[(Continued from p.8)]
were Lebanon's Christians--as a potential Fifth Column. Accused of wearing "permissive" Western clothing, Bethlehem Christian women have been intimidated by PA personnel. Rape of Christian women has occurred frequently (especially in Beit Sahour) as was the case in Lebanon. Islamic hostility, disregard for civil liberties and economic jealousy have been harnessed by Arafat and his 20,000 terrorists imported from Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Tunisia, Jordan, and Lebanon in their campaign against the Christian infidel. Christians who dare oppose PLO oppression are accused of "collaboration" with Israel and face execution.
Yoram Ettinger is chairman of the Jerusalem Institute for Western Defence, and former Israeli Consul-General to the Southwest United States.
(Continued from p.2)
rael Radio: "The Palestinian commander promised me that he would operate in his area [to combat terror]. As of now, they haven't arrested anyone. I expect him to live up to his commitment to apprehend the terrorists. The Palestinian Authority, in general, and its Brigadier, in particular, must operate as they obligated themselves. I would like to believe that he will keep his part of the agreement, as I have kept mine."
Retired IDF Colonel Moshe Leshem had this comment: "If this had not been a true story, I would think that this was a joke...an Israeli officer is acting in such a foolish and unbelievable way."
Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine and champion of the "politics of meaning," took an ad in the New York Times (December 24) to announce "a new national organization of spiritual politics." Lerner invites Jews and "anyone else who desires to build A New Bottom Line" to join him, although to judge from the speakers at the first conference, there are very few non-Jews stupid enough to do so. Still, a collection of the usual suspects (e.g. Arthur Waskow, Yossi Sarid, Susannah Heschel) will be busy, in the words of the ad, "building a new planetary consciousness," "developing an Emancipatory Spirituality" and judging institutions--in the words of the ad--"efficient, productive and rational" to the extent "they maximize love and caring, ethical and ecological sensitivity, and enhance our capacity to respond to the universe with awe and wonder at the grandeur of creation." Needless to say, the new organization will also devote itself to "protecting Israel by encouraging the end of the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza."
In What Shimon Says, the pamphlet compiled by the writer of this column and Roger A. Gerber, the longest section was "Spokesman for Arafat." Peres has now gone beyond serving as an apologist for the master of terror to serve as apologist for terror itself. On November 28, addressing a Labor political session on the eve of Sharon's departure for the United States, Peres declared: "Terror is not a military conclusion, it's the way a people expresses its aspirations through weapons." (Ha'aretz, Nov. 29, 2001) "Terrorism cannot be dealt with only with fire and sticks," Peres continued, "It needs carrots, attitude, and creative listening to the other side." Contrast this with President Bush at the UN General Assembly: "In this world there are good causes and bad causes, and we may disagree on where the line is drawn. Yet there is no such thing as a good terrorist. No national aspiration, no remembered wrong can ever justify the deliberate murder of the innocent. Any government that rejects this principle, trying to pick and choose its terrorist friends will know the consequences."
In his book The Coral Seas: Wonders and Mysteries of Underwater Life, Hans Fricke inadvertently may have thrown light not only on the behavior of Shimon Peres but on the public that followed him. Fricke cites an experiment relevant to the mechanisms that maintain the cohesion of schools of fish. "In a 1933 experiment, some minnows were operated on to remove the forebrain, and one operated minnow was returned to the group. The fish was able to eat normally and to swim normally, and its vision did not seem to be affected. But what turned out to be its fatal shortcoming was its behavior towards its congeners [other members of the school of fish]. In fact, the surgical operation had removed every part of the brain responsible for triggering its social drive, among other things. The fish had lost its 'social relationship' to the members of the group. It no longer felt itself linked to them and swam heedlessly away --and the school blindly followed the 'brainless' leader."
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January 2002 - 9 - Outpost