The 90`s

"In Perspective" 

Note: Written by Howard Barbanel, Written June 10th, 1994

On June 5th, appropriately enough, the anniversary of 1967's Six Day War, The New York Times magazine ran an article on the effects of smoking the dried venom of Bufo alvarius, or the Colorado River toad.  In The Time article, the author, Larry Gallagher, describes the experience as one in which the mind is completely disconnected from the body, consciousness itself is unsuspended and all sense of self, space, time and reason are quite literally blown-away for a mind-numbing number of minutes.

A frog, when kissed by a beautiful princess, so the fairy tale goes, will turn magically into a prince.  Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you if you smoke enough toad or have kissed enough frogs. If you were to kiss the Colorado River toad, you would probably die from the venom coating its body.  Likewise, the smooching of Yasir Arafat and Hafez Asad by Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres can only be attributed to some blinding mind-altering substance -- the effects are causing a communal loss of consciousness, a vacuousness and detachment from reality so severe that we as a people are running around kissing poisonous frogs in the hope they’ll turn into dashing, romantic princes and rescue us from the doldrums of having to be vigilant about our security. 

Among the great fairy tales of the month are the proposed magic transformation of the remaining billions from the hard-fought $10 billion loan guarantee package, which was to be spent on Soviet immigrants.  Now, according to a member of the House Banking Committee, Israel wants to divert this money from immigration and absorption to compensation for Golan residents when they are forced to leave their homes and farms.  This is an injustice to the immigrants, who still need massive help and a fraud on both the American taxpayer and American Jewry.

More tales from the Brothers Grimm?  The Rabin government is looking for five to eight billion to pay for high-tech monitoring devices for the Golan.  While Israel releases 2,000 Palestinian prisoners (with another 3,000 to go) the government now taps the phones of top Jewish leaders on the golan and in Judea and Samaria.  While terrorists are released, 50 Jews are killed and plenty more wounded in what the government candidly admits is an indefinite wave of terror.

Everything Midas touched turned to gold.  Leprechauns have their pots of gold. The PLO has successfully conned the world into believing it is broke and so will receive $2.4 billion over the next two years (a half billion from you and me, via Uncle Sam) to help run the new autonomy.  No one wants to hear about the eight to 10 billion dollars in assets owned by the PLO, or the $1.5 to $2 billion in annual income that throws off, or that the PLO is so flush it's hired Morgan Stanley to run its portfolio. Stories of PLO poverty are as mendacious as those yarns spun by subway beggars, many of whom net more cash daily than you or I. 

Sleeping beauty of humpty dumpty?  Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin has a plan to carve-up Jerusalem into autonomous zones, with big parts going to the Arabs -- and hey, don't forget, Jerusalem Arabs get to vote in Palestinian elections. 

Green eggs and Ham: virtually every Israeli public opinion poll shows clear opposition to a Golan pull-out and that most Israelis are far more cynical about the prospects for peace than their leaders are.  On Charlie Rose, Peres said that "it's not important what the people think, it's only important what the leaders think" and in the papers he added, "the government needs to do the right thing, even if its not popular."

Reality check:  Those of us who aren't infatuated with frogs, dreams of princes, utopia or the Nobel Prize know that these guys are putting all the chips on one number on the roulette wheel hoping for a jackpot.  Hey, gambling to excess is a disease. What they don't realize is tht when you have the chips already -- independence and secure borders -- you've got the big payoff, and although far less glamorous, is the stuff longevity is made of.

We need to tell our own tales to our elected representatives -- sober tales about no U.S. troops on the Golan, no air to the PLO, no more diverted to pay for a Golan pull-out.  This stuff sound familiar? Some of what we're saying is as old as Ezekiel's bones. Begin kept the faith for 30 years in opposition. Margaret Thatcher, a real princess in my book, says that "of course it’s the same old story.  Truth usually is the same old story."