[(Continued from p.8)]
the Japanese hours after Pearl Harbor, but even that would not capture the full absurdity of this. Only Biblical rhetoric could describe it adequately and I confess I am not up to the task.The voters in favor of this absurdity included the Labor Party and its Meretz partners, the latter no doubt spending hours standing in front of mirrors to admire how they look in kafiyas. The Arab parties of course voted in favor, as did the "Center Party," and two thirds of the religious-baiting Israeli party Shinui (the remaining third abstained or were absent). No less interesting was who abstained. The monstrosity passed thanks to the abstainers. These included half the members of the Shas party, which has dropped any pretension of representing anything besides a pseudo-religious kleptocracy, willing to sell Jerusalem to Arafat for some subsidies from Barak. Sharansky's party of immigrants split in half -- half against and half abstaining, raising questions as to how much of the man of principle jailed by the KGB is still with us today. And the Likud's egregious Limor Livnat, who had wanted to run with the Center Party last round, also abstained. The National Religious Party, showing uncharacteristic backbone, voted against the bill and then quit Barak's government. Too little, too late. The NRP's Yitzhak Levy says he will not quit Barak's cabinet until Abu Dis is actually abandoned.
Yes, Barak announced that the transfer of these parts of Jerusalem (Abu Dis is closer to the Temple Mount than the Senate is to the White House) will be delayed for a few days to show Arafat how upset he is. RRHT strikes again. Barak had pressed for the vote on Naqba Day so he could have something to hand Clinton in the White House in his now-postponed junket there.
And it is also interesting to note how surrender to one form of terrorism always leads to other additional forms of terrorism and surrender. In the midst of all this, the telecom workers union, the union for the Bezeq phone monopoly and run by the Labor Party's team in the Histadrut, to show how unhappy they are over Barak's proposed tax reforms, decided to sabotage most of the phones in the country for the day. To show how unhappy they are over Barak's proposed tax reforms. Don't suppose this had anything to do with making it difficult for the "Right" to get its logistics in order for that big Zion Square rally, do you?
In any case, the Bezeq Bolsheviks regularly sabotage the phone system when they want something, and usually people die as a result. People cannot call ambulances. They cannot communicate in emergencies, get women in labor to hospitals, let people know when there are funerals, etc. But why should they not sabotage the country. What could possibly happen? Barak would respond "really really hard"...?
There is one reform that is needed more desperately in Israel than any other, and it is needed right
(Continued on p.11)
...The day after the Barak government announced its intention to hand Arafat the Abu Dis neighborhood adjacent to Jerusalem, Palestinian police officers opened fire on Israelis near the town of Netzarim, in the Gaza Strip, wounding one Israeli in the eye...Numerous other Israelis were wounded during the waves of Arab violence in May, including two-year old Shalev Egozi-Shabbat, who was hit by a Palestinian firebomb near Jericho...Members of Arafat's own Fatah movement, not Hamas or Islamic Jihad, "led the violence," the Associated Press reported May 17...Danny Rubinstein of Ha'aretz reported May 16 that "there was nothing spontaneous" about the violence--it was all ordered by Arafat...
...The secretary-general of the Arab League, Esmat Abdel Meguid, declared on May 19 that the policies of the Barak government are "oppressive and autocratic" toward the Palestinians, and he has threatened that "the intifada is ready" if Israel does not make more concessions...
...Ms. Orah Chatan, of the northern Israeli moshav of Shtulah, told the Israeli radio station Arutz-7 what it's like to be so close to the Hizbullah shelling now that the Israeli army has pulled out of southern Lebanon: "It's become almost a daily ritual. A bombardment started around 4:30 PM, and the tractor workers ran away totally frightened...The shells were falling on the outpost only 200 meters from our homes! It continued for about 2 hours on and off, then resumed again at 8:30 PM. The sounds of the bombs come closer and closer, and it is truly terrifying."...
...One hundred and fifty Israeli Arabs who are students at Hebrew Universty recently held a demonstration on campus during which they chanted "With blood and fire we will redeem Palestine!" Jewish students described the atmosphere in the university between Jews and Arabs as "very tense"...
May 2000 - 9 - Outpost