.
I was very happy when I heard that he [Mahmud]
killed Jews in the attack. When a warrior of Jihad follows Allah's path to kill
Jews, [it is the act of Jihad] that gives him strength. Even if he does not
kill any Jews, it is an honorable act because he dies the death of a martyr.
The setting for a culture of suicide and
murder is considered in these excerpts from "Child Abuse in the
Palestinian Authority", by Justin Weiner, published by the
Institute for Contemporary Affairs, a joint project of the Jerusalem
Center for Public Affairs and the Wechsler Family Foundation.
[. . . .] Yasser Arafat's deputy, Abu Mazen,
admitted that Palestinian children have been paid NIS 5 (about $1) for every pipe bomb they throw. . . . Children have been
increasingly mobilized during 2002 for suicide attacks; their parents
have received cash payments from the Palestinian Authority, Iraq, and Saudi
Arabia. [. . . .]
In May, a 16-year-old
Palestinian boy was arrested in a taxi near Jenin with a bomb strapped to his body. On June 13, a
15-year-old Palestinian girl, arrested for throwing a firebomb at IDF soldiers, admitted during interrogation that she had previously been recruited as a suicide terrorist. On
July 9, Israeli security forces arrested another 15-year-old Palestinian girl
who admitted to having agreed to carry out a suicide attack in Israel. [. . .
.] IDF soldiers who participated in Operation
Defensive Shield reported that children were sometimes left
behind to trigger booby-traps that terrorists set for troops.
[. . . .] The pressure to
sacrifice oneself in the intifada often originates at
home. Stoked by Arafat's speeches lauding the role of children in the struggle
and the importance of martyrdom, many Palestinian parents have come to view the
role of youth in the uprising as useful and, indeed, honorable. . . . . Martyrs people who die for the sake of jihad (holy war) and Islam
are held in such high regard by the Palestinian people that at times
parents accept the death of their children as a badge of pride.
Parents of toddlers proudly
recount their little children saying they want to become martyrs, and a father
of a 13-year-old said, 'I pray that God will choose him' to be a martyr. One
mother told a journalist from The Times in London, 'I am happy that he
[her 13-year-old son] has been martyred. I will sacrifice all my [12] sons and
daughters'.
[. . . .] Another
reason Palestinian parents allow and even encourage their children to
get involved is the financial incentive offered to families of 'martyrs.' The
PA furnishes a cash payment $2,000 per child killed and $300 per child wounded.
Saudi Arabia announced that it had pledged $250 million as its first
contribution to a billion-dollar fund aimed at supporting the families of
Palestinian martyrs. In addition, the Arab Liberation Front, a Palestinian
group loyal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, pays generous bounties to the
injured and the families of the dead [. . . .]
Violent death is sanctified throughout the Palestinian areas. The streets are plastered with posters glorifying the exploits of
individual suicide bombers. Children trade martyr cards, purchased at their
local shops, instead of Pokemon or baseball cards,
and necklaces with pictures of martyrs are also very
popular. One favorite wall slogan reads: Beware of
death by natural causes.
Suicide bombing is considered a source of neighborhood pride, as streets are
named after the perpetrators of these atrocities. There is even a band named
"The Martyrs," whose lyrics espouse the virtues of 'sacrificing
yourself for Allah.'
Under these cultural
influences, many children readily admit that they want to become suicide
bombers. Some draw pictures and fantasize about the day when they will achieve
their goal. The young are taught that, as suicide
bombers, they will ascend to a paradise of luxury staffed by 72 virgins waiting
to gratify the martyrs as they arrive.
[. . . .] The campaign to
incite children emanates straight from the top of the PA. . .
. . Arafat himself refers to the children as 'the generals of the
stones,' playing to their pride and young egos.
In a PA-run summer camp, a
New York Times reporter observed campers staging the kidnapping of Israeli
leaders, stripping and assembling Kalashnikov assault rifles, and learning
techniques for ambushes.
One PA television program
clip, aimed at young viewers, features a boy killed in Gaza arriving in heaven
where there are beaches, waterfalls, and a Ferris wheel. He is saying, "I
am not waving goodbye, I am waving to tell you to follow in my footsteps."
On the accompanying soundtrack a song plays, "How pleasant is the smell of
martyrs, how pleasant the smell of land, the land enriched by the blood, the
blood pouring out of a fresh body."
