A
TIME TO SPEAK
Vol. VI:2 (No. 62)
February 2006 -- Shevet-Adar 5766
FORWARD ALONG CROOKED
PATHS
Whose paths are crooked,
And who are devious in their ways . . .
-- Proverbs 2:15
There is no judgment in their goings,
They have made their paths crooked.
Whoever treads on them does not know
peace.
-- Isaiah 59:8
The Kadima [Forward] Party
now ruling Israel came into being by grabbing seats in the Knesset that the
voters had given to other parties with different platforms and different
principles. [See Issue No. 61]. A gang that usurped power by so crooked a
maneuver is not likely thereafter to go straight. Indeed, its declared
intentions if carried out will drive or push or lure Israel down crooked paths
that can lead only to an abyss.
Foremost
among the Kadimites are:
1] Ehud Olmert --
He was elected to the Knesset as No. 34 on the Likud Party List, and by a
political fluke became Acting Prime Minister of Israel, in which post he acts
by his own recently proclaimed credo: "We
are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of
winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies'.
He is too tired to mount
any effective response much less deterrence when the terrorist heirs to the
abandoned Gaza Strip rain missiles and rockets at Israeli towns almost daily.
But he has a sudden access of energy when it comes to physical as well as
verbal violence against loyal and faithful Israelis who are dedicated to the
redemption of the Land of Israel.
2] Shimon Peres --
He has never won an election but has been Prime Minister three times and
Foreign Minister three times. He created the Crooked Path of the Oslo Accords
that have inflicted more damage on Israel than all its enemies together have
managed to do. [See Issue No. 49]
3] Tzippi Livni --
She was the Minister of Justice who classified opposition to the Gaza Expulsion
plan as "a threat to democracy" and ruled that thirteen-year-old
girls who peacefully protested the plan must be held in prison for
"criminal ideology". [Issues Nos. 50, 55]
She is now also Minister
of Foreign Affairs, in which role she told the world that Israel's right to
exist depends on satisfying the demands of its foreign critics. At a
prestigious conference on public affairs she sounded the stirring cry "Yes, Yes, Yes to a Palestinian State!"
4] Meir Sheetrit --
When he was a Likud member of the Knesset he refused to vote against the Oslo
Accords. He now holds several Kadima portfolios, among them Minister of
Education. He approach to education was displayed during a visit to a Junior
High School for Girls, where a school official observed Sheetrit's conduct
toward the students: "He
interrupted them, yelled a lot, and mocked them again and again."
Some of these girls had seen or experienced
the brutality inflicted on the peaceful protestors at the demolition of Amona
[see below]. To them the Minister of Education declared: "Those who
lived in the illegal Amona are the evil ones, which means that you are the evil
ones."
5] Shaul Mofaz --
He was formerly Chief-of-Staff of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], and
thereafter was appointed Minister of Defense in the Likud government. He
announced that unlike some members of Likud he would be loyal to the party and
not switch over to Kadima and honored his pledge for a couple of days before
hid switch.
General Mofaz was a moving
figure in the Gaza Retreat-Expulsion, and after it was perpetrated he fulfilled
his responsibility for security on the Gaza frontier by obeying the
anti-security orders literally shrieked at him by US Secretary of State
Condoleeza Rice. He assured the Knesset that security safeguards would be in
place, but in fact there were and are no such safeguards. When he orders a
"response" to a terror attack on Israel, it is one designed to do
minimal if any damage to the terrorists.
He has announced a
long-range principle for Israel's future: If the PA/Hamas terrorist regime does
not recognize Israel and negotiate peace with it, then Israel will have no
choice but unilateral surrender of much of the redeemed historic Land of Israel
and forced removal of its Jewish population.
Gideon Ezra -- He is Minister of
Internal Security (a post more simply called Minister of Police). He was in
charge of the action at Amona described below.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The notions that produced
the Gaza Retreat-Expulsion still prevail in policymaking:
1] encourage Israel's
terrorist enemies to believe they had won a victory and more terrorism would
bring them more victories;
2] degrade Israel's
standing and repute as a staunch nation, bringing not international approval
but invigorated international contempt and demands;
3] expose the nation and
its residents to constant bombardment of missiles and assorted styles of
terrorist attacks when they walk in the street or ride on the roads;
4] abandon the 10,000
refugees they tore from their homes and communities and livelihoods, with
callousness and cruelty revealed in an investigation and report by the State
Comptroller;
5] render a nation that
does not share Acting Prime Minister Olmert's weary defeatism without
confidence in its government or the political system that produced it.
