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Israfax
Pearl's murder, like the now almost 300 murders of Israelis since September, 2000, was entirely gratuitous. It achieved no political end--indeed, no rational demands were made. He was killed because he was a Jew, an American, and a truth-seeking journalist. (A Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, he was probing the links between al-Qaeda networks in Pakistan and the recently-foiled "shoe-bomber", Richard Reid.) Like the bombing of the Twin Towers, which also involved no negotiable demands, the act was the product of pure hatred. In the brutal videotape of the murder, Pearl is forced to "admit" that he, and his mother and father, were Jews; his throat was then slit, and he was decapitated. The Hamas and Islamic Jihad suicide-bombers, indiscriminate killers of young and old, in pizzerias, shopping centers, Bat Mitzvah celebrations, and urban thoroughfares, likewise make no "demands". Their murders, too, are "non-negotiable", the issue of sheer Jew-hatred. "Secular" Palestinian killers, from Arafat's Fatah "Tanzim" men and security police and other PLO factions also kill without quarter. For their supposed "demands"--return of all Palestinian refugees to Israel, removal of all Jewish residents of Judaea and Samaria, control of Jerusalem and the Temple site--cannot be met by Israel without committing national suicide. Extremist Arab-Muslim terror targets Jews as Jews in an insatiable hatred quenchable only by an orgy of utter destruction--of individual Jews and of the state which represents them as a people. This reveals the genocidal drive lying at its core, a drive seen clearly in the delight in wide sectors of the Arab-world over September 11. In this nihilistic nightmare vision, it is hunting season on Jews, and now Americans, everywhere. Hence the fear of an Iraqi or Iranian (or al-Qaeda) nuclear weapon--imagine if the September 11 suicide-bombers had had one. Antisemitism has, historically, been nourished by an unreasoning fear and hatred of supposedly diabolical or traitorous or lethally infectious Jews. So it was in the Persian story of how Esther and her uncle Mordechai triumphed over the hateful Haman; so it was in the dark night of the Holocaust; and so it is today, as September 11 and the murder of Daniel Pearl indicate, in parts of the Arab world. The war against terror will be long and hard, with many short-term reverses before any final, long-term victory can be claimed. For now, our hearts reach out to Daniel Pearl's pregnant wife and to all the victims' families, Israeli, American, and others. One hopes it is some consolation to note the more than symbolic meaning of Purim, of a persecuted people's triumph over hatred, oppression, and planned genocide. For today, to paraphrase a famous observation, we are all Jews. (Professor Krantz, Editor of ISRAFAX, is also Director of the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research) AT THE CROSSROADS: When Israelis Talk of a Fence, It Isn't
Only about Security Two distinct separation plans have emerged. The first, promoted by a movement called "A Fence for Life," is wholly security-focused. "A fence isn't a political solution," says Ilan Tzion,...the group's founder. "Its only purpose is to prevent terrorism. We don't speak about uprooting settlements..." ...But...settler leaders oppose the plan, arguing that what begins as a security fence will ultimately become a political border. That is precisely the goal of those advocating the second...version of separation--Israeli withdrawal behind a closely guarded fence. In that scenario, Israel would uproot dozens of the 150 settlements and allow Palestinians to form a state--essentially a unilateral imposition of Ehud Barak's offer at Camp David...minus the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem... Separation is not a plan; it is an act of despair, acknowledgment that...the conflict can only be managed, not solved...The first intifada of the late 1980s disabused the Israeli mainstream of the absurd notion that Israel could dominate another people and still remain a worthy Jewish state. The second intifada has discredited the equally absurd notion that Israel could import tens of thousands of PLO terrorists into the territories, outfit them with police uniforms and turn them into allies against terrorism... But now I wonder whether separation wouldn't be just one more reckless Israeli initiative. Withdrawal...would convince the Arab world that more violence would yield more Israeli concessions...just as Israel's flight from Lebanon two years ago helped convince the Palestinian leadership to adopt the "Hezbollah option"... Even after withdrawal, Israel would remain in control of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in