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tired and hoping for a few hours to uplift their spirits on their way home from the terrible war they are fighting to save their families, and all the families of Israel." The group hands out leaflets urging soldiers to desert and offering to pay them for time they spend in prison and any legal expenses involved. Shefa monies also enable the Courage to Refuse campaign to take out ads and hire a public relations firm to incite troops to desert their units.Naomi Ragen writes: "I urge you to visit the Shefa website [www.shefafund.org] and e-mail them your disgust. I urge you to get those of you who are lawyers to inform the IRS of the political nature of this organization and its pro-terror activities on foreign soil and get their tax-exempt status revoked. I urge you to put these low-lifes out of business."
In Six Days of War, Michael B. Oren describes the mental agitation, indeed collapse, of then-Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin immediately preceding the 1967 war. Emotionally exhausted, attacked by his mentor David Ben- Gurion, Rabin stammered to Ezer Weizman, then head of the air force, "I endangered the state...my mistakes." In fact, of course, Rabin helped to save the state. But 25 years later, those words would prove prophetic. Rabin's mistakes would indeed endanger Israel's survival. Paradoxically, in 1967, when he should have felt pride and confidence, Rabin was overwhelmed with guilt; in 1993 and the years following, when he should have been overwhelmed with guilt for his colossal failure of judgment in instituting the Oslo agreement, he confidently dismissed murdered Israelis as "sacrifices for peace" and announced those opposed to his policies could "spin like propellors."
In the November Outpost, we outlined in detail why the peace treaty with Egypt was a sham. Yet another indication -- if more were needed -- are the editorials in the Egyptian media responding to the Hamas suicide bombing which killed eleven Israelis and wounded forty-nine in Jerusalem on November 21. From Al-Akhbar (Nov.22): "Eleven Israeli terrorists were killed in this operation." Here is the headline from Al-Gumhuriyya (Nov. 22): "This Valiant Courageous Operation...The Most Honorable Mission." A day later in the same paper: "Don't blame Arafat and his men: it is the Jews who are behind every calamity!" And here is the editorial heading in the leading government daily Al-Ahram (Nov. 23): "When Will Israel Learn?"
As Jon B. Alterman points out in the Wall Street Journal of November 21, "free" Arab media are no better than the government-controlled media. "Instead of a voice for change and political courage, the TV stations and newspapers too often play to the galleries, legitimizing harebrained ideas and coarsening public debate."
Americans For a Safe Israel
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Outpost - 12 - January 2003