[(Continued from p.11)]
this case the enemy of her people rather than her country of birth, and conducts a propaganda war against them.Your friend Allegra is a piece of work. She finds plenty of forums for her venom, not just on CNN, where I heard her defense of the murderous Arab mob, but on National Public Radio and the op-ed page of the New York Times. As a result of your letter I read two of her op-eds there and both have the same modus operandi. She seeks to pull the reader's heartstrings with tales of innocent Palestinian victims of Israeli cruelty, lashes out against Oslo because it didn't offer the oppressed Palestinians enough, and provides her "solution" which is the PLO "solution"--abolish the Jewish state. Arafat could not have put his goal better than Pacheco does: "Without justice and full equality, including the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland, the Oslo process cannot bring about any semblance of viable peace."
As for you, ladies, now that we know that you are anti-Israel activists, it is ludicrous for you to put yourselves in the league of "women who dare to speak out against violence and injustice." In defending Pacheco, you make it clear you have nothing against violence and injustice. Pacheco is not for human rights--not when it comes to Jews. She "understands" PLO terror and shows not a hint of sympathy for its Jewish victims. She--and you, in your nasty little support organization--represent a hideous parody of human rights. Moreover, in democracies such as Israel and America, it is absurd to use the word "dare." There is no valor in being part of the lowing herd that finds evil in everything done by one's own country, and nobility in noxious enemies. The real courage is in daring to living according to one's principles, exposed to the hatred of enemies, and the indifference of your countrymen. I refer to the Jewish men and women who live in the communities (to Pacheco and folks like you, the hated "settlements") of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. They are the true Jewish heroes and heroines of our day.
And although you are right about misogyny and violence used for centuries to silence women, you are missing the locale where it is part of the national culture. Try to rent a car in Saudi Arabia, or voice dissent in Syria, or Libya, or Egypt. In fact, if you loudly took up the cause of Jews and Israel in any of those countries, you would not last long. Incidentally, since you are so sensitive to the plight of women, what about Arab mothers in Judea and Samaria whose young are wrested from their home, incited to throw stones, and frequently killed in the crossfire? If any of them were to try to teach their children pacifism, the Palestinian Authority of thugs would accuse them of collaborating and imprison or even kill them, as they routinely do to all who are suspected of aiding Israel.
Ladies, I know you don't want to be confused by the facts, but your concern about teaching violence deserves response. Just read the school texts, the daily journals, the so-called academic treatises, the "sermons" in mosques, not only in Arafat's domain but in Egypt and Jordan, both of which have signed "peace treaties" with Israel. You will find hair-raising hatred, racism, and incitement to terrorism and murder. Those are truly painful to read--by man or woman.
Finally, I circulated your letter and the sharpest reactions came from feminists who hooted at the notion that other women were beyond criticism.
In sum, my dear ladies of Jewish Women for Justice in Israel/Palestine, you are a disgrace both to feminism and to the Jewish people.
Ruth King is a member of the executive committee of Americans For a Safe Israel.
Americans For a Safe Israel
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