greater Jerusalem...And separation...doesn't address the Jewish state's demographic crisis: One million Arab Israelis...are full-fledged citizens... For now, separation isn't likely to appear on the Israeli government's agenda. Opposition to unilateral withdrawal is one of the few ideological points that binds the strange coalition of Ariel Sharon and Shimon Peres. P.M. Sharon...opposes separation as untenable. F.M. Peres opposes separation as a negation of his dream of a negotiated peace...Still, for all its resistance to separation, the Sharon government has just approved a massive security program to surround greater Jerusalem with checkpoints and trenches... Lost in the debate over the fence is a sense of historical irony. Zionism...opposed the spirit of the Jewish ghetto. The purpose of the state [was] to create the basis for a new and integrated relationship with the rest of humanity. Now, advocates of a fence are proposing a self-imposed ghetto... (Washington Post, February 10, 2002) "Peace? No Chance" Back in 1993, when I began work on Righteous Victims, a revisionist history...I was cautiously optimistic...The Palestinians appeared to have given up their...objective of destroying...the Jewish state...But by the time I had completed the book, my restrained optimism had given way to grave doubts...[M]y main reason [for] pessimism...was...Yasser Arafat...In 1978-79, he failed to join the...Camp David framework...In 2000...Arafat rejected yet another historic compromise...offered by Barak...Instead, the Palestinians...launched the current...intifada [and] the idea of a territorial-political compromise seems to be a pipe dream. ...Barak...offered Arafat a...peace agreement that included Israeli withdrawal from 85-91% of the West Bank and 100% of the Gaza Strip; the uprooting of most...settlements; Palestinian sovereignty over the Arab neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem; and the establishment of a Palestinian state. As to the Temple Mount...Barak proposed Israeli-Palestinian condominium or UN security council control or "divine sovereignty" with actual Arab control. Regarding Palestinian refugees, Barak offered a token return to Israel and massive financial compensation... Arafat rejected the offer...insisting on sole Palestinian sovereignty over the Temple Mount (surely an unjust demand: after all, the Temple Mount...remains...the most important historical and religious symbol and site of the Jewish people...). ...Lately [Arafat] has begun to use the term "the Zionist army"...a throwback to the 1950s and 1960s when Arab leaders routinely spoke of "the Zionist entity" instead of saying "Israel", which...implied some form of recognition of the Jewish state and its legitimacy. [T]his question of legitimacy...is at the root of...my own "conversion"... The Palestinian leadership...deny Israel's right to exist... (I have yet to see even a peace-minded Palestinian leader, as Sari Nusseibeh seems to be...: "Zionism is a legitimate national liberation movement... And the Jews have a just claim to Palestine...")... ...[T]he real litmus test...is the fate of the refugees...if the refugees are allowed back, there will be...in the end, no Israel...If the refugees return, an unviable binational entity will emerge and...Israel will quickly cease to be a Jewish state... ...I favour an Israeli withdrawal from the territories...But [t]he Palestinians...will continue to harry Israel...Ultimately, they will force Israel to reconquer the West Bank and Gaza Strip, probably plunging the Middle East into a new, wide conflagration... Ultimately...either Palestine will become a Jewish state...or it will become an Arab state...Or it will become a nuclear wasteland, a home to neither people. (The Guardian, February 21, 2002) II. EGYPT & TURKEY Egypt's Anti-Israel Hostility [T]he officer led me...through a "living diorama"...depict[ing] Egyptian soldiers storming an Israeli bunker and laying a pontoon bridge...a sonorous-voiced announcer hailed "Egypt's lightning victory."...Kamel told me that the number of visitors...has doubled to 1,000 per day since the intifada began 17 months ago. "This museum is a way of mobilizing the new generation...to maintain the same hostile feelings toward the enemy." That won't be difficult...Egyptian hostility toward the Jewish state has never really dissipated...Egyptian newspapers vilify...P.M. Ariel Sharon as a "mass murderer" and a "terrorist." In November 2000 Egypt withdrew its ambassador...Most commercial contacts...have been cut... Ironically, the vilification campaign comes as Mubarak has renewed efforts to resolve the...conflict. After launching a peace initiative with Jordan's King Abdullah II last year, Mubarak has pressured...Yasir Arafat to arrest Islamic