Crooked
paths exact tolls described in "Betrayal of A Nation," by Yehuda Poch, IsraelInsider.com, 9 February 2006:
This past Friday, February
3, a 7-month-old baby was seriously injured when a Kassam rocket hit his home
in Kibbutz Karmiya. His mother, father,
and another relative, were also injured.
Kassam rocket attacks are
hardly news in Israel anymore. There have been thousands of them in the past
two years. Five people have been killed in such attacks in the past 18 months,
and dozens more injured. Tens of thousands of people live in constant fear and
tension, leading to additional health problems, reduction in educational
performance, missed work hours, and incredible strain on social services in the
communities near the Gaza Strip.
On January 19, I attended
the Bar Mitzvah of an Ethiopian immigrant boy in Sderot. His 2-year-old sister
and 4-year-old cousin were killed 15 months earlier when a Kassam rocket landed
in their grandmother's yard where they
were playing.
This boy's father is an
employee of the City of Sderot, where he serves as a liaison with the Ethiopian
community. His job includes calming the fears of his community every time a
rocket hits the city. He tells them it will be okay, that the rockets are not
very accurate and don't do a lot of damage.
But after his own baby
daughter was killed in one such attack, how can he continue to even mouth these
words? He couldn't even begin to think of what to say. And he couldn't even
bring himself to think about planning for his oldest son's Bar Mitzvah. It took
the work of the One Family Fund a charitable organization helping victims of
terrorism -- to make the Bar Mitzvah happen.
At the Bar Mitzvah, I sat
next to the Director of the National Insurance Institute branch in Sderot. He
is a jovial man with an easy smile and a reassuring presence. He told me that
his office's workload has more than tripled since Kassam rockets started
raining down on his city. The local social services department has seen more
than a five-fold increase in requests for assistance. There aren't enough
social workers in the city to deal with the increased workload. Schools are
seeing an across-the-board reduction in
grades and performance.
[….] The family in Karmiya
whose 7-month-old son was hurt last weekend used to live in a community in the
Gaza Strip. They were forced out of their homes by the government in August.
Since then, they have been living in a poorly built and unprotected temporary
home that was completely destroyed by a small missile that scored an almost
direct hit.
They were among 53 such
families living in Karmiya, all of whom left the Kibbutz immediately after the
missile strike. 'You cannot blame them,' the Kibbutz secretary told the media.
'In recent weeks the rocket attacks have come closer and closer, people are
worried and scared, the children are suffering, people are scared to leave
their homes,' she said.
The secretary also said
she is fed up. All in all there are 500 people living on the kibbutz --
including the Gaza evacuees, she said, and a total of only seven security
rooms. 'We are helpless, I have received no response to my requests to beef up
and enhance security, the children are scared, we haven't received a response
from anyone,' she said. 'It is about time the government dealt with the
situation, a solution must be found for our kibbutz -- evacuees or veteran
kibbutz members, we are all one family
and need to feel secure,' she said.
But this is not just about
Kibbutz Karmiya, or even Sderot. Similar missile attacks are now being launched
at Ashkelon, and at various kibbutzim and moshavim that lie along the boundary
with the Gaza Strip. One such attack claimed the life of Dana Galkowicz in
Moshav Netiv Ha'asara. Dana was 22, and was engaged. She was killed while
sitting on the porch of her fiance's home.
The Israeli government,
under the leadership of first Ariel Sharon and now Ehud Olmert, and with Shaul
Mofaz as defense minister, has completely and utterly failed in its
responsibility to protect and defend its citizens against armed attacks. In the
five years since
Their response has been a
withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, in the hope that the attacks would stop.
Instead, more than 300 Kassams have been launched since the withdrawal, with no
let up in sight.
But it is worse than that.
