The 90`s

The truth is always the same old story

Note: Written by Howard Barbanel, Published Week of July 7th - July 13th, 1994

There are a million stories in this naked "peace process" and I'm going to tell you some of them.

It was 10:15 and I was working the day watch over at Likud office when hundreds of calls came in reporting crimes against Israel and the Jewish people's future.  It was a classic 1939, just like the Chamberlain case. My name is Barbanel and I carry a badge, actually a "Peace for Peace" button which is starting to look a tad quaint these days. 

In the course of an investigation I interviewed many people and asked for "just the facts, Ma'am," and so here they are, just the facts - in no particular order of importance - with some opinions thrown in to help you, the jury arrive at a verdict.

Fact: Serious discussions are taking place on Capitol Hill to divert at least half of the $10 billion in U.S. loan guarantees toward cash compensation for Golan Heights residents for leaving their homes and farms.  This is according to House Banking Committee member representative Rick Lazio (R-Long Island). The funds were originally slated to help absorb Soviet immigrants. Fact: the Israeli government has also been floating the trial balloon of a $5-8 billion grant from the U.S. to pay for sophisticated high-tech monitoring equipment on the Golan if Israel withdraws.

Fact:  According to the Al HaMishmar, Arafat's Palestinian policemen from Jericho have been wandering around the territories and Jerusalem without asking permission or checking in with anybody.  Fact: If asked, the IDF would grant permission to these folks to travel around, but only if they would apply formally. 

Fact: Leaders of the Golan Heights Settlers Council and the Council of Settlements in Judea and Samaria report that Israel's security forces have tapped the phone lines of top settler leaders and organization.

Fact: In a Johannesburg mosque, in English,  Yasser Arafat told those assembled that "the jihad will continue" and that "you have to come and fight a jihad to liberate Jerusalem."  The Random House Dictionary defines jihad as "a holy war undertaken as a sacred duty to Muslims," or "a bitter crusade." Fact: Also at the mosque, Arafat said the Cairo Accords aren’t worth the paper they're written on by comparing his agreement with Israel and one that Mohammed made and subsequently violently vitiated after just one year.  Fact: Shimon Peres believes and accepts Arafat's rationalization that a jihad can be peaceful and about peace. Fact: Faisal Husseini, the "moderate" PLO leader in East Jerusalem said recently in Arabic that "our goal is to bring about the dissolution of the Zionist entity, gradually."

Fact:  Arafat and the PLO have violated every agreement they've made with Israel since Sept. 13.  Fact: They've not condemned terrorism and they've not rescinded their covenant calling for Israel's destruction.

Fact: From the signing of the "Israel-PLO peace accord on Sept. 13 of last year until April 21st of this year, 45 Israelis have been killed in terrorist acts.  Add this to the four Israelis wounded on April 18th in an ax attack on Jerusalem bus; the two Jews killed on May 17th by Hamas in Hebron and the two soldiers killed in Gaza on May 20th.  Fact: The government calls these people "victims of peace." Both Israeli's military establishment and the government warn that terrorist attacks should be expected for the indefinite future.

Fact:  The PLO has been pleading poverty with all the tenacity of a panhandler on the subway. Tales of woe abound.  The world community pledged $2.4 billion over the next two years to help pay for the Palestinian autonomy. The U.S. is committed to a half billion with $250,000,000 this year.

Fact: Britain's National Criminal Intelligence Service, as reported in The Wall Street Journal reveals that the PLO has worldwide financial assets ranging from $8-10 billion and annual income of $1.5 - $2 billion.  The PLO owns major interests in airlines, airport duty-free shops and factories throughout the Third World and Eastern Europe. The PLO owns major interests in airlines, airport duty-free shops and factories throughout the Third World and Eastern Europe.  The PLO is a partner in Nigeria Airways, controls Air Zimbabwe and Kenya Airways and 25 percent of Nicaragua's airline. Additionally, the PLO is heavily involved in drug trafficking and still receives heavy annual subsidies from Libya and Iraq.

Fact: The PLO uses these funds for the personal enrichment of its leadership, to train terrorists and for the "struggle against the Zionists."  The funds are not used to better the conditions of their own people. Fact: The PLO has picked up the august brokerage house of Morgan Stanley to manage its assets.

Fact: The newsletter Inside Israel reports that Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin, usually the point-man for government initiatives, has a plan to return Israel to the 1949 borders and a division of Jerusalem into autonomous zones where Palestinian Arabs will control vast sections of East Jerusalem with border posts under U.N. control.

Fact: The government is moving swiftly to extend autonomy over the whole of Judea and Samaria within months.  Fact: Negotiations will commence on the return of hundreds of thousands of Arabs to the territories from homes they left in 1967.

Fact: Virtually every major Israeli public opinion poll shows 66 to 75 percent of the public is opposed to a Golan withdrawal.