[. . . . ] Signs on the
walls of kindergartens proclaim their students as "the shaheeds
[martyrs] of tomorrow," and elementary school teachers and principals
commend their young students for wanting to "tear their [Zionists'] bodies
into little pieces and cause them more pain than they will ever know."
Posters in university
classrooms proudly remind the world that the Palestinian cause is armed with "human bombs." Sheikh Hassan Yosef, a leading Hamas member, summarized this process of incitement by
saying, 'we like to grow them from kindergarten through college.'
Palestinian Brig. Gen. Mahmoud M. Abu Marzoug reminded a
group of 10th-grade girls in Gaza City that "as a
martyr, you will be alive in Heaven."
After the address, a group of these girls lined up to assure a
Washington Post reporter that they would be happy to carry out suicide bombings
or other actions ending in their deaths. These factors cumulatively explain why
young Palestinians are so excited at the prospect of 'martyrdom.'
[. . . .] But
why does the PA encourage Palestinian children to become involved in this
violence? Clearly, sympathy for the Palestinian cause has been generated as
Western media reports have often highlighted instances in which Palestinian
children have been killed or injured by Israeli troops or policemen.
These knee-jerk reports have generated criticism of
Israeli policies, but few in the Western world have thought through the chaos
they see on the television news to consider whose interests are served by the
casualties. [. . . .]
[Comment:
That the PLO is training fighters still in kindergarten suggests that it does
not expect a "settlement" within the next two or three years, as
fancied in various distant diplomatic quarters.]
* * * * * * *
"Sometimes
the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious."
-- George Orwell
Amnesty International's report "Killing
the Future" on the deaths of Israeli and Arab children, skips over the
distinction that ought to be obvious; the difference between the deliberate
murder of children and the fate of children deliberately thrust into a battle
zone.
Israeli children are killed because PLO terrorists select them as targets.
They bomb places where there are likely to be babies, children and teen-agers,
such as a pizza parlor. A ten-month-old baby was the chosen victim of an Arab
sniper. Two schoolboys, ages 13 and 14, walking near
their homes, were seized, dragged into a cave and beaten to death with rocks.
Teen-aged yeshiva students were mowed down while they
were playing basketball. A five-year-old girl tried to hide under a bed when
terrorists broke into her family's home; they dragged her out and shot her.
Arab children are killed because they are purposely exposed to danger. PLO
terrorists, who know that Israeli soldiers are forbidden
to shoot live ammunition at children, protect themselves by hiding behind
children and teen-agers, or send them out to hurl grenades and firebombs. Terror chieftains, who plan the mass-murder
attacks on Israelis, set up their own headquarters and residences among women
and children. This calculated tactic of using children as human shields brings
on the casualties that do occur.
The "obvious"
that seems so elusive to some viewers, is the distinction between a program of
murder, and the regrettable necessities of self-defense. It is comparable to the distinction between
Jewish children hurled into gas chambers by Nazi storm troopers, and German
children killed in Allied bombings of Berlin and Dresden. The guilt is on those
who make the self-defense necessary.
* * * * * * *
Maple Leaf Slag
[1]
For almost 200 years, Canada has had the safest border in the world. Yet it
remains vigilant, lest anything noxious should cross that line. Its customs
agents seized and impounded a parcel mailed from the United States containing
copies of a pamphlet entitled "Israel Has A Moral
Right to Live". It was assumed that such a document would probably violate
Canadian laws against hate speech and/or obscenity,.
[2]
The Magen Da'avid Adom [Red Shield of David] is Israel's equivalent of the
Red Cross, most active in supplying ambulance service and emergency first aid.
The drivers of the ambulances often go into areas where they are attacked by
terrorist snipers, and so have been provided with bullet-proof
vests.
The
Magen Da'avid Adom is a private service, funded by contributions. The Canadian Magen Da'avid
Adom, that had raised funds for these services, has
been shut down by the government of Canada, on the grounds that issuance
of bullet-proof vests to ambulance drivers deprives it of any humanitarian or
charitable status.
The
Arab Red Crescent, whose ambulances are used to transport terrorists and their
weapons, have not so far been deemed uncharitable.
* * * * * * *
The
U.S. Department of State produces periodical reports on the state of
this-and-that around the world. From the start of the Oslo Accords, it gave the
U.S. Congress regular required reports on PLO compliance with the terms,
essential for the grant of U.S. taxpayer funding. These reports were never
correct, always omitting or underplaying the PLO violations. On the subject of
the financial assets of a body seeking large sums of money, the data were stamped classified and withheld even from Congress.
