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

 
Jewish Press Column

Here is my column in this week's Jewish Press:

It has become trendy to demonize Israel, which is being bashed on college campuses, threatened with sanctions by the United Nations, and condemned as a pariah at The Hague.

Among American Jews, there are different views on the Iraq war, on Ariel Sharon’s unilateral withdrawal plan, and on the presidential election.

There is a strong consensus, however, that Israel has a right to defend itself, that the fence is a legitimate and legal endeavor, and that the international community’s effort to isolate Israel is an outrage.

The anti-Israel hysteria continues unabated, but nobody even mentions the idea of a mass rally supporting Israel and condemning the UN, The Hague and the European Union.

For 18 months after the Palestinians launched their terror war against Israel in September 2000, no major rally was organized. In the April 6, 2001 issue of The Jewish Week, Gary Rosenblatt lamented:

“There has yet to be a major, coordinated effort to galvanize the grassroots. There has been no national event to channel American Jewry's love of and support for Israel - and distress over the Palestinian-orchestrated violence - into a powerful statement of activism…

“Enough is enough. As the intifada enters its seventh month and the terror attacks on Israeli civilians escalate, one wonders how much longer we have to wait before expressing our commitment to Israel and indignation over the intifada in a dramatic and effective way. Not only is it vital to give vent to our feelings and draw together as a community, we need to show the administration in Washington and the media around the country that Americans Jews are united in their support for Israel.”

Only after another year, after hundreds more Israelis were murdered, and after 3000 Americans were murdered on 9/11, did the Jewish establishment organize a rally, in Washington on April 15, 2002. The rally was mobilized on little more than a week's notice; nevertheless, on a weekday, a couple of hundred thousand Jewish Americans came to the Capitol from across the country.

The 2002 rally occurred when Palestinian terror was at its peak and when the U.S. was relentlessly bombing Afghanistan yet President Bush was vocally demanding an immediate IDF pullout from Palestinian towns. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz gave a rambling speech that spoke of a need for Israeli concessions and focused on Palestinian suffering. The crowd didn't personally heckle Wolfowitz, but firmly stated its position: “No more Arafat” and “No double standard.” Bush backed off his demand, and two months later declared that Yasser Arafat is not a partner for peace.

Almost another year and a half has since passed and a lot has happened:

Prime Minister Sharon expressed support for the formation of a Palestinian state, decided to build a fence, and was reelected in a landslide. Two Palestinian prime ministers were appointed. Israel's cabinet decided to remove Arafat, but never implemented the decision. The road map came and went. The Geneva Accord briefly emboldened the left. Sharon called for unilateral withdrawal. Saddam Hussein was deposed. Hamas leaders Ahmed Yassin and Abdul Aziz Rantisi were liquidated.

Terror attacks declined, but Jews continue to be murdered, including Goldie and Shmuel Taubenfeld of New Square; Dr. David and Naava Applebaum of Jerusalem; Chezi Goldberg of Betar Illit; and Tali, Hila, Hadar, Roni and Merav Chatuel (and Tali and Dovid Chatuel's unborn son) of Gush Katif. The Hague ruled, 14-1, that the fence is illegal. The UN voted 150-6 to demand that Israel tear down the fence and pay reparations to Palestinians. All 25 members of the European Union supported the resolution.

Rabbi Avi Weiss and others have organized small grass roots protests, but even as numerous “anti-war” rallies have been organized, all of which contain shockingly anti-Israel posters and invective, no counter-rally has been planned.

Enough is enough. As the Palestinian terror campaign is about to enter its fifth year and the world's animus toward Israel becomes more ominous, one wonders how much longer we have to wait before expressing our commitment to Israel and indignation over the European reversion to hatred of Jews and Israel.

It's time for another mass rally, this time at, and in protest of, the UN. Unfortunately, the Jewish establishment leadership is apparently too busy engaging in self-gratifying meetings with political hacks at party conventions.

* * *

The New York Times’ report that President Bush now accepts some growth in the major settlement blocs received significant attention. The Times published an editorial criticizing Bush for “driving American credibility as a Middle East peacemaker to a new low” and “sliding from dangerous passivity to outright obstruction” in the pursuit of Middle East peace. The Jewish Press saw the reported move as part of Bush’s strategy of pressuring Palestinians.

The purported policy shift is mostly hype and of little substance. While the U.S. has always opposed settlement construction, it has generally tolerated it in moderation. Thus, when Prime Ministers Begin and Shamir built new settlements deep in Judea and Samaria, they faced strong condemnation from Presidents Carter and Bush, but there was much less reaction from President Clinton to settlement expansion in the major blocs by Prime Ministers Rabin, Barak, and even Netanyahu. Indeed, the Oslo Accords did not include restrictions on Jewish construction in Judea, Samaria or Gaza.

The current Bush Administration has repeatedly called for a total ban on settlement growth. In Bush’s June 24, 2002 speech, when he stated that Yasser Arafat is not a peace partner, he also said “Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories must stop.”

However, for several years there has been a tacit understanding between the White House and Israel that “natural growth” would be tolerated as long as no new settlements are constructed and new housing units in existing settlements are built within the existing construction line in those towns. In the large majority of settlements, there has been little construction over the last few years and even that construction generally relates to housing tenders issued before Sharon became prime minister.

The settlement blocs in which Bush is now accepting growth collectively comprise only about 5 percent of Judea and Samaria. Indeed, almost all of the new homes approved last week to much international anger are in just three of the largest towns: Betar Illit, Maa’leh Adumim and Ariel. According to Maariv, the construction in Ariel may be objectionable to Bush because it is further from the Green Line.

When Sharon and Bush met in April, Israel formally agreed not to expand existing settlements to undeveloped areas and that a U.S.-Israeli team will review aerial photographs to jointly define the construction line of each settlement.

Countering the notion that a policy shift favorable to the interests of the Israeli right has occurred, last week on Israel Radio, longtime Meretz leader Yossi Sarid criticized Israel’s agreement to formally involve the United States in setting settlement policy, arguing that the move is an unprecedented subjugation of Israel’s sovereignty to a foreign country.

* * *

A disproportionate number of religious Israelis volunteer for IDF combat units. While most are national-religious, new data from Israel's Defense Ministry shows a 50 percent rise in the number of charedi draftees in the last year. Maariv reports that the charedi Nachal Battalion now includes several platoons of soldiers carrying out combat missions in Judea and Samaria.

Yet even as charedi men who don't serve in the army are criticized for their failure to defend Israel, religious soldiers who risk their lines in dangerous units are criticized for being disloyal to the State.

A few weeks ago in The Jerusalem Report, Hirsch Goodman wrote: “Some 30 percent of the officers’ corps of the ground forces and a similar number of front-line soldiers are either from the settlements or have a national religious background, and have grown up in the ideological bubble of Greater Israel…

“Civil war is what we are faced with, and better for all of us to recognize the danger before it becomes a reality. If civil war breaks out, the Israeli army will find itself fighting its own elite troops, some of the best-trained officers and men in the world, armed with ideology versus confusion.”

Two weeks ago in the Forward, Leonard Fein echoed Goodman’s argument, writing: “It is [the settlers], together with their allies in the national religious movement, who today provide some 30% of the officers’ corps of Israel's ground forces and 30% of Israel's front-line troops.”

The accusation that all religious soldiers will disobey government orders is baseless. The Yesha Council has rejected the idea that soldiers should refuse orders. Goodman’s defamation of young men who risk (and too often sacrifice) their lives for his security is especially disgraceful.
posted on 9/01/2004