A clandestine undertaking on behalf of Israel, the Jets and the Jews.

 
Four Comments on the Situation

1. The death toll from yesterday's carnage is 15. Each death is a terrible tragedy, but the murders of David Appelbaum and his daughter Naava Applebaum are the most painful. (Click here for The Jerusalem Post article.) The reasons are obvious and stating them is hopefully unnecessary, but I will do so anyway:

First, for those of us in the U.S., the Appelbaums made aliyah from Cleveland 20 years ago and live in a section of Jerusalem in which many American olim reside.

Second, David Applebaum headed the ER in Shaare Zedek Hospital and regularly attended to terror victims. (The Jerusalem Post recently featured Dr. Applebaum.)

Worst of all is that Naava Applebaum, who was 20, was to be married tonight to Chanan Sand. The wedding invitation can be viewed here. A picture of Chanan Sand and Naava Applebaum following their engagement can be seen on this webpage for Chanan's family.

2. Galei Tzahal (Israel Army Radio) is reporting that Raed Bargouti (relative of Fatah leader Marwan Bargouti), who was recently released from prison in an Israeli "confidence building gesture," has been rearrested due to involvement in the planning of yesterday's attacks.

Israel's release of hundreds of prisoners - which was not even required in the road map - was moronic. Common sense, rather than sophisticated intelligence information, was all one needed to know that these terrorists would immediately revert to terrorism. Yet Israel's leaders lacked common sense, and believed that asking the terrorists to sign a statement promising to behave in the future would suffice.

3. I believe that Prime Minister Sharon has a plan with regard to the future of Judea and Samaria. But neither he nor his government has a policy or a strategy with regard to terror. Prime Minister Sharon almost never speaks to the people in a national address. After every terrorist attack, some ministers call for Arafat's expulsion, while others are against expelling him. Why doesn't the government simply sit down and discuss and debate once and for all what to do with him? Similarly, the government cannot decide whether to invade Gaza, or not to invade Gaza. So it does not invade Gaza "at this time," but reserves the option of doing so later. It apparently has finally decided to target the Hamas leadership, but with small bombs, so the missile attacks are usually unsuccessful.

Sharon has gone from not giving a damn what anyone thought, to needing U.S. approval for every step taken by Israel. U.S. support is indeed important, but Israel's failure to do everything possible to protect its civilians is shameful. For example, if killing Hamas leaders ultimately protects Israelis, why did Israel begin targeting them only recently?

Hamas is now threatening to kill another Israeli cabinet minister. (Rechavim Zeevi was murdered by the PFLP in 2001.) With the help of G-d and the Israeli Defense Forces, hopefully Hamas and the other terrorist groups will not succeed. But if G-d forbid they do, such an event may finally cause the government to unleash the abilities of the IDF and IAF on Israel's enemies.

It should not have to come to that, or to a "mega-attack" on civilians, for the government to treat Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah as the U.S. treats al Qaeda. Indeed, it should not have come to the events of today, when a young woman was buried on what was to be her wedding day.

4. Today's Times states that Cafe Hillel "is in the so-called German Colony, a neighborhood known as the city's most dovish, secular area." Obviously James Bennett and Greg Myre missed the fact that not only are many of the German Colony's residents observant, but that almost all of the cafes and restaurants (including Cafe Hillel) are kosher.
posted on 9/10/2003