Every person living in
The reason we are here,
and why we keep coming, is that for the Jewish nation as a whole -- throughout
history --
These are powerful ideas
that demand a powerful loyalty. That loyalty is not lacking on the part of the
people of
Betraying such powerful
ideas is immensely dangerous. Babies are being killed and injured. Young boys
cannot have a proper Bar Mitzvah. Social service networks for whole cities are
collapsing, and tens of thousands of people feel threatened and unsafe. But the
danger of such betrayal lies in that it threatens not only an entire nation,
but also an entire history.
It is dangerous because in
order to betray such powerful ideas and such powerful loyalty, the betrayers
need to be powerful as well. And such power in the hands of people with such
destructive intentions is never safe.
* * * * * * * * * * *
*
A regime that does not
bestir itself against terrorists committed to the destruction of Israel finds
one foe that inspires it to fierce action: Those Israelis who cling to their
historical convictions and traditions and way of life, and love the Land of
Israel too deeply to cast it away like a chip in a poker game.
The perpetrators of the
Oslo Accords were set on breaking these Jewish hearts and crushing this Jewish
spirit. The Jewish refugees from Gaza are despised for their Jewish hearts and
spirits. For a while some Osloids and Disengageniks masked their motives with
pseudo-strategic excuses. At Amona the only masks were the ones worn by some
members of the regime's warriors.
Amona is a neighborhood in
Hebron, a city with an almost unbroken Israelite presence since the time of the
Patriarchs. Jews of the Hebron community built nine houses there, on land that
is legally Jewish property. The regime refused them a building permit, and
condemned Amona as "illegal". The Jews in Amona, after exhausting
appeals to the courts, agreed to abide by the regime's demands and remove their
houses and leave the land that belonged to them.
Rather than permit this quiet
resolution of the matter, Olmert and his henchmen determined on a one-sided
battle -- guaranteed to be one-sided because the Israelis who assembled at
Amona as a symbol of protest and dissent clearly had no intention of violent
resistance. Many were teen-age boys and girls.
Olmert sent against them
1] IDF troops, whose job
used to be to protect Jews from their enemies, not attack them on behalf a
political ploy.
DEBKAfile.com, 1 February
2006, poses the question:
If the [IDF] chief of
staff has thousands of troops to spare to remove nine families from their West
Bank homes, why is the army falling down on its job of protecting Israeli
villages and towns from Palestinian missile attacks from the Gaza Strip where
terrorists now run wild?
[Comment: It can also be
asked -- Why do governments year after year ignore "building without a
permit" of thousands of Arab-owned edifices in Israel?]
2] The Yassam riot squads
of the Border Police, mounted on German police horses, swinging batons and
truncheons. Many of them did not display the name-tags required by law.
What happened in that
battle is now the subject of an investigation by the Knesset. Olmert tried and failed to prevent an
investigation. He vowed it would be shut down "the day after the election".
Mofaz and Ezra will not permit soldiers or police under their control to
testify, even those who wish to do so.
But they cannot erase all
the evidence of what happened at Arnona. [For example, reports, photographs and
video films on the website www.israelreporter.com]
They cannot prevent three
members of the Knesset who were present from reporting the doings -- doings
that landed two of them in the hospital, along with more than 300 other victims
of Kadimiite-style law enforcement.
They cannot squash the
reports of witnesses who attest that the police and soldiers received orders
from their superiors to be brutal and carried them out.
A retired IDF officer was
a present at Amona and was himself injured there. His experience and testimony
as reported in Ha'Aretz, 20 February 2006:
A retired Israel Defense Forces colonel who was present at the evacuation
of nine structures in the West Bank outpost of Amona submitted a complaint
Monday alleging police brutality against protesters who clashed with security
forces.
Colonel (res.) Moti Yogev petitioned the Justice Ministry's Police
Investigations Department for an inquiry into claims that Border Policemen, without
provocation, struck young girls who asked to exit the vicinity where the
clashes were taking place.
In his petition, Yogev writes that close to 11 A.M. on the day of the
incident, an entire Border Police unit descended on a group of girls who, along
with their teacher, were pinned against the wall, 'begging [the officers] to
allow them to leave the riot area.'
'The officers began shoving them and hitting them for no reason,' Yogev
writes.
Yogev recalled how he approached an officer believed to be the commander
of a police unit and requested that the security forces cease striking the
girls and allow them to leave the scene.
