The 90`s

Musings, Ruminations and Observations

Note: Written by Howard Barbanel, Published Week of February 9th - February 15th, 1994

My favorite editor, Andrew Polic, (who is actually a pretty nice guy, but don't let that get around too much, he'll think I'm getting soft) cut-out a nice chunk of my last column, which, takes me comments and assertions about the Palestinian Arabs out-of-perspective.  So, here are the deleted portions:

I wrote about equating the reestablishment of the state of Israel with the Reconquista of Spain by the Spanish.  Here are the missing parts; "Much as the Spaniards of old were driven out by the invading Moors, so, too were Jewish hopes dashed in the middle of the seventh century by the Moslem Conquest and their successor regimes - but no matter who controlled the area, no one was able to eradicate the Jewish presence from the land.  There are seven some Galilean villages that survived intact from Second Temples times to this very day. We must stress again and again that we are not the alien presence in the land."

"Nineteenth Century accounts, too numerous to mention, clearly describe a Palestine that was virtually devoid of habitation and vegetation.   The majority of Palestinian Arabs are a pastiche of peoples, fused together from the flotsam and jetsam of the defunct Ottoman Empire and other Arabs who streamed into the country as a result of Jewish redevelopment and its concurrent creation of economic opportunity, much as Mexicans stream across the Rio Grande today.  Some others were brought in by the Ottomans - notably from the Caucasus region and from Egypt in an attempt to colonize Palestine."

The state of Palestine at the turn of the century was exactly as described in the Torah and the prophets - striking in its desolation and devastation, just as the holy writings said it would be without her people - the Jewish people.  Likewise, the re-blooming of the land is also as Scripture foretells along with the in-gathering of the Jewish people from "the four corners of the earth."

The gist of my last column was that we are the indigenous people of Israel.  The current peace process makes me nostalgic for the Labor party of Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan.  Meir was emphatic that there was no such thing as a "Palestinian people" and that they were a no-people from no-place.  Right-wing Labor Party Knesset Member Ra'anan Cohen said in The Jerusalem Report that his party "has been hijacked by history and by the doves" and that "the country as a whole seems to have gone crazy."

Strange Intersections

There is a corner in downtown Ramat Gun (the number two municipality in the "Big Orange" Greater Tel Aviv metroplex) where Ben Gurion Avenue and Jabolinsky Street meet,  These are two men who were at loggerheads over the destiny of the Jewish people for decades. Ben Gurion represented unrepentant agrarian-nased labor socialism, Havlagah (restraint) regarding retaliation against Arab terror and accommodation with the British occupiers.

Jabotinsky represented free-market urbanized capitalism with swift and harsh retaliation against Arab terror and independence from the British yesterday, not tomrrow.

That intersection is more than a fluke and more than a metaphor.  Today's peace and appeasement madness among many of the Israeli masses has been made possible by a synthesis of many Laborite security/territorial/secular ideologies and those of capitalism and urbanization represented by the Likud.  In fact, it is a perverse reality that the booming Israeli economy, made possible by the foundation left by 15 years of Likud economic reforms has turned many an Israeli into Gordon Gecko (from the movie Wall Street.)

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange had $43 billion in turnover in 1993, up 55 percent over 1992.  More than 1,140 issues were traded, up from 777 in 1992. Some share prices were up by 1,400 percent.  Real Estate stocks were up 60 percent and assessed real estate values were up 60 percent and assessed real estate values were up 20 percent.  Israel is one of the only nations without a capital gains tax on profits derived from the stock market.

A new breed of Israeli has been born who is probably belongs to neither Labor or Likud.  This can best be seen by a story a friend of mine relates. While visiting Israel last month, meeting with bankers in Tel Aviv, the subject of the Golan came up.  The bankers all said, to the amazement of their visitor, "don't worry, if Rabin gives-back the Golan the stock market will go up by 50 percent." This friend of mine observes that this new Israeli believes in defense by means of a wall of stock certificates.  So protected does this new Israeli feel ensconced in his office towers and in front of his computer screens that he often can't see the forest for the trees.

This new Israeli is a Likudnik in economic terms (you can't sell socialism to him) but a Laborite on security/territorial issues.  It's no wonder leaders of both parties are mystified.

The Man From Haagen Dazs

Reuben Mattus passed away this week.  Known primarily as the creative genius behind Haagen Dazs ice cream, it is lesser-know that for decades now he was a principle benefactor for many, many right-of-center Jewish and Zionist organizations.  A great number of groups came to depend on Mattus' generosity for significant percentages of their budgets. It is fair to say that through his charitable proclivities Reuben Mattus had a big impact on Israel and the Jewish world today.  He was the Reichmann of ice cream, his help was greatly appreciated and he will be sorely missed. 

The Funny Papers

The New York Jewish Week has been running a spate of articles and columns lately that have been overtly disparaging to the Likud.  Among them was Ina Friedman's piece on Jan. 14 pretending and prognosticating the demise of the Likud (a tad premature given our stunning election victories in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Beersheva and Eilat) and James D. Besser's column the next week decrying the penchant of Likud Members of Knesset visiting with their friends on Capitol Hill and lobbying American and Jewish public opinion against the Rabin-Arafat pact.  Besser further grouses (in the name of unnamed "Israeli officials") about Likud's successful fund raising in this country "that will be used in the effort to topple the Rabin government."

Besser and The Jewish Week both show no context and are disingenous because that fail to mention Shimon Peres' weekly jaunts to Washington while opposition leader and his efforts to topple the Shamir government and further fails to make mention of Labor's successful fund raising here both in the past and today which equals or exceeds that raised by the Likud people. 

It's All in the Numbers

It's what I've been saying all along, finally confirmed by official Israeli statistics: More Jews have died in tragic accidents in Israel than have died in all of Israel's war.  There were 17,700 soldiers who have fallen in the line of duty and 20,000 killed on-the-roads in traffic accidents. By the way, still, fewer Jews have died in all of Israel's wars than died in one day at Auschwitz.

 Now Playing

Finally, here is a shameless plug, the kind you'd see from a guest on Late Night with David Letterman: I'm going to be on TV on Sunday, Feb. 13, hosting a special program about Judea and Samaria.  In Manhattan, I'll be on Zev Brenner's Talkline Network, Channel 65  at 3:30 p.m. and again at 8 p.m. on Channel 34.  In South Florida, I'll be on JFTV at 6 p.m.

If you've always wanted to see me live, this is your chance.