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and then sends us Colin Powell the appeaser to tie our soldiers hands and force them to leave "Palestinian towns" which only became Palestinian towns because of Oslo, which is now defunct, because our government -- the late, long lamented Mr. Rabin and the unlamented Mr. Peres -- arranged to hand it over to them. I'm angry at American Jews for sitting at home when Palestinians are taking over Times Square shouting out their hatred.If the Israeli army is forced to withdraw, allowing terrorists to once again take over our streets, that is the end of this country, our beloved Israel. I'd like you to think about that and act accordingly. This is the greatest emergency the Jewish people have faced since the transports.
I almost lost my whole family.
The family of Israel stands to lose its future and repeat its past.
Naomi Ragen, a novelist, lives in Jerusalem. The article the New York Times rejected was published in the Jerusalem Post Magazine on April 26, 2002.
The assorted asses who report on the Middle East were shocked -- oh, so terribly shocked -- that Israeli troops surrounded the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. In self-righteous sorrow, they intoned that this is the birthplace of Jesus. You did not hear from them that the clergy in the church was being held hostage by Palestinian Arab terrorists who were doing what cowards do, hide among civilians, clergy, and shrines.
What is so astonishing about these so-called journalists is their ignorance. They know nothing about the history of the Middle East prior to 1967. If they did, they would know that when the Arabs controlled Jerusalem's holiest shrines, they destroyed or desecrated every single one, and were so depraved as to use stones from ancient Jewish cemeteries for the building of latrines. Moreover, access to the Church of the Nativity was limited under Arab control. Only after 1967 were the churches and shrines of Bethlehem and Jerusalem carefully restored and accorded Israeli version of landmark status. The Israelis were so scrupulous about respect for other faiths that the present Ba'hai temple and its gardens are one of the wonders of the Middle East. But for telejournalists this is as relevant to today's crisis as the outcome of the Peloponnesian Wars.
As breathtaking as their ignorance is their hypocrisy. We did not hear any concern expressed when the tomb of Joseph was destroyed by an Arab mob, or local Muslims illegally began building a mosque in Nazareth next to one of Christianity's most sacred churches. Nor was the media outraged when American military personnel could not celebrate Christmas in Saudi Arabia -- even though we saved it in the Gulf War. Their outrage is selective. It is only when Israel acts in self-defense, they are shocked, truly shocked.
There must be a "help wanted" ad in some trade journal that advertises for the current journalists who appear nightly from locations in the Middle East:
Wanted for immediate employment: Uninformed, hardy men and women, able to travel and withstand changes in climate, mores and languages without any shift in prearranged bias. Pleasant smiles and hairdos that can withstand wind and rain a must. Anyone with knowledge of history need not apply.
Ashley Banfield, MSNBC's comely new combat queen, is the poster girl for the above ad. She clambers about the hard landscapes of Afghanistan and Judea and Samaria with the surefootedness of a mountain goat. Like that nimble animal, she eats and assimilates any garbage fed to her. On a recent telecast from Jordan she announced that "almost 60% of the residents of Jordan are Palestinians." Ms. Banfield has no clue that Jordan comprises 80% of historic Palestine, deeded to Hashemite rule by the duplicitous British in 1922.
Banfield went on to ask a Palestinian Arab physician with the improbable name of Hirsh whether he "longs" for his home in Jaffa, which he left when he was three. Of course he does, he "dreams nightly of the sea", was his answer. No challenge from the tele-diva about why this is so. After all, millions of people have been uprooted and made new homes in other nations since Dr. Hirsh lost his precious view of the sea (of which he can have no memory, given the tender age of his "loss"). Ms. Banfield then moves on to ask the denizens of a "refugee" camp about their nostalgia for their "lost" homeland. Again, no thoughts on why they remain in these squalid conditions, and who has kept them there.
Ms. Banfield is typical. CNN's Andrea Koppel (daughter of the vastly overrated Ted) has outlined her background of scholarship: "Well, you know, I took a course on the Middle East when I was at Middlebury College, and our professor assigned us five books on the history of the conflict." This was enough for Ms. Koppel to swallow whole Arafat & Co.'s claims that Israeli soldiers slaughtered civilians in Jenin and to declare "we are now seeing the beginning of the end of Israel."
There is never any discussion of the fact that Arabs live within pre-1967 Israel and enjoy the fruits of democracy unavailable to them anywhere in the entire Arab world. While these journalists love to interview Israeli pacifists, they don't even mention that Israel's pacifists have no counterpart in the Arab world. They don't even hint at the punishment routinely meted out by the Pales-
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Outpost - 10 - May 2002