[. . . . ] Yogev said that he witnessed 'horses trampling over people
lying underneath their horseshoes', a police commander who ordered his officers
to catch young protesters who were loitering peacefully and to 'just hit them'.
Yogev also recounts how police officers entered a building where girls
had locked arms. One of the girls told an officer: 'My brother, don't hit
me. I'm your sister'.
Yogev said the officer 'answered her in a Russian accent: "Shut up
you Jewish bitch" and brutally struck her' [….]
On Monday, a human rights groups representing the Yesha council of
settlements revealed that three policemen who were at Amona volunteered
information about the day's events, including the claim that police received
unequivocal instructions to 'crack open heads'.
Roni
Daniel, reporting from the scene for Channel Two television:
The policemen here are
raining blows down on the settlers one after the other. The blows are
unnecessary, they are hitting just to vent their rage, there is no need for it.
The police behavior on the roofs has to be investigated. The violence here is
unnecessary.
There are also charges
that
-- police directed foul
language and gross indecencies toward modest religious girls
-- people committing no
violence and making no resistance were repeatedly beaten and trampled and even
thrown from windows
-- police threw rocks at
youngsters on roofs to provoke them into throwing them back, and then claimed
the youngsters attacked the police
-- first-aid workers from
the Magen David Adom volunteer ambulance service were attacked and abused by
the police
Olmert compares the peaceful
protestors at Amona with the Arab terrorist murderers of Hamas. Sheetrit brands
them and their supporters "the evil ones". One of the miscreants
speaks for himself in a letter written by Yaakov Tessler, 17 years old,
addressed to the region's IDF commander:
Dear Central Commander
Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh, Peace and blessing.
I feel an obligation to
turn to you, as one who is entrusted with the values of the army and the rule
of law on the one hand, and with Jewish values and the Torah's commandments, on
the other.
I would like to address
the events that occurred during the evacuation of the nine houses in Amona.
As one who did not merit
being in Gush Katif during the evacuation there, I felt a deep solidarity with
the protest actions of the Gush Katif residents. I felt that this time, I could
express my feelings by protesting.
[. . . .]
I prepared myself for the
evacuation, with the intention of undergoing this event - the evacuation of
houses from the Land of Israel and a struggle - together with the cream of the
crop of Israeli youth, struggling for their Land and inheritance with dignity
and valor. I never dreamt or imagined that I would soon undergo such
humiliation, murderous punches and injuries (my eye was saved from permanent
damage only by miracle) by the policemen of the State of Israel, over whom you,
as the Region Commander, commanded.
I hereby declare that I
held nothing in my hand, I threw nothing, I did not fight, I did not hit and I
did not curse anyone. I sat in one of the houses with the understanding that
very soon, I would be asked to leave, in accordance with a political decision
and court order.
As I was sitting in the
house, a group of Yassam police entered and did not make any request for us to
leave. Instead, they simply started hitting us with clubs, very forcefully and
painfully, as if those sitting in front of them were criminals and murderers.
When I tried to go out,
and despite my telling the Yassamniks that I was going on my own and that I
didn't need to be dragged or hit, they struck me for no reason: They smashed my
head against the wall, kicked me in my back, threw me on the floor, and hit me
very hard with their clubs on my head, eyes and nose, to the point where I was
severely and painfully injured.
All this occurred as I was
asking them to be allowed to leave the house.
Up to this very minute,
the feelings of dread and fear pursue me, entirely shaking up my feelings
towards the law, the police, the army, the Supreme Court, and all the
government institutions.
I would be very happy if
your honor would respond to this letter, which is written from the depths of my heart.
Why, when you saw these
things happening to me and my friends (there are tens of testimonies), did you
not intervene and stop the evacuation? Why did you not tell the truth when you
were interviewed?
How could you have planned
and approved such a sensitive mission as the evacuation of parts of the Land of
Israel with orders for such terrible violence against the most idealistic
youths in Israeli society? [. . . ]
Signed with sorrow, with
thanks and blessing,
Yaakov
Tessler
Shortly after this letter
was sent, General Naveh made an abject public apology -- to King Abdullah II of
Jordan, for having suggested that his Hashemite dynasty might not reign
forevermore.
END