The 90`s

And the death toll continues to rise

Note: Written by Howard Barbanel, Published Week of February 14 - February 20th, 1995

"There's a new play running Off-Broadway by the prolific playwright Bruce Jay Friedmand called Have You Heard from Any Jews Lately?  This show is set in a not-too-distant future when Israel has ceased to exist, having been transplanted to Miami Beach. Israel's former leaders, like those of the now-defunct South Vietname, are ensconced in Collins Avenue hotels: Shamir is at the Fontain-bleau Hilton, Yitzhak Rabin is at the Doral and Arik Sharon gets Isaac Bashevis Singer's old condo.  The two main characters also believe they're the last two Jews left in America. Clear metaphors for the crises being faced by the Jewish people today.

On Sunday, Jan. 22, Anwar Sakr, 25, of Gaza City and Salah Mohammed, 27, from the Gaza town of Rafah managed to saunter into central Israel - to the Beit Lid junction East of Netanya and blow themselves and 20 Jews to smithereens.  More than 60 others were wounded and we're not talking about scratches treatable with Band-Aids and Bactine. Most of the dead were young male and female soldiers not yet 21. 

On the streets of Gaza thousands danced and pranced exultantly while paying their "respects" to the "martyrs" relatives.  Typical of the well-wishers was one leader who said "the Islamic movement gives its condolences to the hero of the attack that led to the killing of 20 pigs and the injuring of 60 monkeys."  Some of the other Gaza homeboys had similar things to say: "When I saw the flesh and blood of the Jews, I was happy," said Anwar Sukar's brother Abdel. Another said, "we're dead now. We live when the pieces of our bodies are collected in Tel Aviv."  Hit sons in Gaza have lyrics like "we are Palestinian Muslims fighting the Jewish army" and have titles like Inflicting Misery on the Sons of Zion." 

Islamic Jihad, responsible for this incident, and Hamas, responsible for many of the other operate openly and freely in Gaza.  No efforts are made on the part of Arafat's people to curtail what goes on there. The PLO, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have a deal going whereby there will be no killing in Gaza or near it, only in the heart of Israel, so it won't reflect too poorly on the Palestinian Authority, this according to Benjamin Netanyahu.  The PLO-controlled press praises these attacks to the hilt as does PLO Radio and TV. The government chooses to ignore it.  

Morton Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America, said to me this week, "I get it - the PLO, the Palestinians want Israel dead."  Thomas Friedman, writing in The Times on Jan. 29th, asserts that "the Israeli doves are realizing that maybe these Palestinians don't just have a problem with the 'occupation,' maybe their problem is with Jews in Israel."

Spencer Tracy in Inherit the Wind said that "fanaticism and ignorance are forever busy and constantly needs feeding."  The leftwing, responding to the latest deaths, has been advocating a Palestinian State - full independence and separation now.  Tinker Bell's magic wand. Barbara Eden's blink, Elizabeth Montgomery's nose-wiggle. Presto-chango, if we totally capitulate, they'll love us and leave us alone.  

In the somewhat sophomoric new film Miami Rhapsody, Sarah Jessica Parker has one really trenchant observation.  Arguing with her screen fiancee Gil Bellows about the need for great amounts of compromise in marriage, Parker declares that "not everyone compromises.  Arabs. Arabs and Republicans don't compromise."

The Israeli government has agreed to recognize Palestinian passports issued by the PLO.  Guess who's going to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta? Palestine. In last December "Palestine" was declared the 195th member of the International Olympic Committee. 

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has removed three previously-sacred sites from the mandatory itineraries for foreign leaders visiting Israel.  They are, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and Memorial, Masada and the Golan Heights. No more foisting suffering and security on the foreigners. 

A little known fact about the Israeli government's retreat from Efrat in late December:  Remember all those local Arabs demonstrating about the supposed seizure of their land? It seems that they were organized in a series of "home meetings" throughout December by guess who?  The PLO? Hamas? The previously peaceful villagers of Al Hadar were turned-out by the Israeli Jews of Hebron Solidarity Committee - a Peace Now, the Quakers and the Menonite Church. In the demonstrations against Efrat on Dec. 30 there were 1,000 protesting.  Arm-in-arm were the villagers, the PLO, Hamas and Peace Now. It was the first time since 1967 that Peace Now had organized and enlisted Arabs in anti-settlement protests. That the people of Efrat legally purchased the land they want to build on is of no importance.  The Efrat City Council has filed criminal complaints against Peace Now for incitement of Palestinian Arabs in an area under military rule. 

Yasser Arafat's is heading the new Palestinian Anti-Settlement Committee.  They've been demonstrating against Jewish construction sites in the territories and have been illegally planting olive trees on Jewish and state-owned land in attempts to seize it. 

The government has abandoned even the communities around Jerusalem - capitulating to Arab demands to cease or curtail Jewish construction in the various "ring communities."  Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in the Jan. 26 issue of The Times said, "there is no such thing as 'Greater Jerusalem," it is literary work not a political term."

Lastly, in Cairo on Feb 2., Rabin and Peres, meeting Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, King Hussein and Yasser Arafat subjected themselves to withering criticism and pressure for no reason whatsoever.  The "peaceful" Arabs used this "summit" as an opportunity to pressure Israel to totally abandon Jewish construction and housing in the territories, withdraw Israeli forces and settlers from the area, agree to Palestinian statehood and acquiesce to Egypt's demands that Israel eliminate her nuclear defense capablities.  Appeasement breeds contempt - as Israel concedes ever more, Egypt becomes more hostile and the Palestinian territories kill more Jews. The death toll is now 122 since the signing go the Oslo Accords, far greater and far worse than anything we endured or imagines even at the height of the intifada.