militants...Mubarak is increasingly concerned...that...violence could spill over into Egypt, destabilizing his regime... I got a sense of just how tense relations have become when I boarded...Air Sinai...in Tel Aviv for...Cairo. Except for a pair of European backpackers, an Italian computer salesman, a small group of American tourists, and a half-dozen Israeli businessmen, the aging Boeing 707 was empty...Meeting me at the Cairo airport, an Egyptian TV journalist suggested I hide my Israeli press credentials... "If you're coming from Israel, people assume you're a Mossad spy," she said. The Egyptian media have fueled this paranoia. Newspapers...claim...Mossad is injecting the AIDS virus into the Jaffa oranges it exports. And during the recent Cairo trial of 52 homosexuals on charges of "defiling Islam," prominent papers doctored photographs to make it look as if several of the accused [wore] Israeli military uniforms...One of the most talked-about spectacles...is the show trial of Sherif al-Filali, 35, an engineer accused...of selling military secrets to the Mossad...Al-Filali was found innocent last June at his first trial, but Mubarak refused to accept the verdict... Indeed, it's hard to find a public figure or organization that supports constructive dialogue with Israel. After some looking, however, I did come across one, the Cairo Peace Society...Headed by Egypt's former ambassador to the Soviet Union, it boasts a total membership of five people. (New Republic, Feb. 18, 2002) Don't Call Them Arabs: Ramadan in Istanbul Is that unfair when it comes to Turkey--a Muslim nation of 66 million?...Turkey is a member of NATO; yes, Turkey was with us in the Gulf War; okay, we couldn't have done what we've done in Iraq...without the use of her air base at Incirlik. All that speaks well...for the mighty Turkish military that keeps the Turkish government on the secular path...But what...about the attitudes...of ordinary Turks?... After Sept. 11 I...couldn't find a single report of Turks dancing in streets when the World Trade Towers came crashing down... [Were Turks] too afraid of their own government to express their hatred of us openly...? I decided to subject Turkey to my own test...I...flew to Istanbul...during Ramadan... [T]he Turkish response to the decline of Islamic civilization...was the polar opposite of the Arabic [response]...[T]he Turks decided that Western infidels were not their main problem, and that the decadence, corruption, and backwardness of their own society was... Their goal was to cast their lot with the West...without losing their Muslim identity... Still, I was nervous, entering my first mosque...because it was Friday...All over the Muslim world, that's the time when infidels are least welcome. But my fears were groundless...Strangers welcome you, [and] offer you tea... ...But what about their worldview?...I asked many Turks...the cause of their current troubles...Every one...gave me the same answer: "It's because our political system is so corrupt, and our politicians are so incompetent..." I couldn't get a single Turk to pin the blame on outsiders. Still, I worried...I sought out Turkish Jews and quizzed them...about...living in [a] Muslim country...Turkish Jews weren't shy about spelling out their country's faults...But they all insisted...there was no anti-Semitism in Turkey..."Well," I said, "there was that incident in 1984 when terrorists burst into Istanbul's Neva Shalom synagogue and mowed down 22 worshippers." "Yes," my informants said, "but those men spoke Arabic..." [T]he clincher...was finding the ubiquitous Turkish protective symbol...the blue, black, and white evil eye...The idea behind the symbol is [that the] way to protect yourself from evil is not to hide from it, but to look straight into its unblinking eye... That's a quintessentially Turkish idea...a far cry from the kind of blameless-hopeless-helpless victim mentality...pervasive in the Arab world...It is, instead, so close to the traditional American spirit of plain-spoken honesty and sturdy self-reliance that it gives me great faith that Turkish-American friendship will survive... because it is based on shared fundamental values. (National Review, January 30, 2002) III. IRAN & IRAQ The Iranian Ticking Bomb France's objections aside, the Iran of recent weeks is far from the democratizing country so many outsiders like to pretend it is. On December 14, former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, once labeled a moderate...threatened Israel with nuclear annihilation...The Karine A affair showed that Rafsanjani's tirade cannot be dismissed...By attempting to smuggle 50 tons of sophisticated Iranian weaponry to the Palestinians, the Islamic Republic demonstrated its willingness to back up its virulently anti-Israel rhetoric with action. Clearly, the State Department was correct when [it] labeled Iran "the most active state sponsor of terrorism."