The
Department's recent annual report on terrorism omitted the bulk of PLO
terrorism. It has now brought out a suitable companion piece in its annual
International Religious Freedom Report.
The
section on Israel and the PLO-areas takes up 15 pages, most of it given over to
criticism of Israel. For example: When Israel closes
roads to block terrorists from reaching their preferred victims, this may
impede Arabs from reaching their preferred sites of worship.
There
is even a dubious allegation that Israel has "discriminatory legislation
or policies disadvantaging certain religions". {There is indeed one
example of such legislation-policy: The Government of Israel allows the Muslim Waqf to control biblical Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and
even enforces a ban on Jewish prayer in this holiest of Jewish sitesm to the extent that one Jew just standing quietly can
be accused of "silent prayer". It is not likely this disturbs the
State Department.]
The
PLO is presented as a near- paragon of tolerance and amiability,
that "generally respects religious freedom in practice . . . . attempts to foster goodwill among religious leaders [and]
makes a strong effort to maintain good relations with the Christian
community."
Lost
from view in the fogs of Foggy Bottom:
[1].
There has been a movement of Christians out of PLO-controlled area. When
Bethlehem was under Israeli administration, Christians were 80 percent of the
population. Since the administration was turned over
to the PLO, it has dwindled to 20-30 percent.
[2].
The PLO security forces do not protect Christians who are
attacked by Muslim mobs, or subjected to abuse, extortion, harassment and
threat.
[3].
Conversion of a Muslim to Christianity is a capital offense. Christian converts
have been threatened and imprisoned.
[4].
PLO terrorists choose Christian churches as bases for attacks on Israelis,
because (a) the Israelis will be reluctant to fire back at them, and (b) if the
churches are damaged, the world will blame the Jews for it.
The
PLO terrorists who hid in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem desecrated
it, defiled it, stole everything available, and held priests, monks and nuns
against their will. According to the Boston Globe, "Palestinians
who live near the church described the group as a criminal gang that preyed
especially on Palestinian Christians."
The
State Department notes with apparent approbations that the PLO "paid for
the refurbishment of Joseph's Tomb". Joseph's Tomb is a structure near Shechem (a city that the Greeks called "Neopolis", now mispronounced
"Nablus"). It is
traditionally thought that the biblical Joseph is buried there, and has
long been a site for Jewish prayer services. In October 2000, a PLO mob
attacked Joseph's Tomb, and mortally wounded an Israeli-Druze soldier guarding
it. The mob wrecked the tomb. The PLO then rebuilt it as a mosque, and banned
Jews from the site. This is the "refurbishment".
There
is a bland complaint that "the rhetoric of some Jewish and Muslim
religious leaders [is] harsh and at times constituted an incitement to
violence." In fact, the sermons in mosques incessantly call for the
annihilation of Jews -- and increasingly for that of Christians as well. There
is no Jewish counterpart to this.
A
State Department spokesman explained why religious
demands for the murder of Jews does not count as infringement of religious
freedom: "It's not always easy to tell what is religiously motivated. We're
looking in this report at the ability to practice and choose your religion, so
things that may have a religious dimension to them don't go into this area as
an infraction of a religious freedom right."
Translation:
To massacre Jews at a Passover Seder is not a religious offense as long as the
survivors can recite kaddish
for the dead victims.
Morton A. Klein, National President of the ZOA (Zionist Organization of America) made this critique: "Once
again, the State Department is whitewashing the Palestinian Authority, in order
to soften the PA's image so as to facilitate the creation of a Palestinian Arab
state, despite . . . the PA's record of persecuting Christians and abusing
Jewish holy sites demonstrates that a Palestinian Arab state would be a
repressive, intolerant regime whose policies would be the opposite of
everything America stands for."
* * * * * * *
Saudi Arabia's most
eminent designer of haute couture produced a creation to honor the PLO,
displayed at a fashion show in Beirut.
The model sported a regulation
jihad-scarf draped around her head -- but not over her face -- and a full-
length gown decorated with large splashes of (Jewish) blood and a border of
tanks.
Copies may be showing up
at chic parties in London, Paris, and Ann Arbor, Michigan.
END