...Ten years of talk and trade have not moderated Iran; freedoms have, in fact, decreased under President Muhammad Khatami, a so-called reformist... More than 70 percent of Iran's 68 million people were born or came of age after the Islamic Revolution. Whether religious or secular, the vast majority oppose clerical rule of any sort...What makes Iran so dangerous is that the ayatollahs realize their control...is slipping. Iranian authorities no longer trust the paramilitary Basij to quell protests. Once the vanguard of revolutionary fervorÉBasij volunteers today have families to feed... More significant, though, is that the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps...is also beginning to show signs of unrest. Numbering 120,000 men, the Revolutionary Guards are not immune from a stagnating economy. Where in the 1980s, the Revolutionary Guard helped repel Saddam Hussein...in the 1990s, many turned to...American programs on satellite television. ...Iranians say the time is nearing when Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will no longer be able to trust his elite troops to obey if they are called upon to put down the increasingly frequent anti-government riots. As the ayatollahs' popularity plummets, Iran's leaders see only one way to maintain power: They must foment a military crisis... [E]xpect the ayatollahs to push the Middle East to the brink of war. ...Khamenei wants the Palestinians to have missiles capable of hitting jetliners at Ben-Gurion Airport. He wants a mass casualty incident that will draw Israeli retaliation. Khamenei may also try to provoke an American strike. While the U.S. did not react to Iranian involvement in the 1996 truck-bombing of the Khobar Towers military barracks in Saudi Arabia, Washington may not remain so passive if Iranian-backed terrorists strike at America's new bases in Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan. ...The Islamic Republic is a ticking bomb. Israel and the U.S. must expect things to get worse before they get better. (Jerusalem Post, February 17) Dethrone Saddam Ever since coming to power in 1979, Saddam has established a totalitarian police state aimed at eradicating the Kurdish people. During the late 1980s...Saddam's security forces unleashed a wave of terror that led to the deaths of more than 180,000 people, the deportation of 2 million Kurds and the destruction of 4,500 villages and towns. ...Those Kurds not living in the autonomous enclave in northern Iraq established by the U.S. and Britain following the Gulf War continue to suffer human rights abuses...such as mass murder, forced expulsions, arbitrary arrests and confiscation of property. The latest tactic...has been to order the beheading of women deemed to be "prostitutes."...Pro-democracy activists...fear that their wives or daughters may be hauled in front of a kangaroo court and convicted of...prostitution... Despite the long record of crimes committed by Saddam's sadistic regime, the plight of the Kurds has received little attention in the West. They have become the modern-day equivalent of the Jews prior to the 1948 creation of Israel--a persecuted, stateless people desperately seek[ing] a homeland... Yet administration officials fear that the creation of an independent Kurdistan would...destabilize neighboring Turkey. The State Department is under the illusion that the prospect of a "Greater Kurdistan" threatens regional...stability. Hence, it has turned a blind eye to Ankara's brutal 15-year military campaign to subjugate Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey. The result is that many of the opposition groups in Iraq--including the Kurds--do not believe that Washington is serious about toppling Saddam... Rather than insisting that Baghdad's current borders are sacrosanct...the Bush foreign policy team should focus on supporting the breakup of Iraq into...an independent Kurdistan in the north, a Sunni Muslim state in the center, and a Shiite Muslim nation in the south. [The] Kurds...are living proof of the destruction that Saddam is capable of unleashing...The Iraqi strongman has shown that he is willing to massacre countless Kurdish civilians...by using...mustard gas and sarin gas...There is no doubt that should he get his hands on weapons of mass destruction, he will use them against his adversaries...whether it be Saudi Arabia, Israel or America. It is high time the administration remove the Butcher of Baghdad from power, and grant his number one victims, the Kurds, the independence that they deserve... (The Washington Times, February 22, 2002) |
     
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ISRAFAX
EDITORIAL