[(Continued from p.10)]
I am not related to his wife Suha, who suffers for her people from the Champs Elysees at $100,000 a month.I am not related to ex-Israeli Dror Feiler and his Swedish sweetheart Gunilla Skold Feiler whose "art" celebrated the murder of 21 Israelis in Haifa last year.
I am an island. You are an island. We are an island. We did not make that choice. They imposed it on us.
Jack Engelhard is the author of the novel Indecent Proposal and the award-winning memoir Escape From Mount Moriah. His novel The Days of the Bitter End is in rehearsal for movie production.
In its brief to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the European Union expresses grave concern over Israel's separation fence and cites official European condemnations.
To my mind, the fence is a dumb idea, a helter skelter barrier looping and weaving among Israel's legitimate towns and villages throughout Judea and Samaria, creating a false and flimsy sense of security. Nonetheless, I will grant the fact that good people and staunch defenders of Israel have differing opinions on its value.
What is unacceptable is the tribunal of inquisitors preparing briefs at the Hague to chastise Israel because of the fence. France declares that the fence is illegal. Switzerland and Sweden submitted briefs supporting the Palestinian Arab position against the fence. The British and the Americans, nominally opposed to the Hague tribunal, reiterate their opposition to the route taken by the fence. And the Eurabs? They routinely parrot the Arab line. And Kofi Annan wrings his hands in despair over the fence.
Israel was preparing a defense based on data about security, an explanation of the structure, the route, and the rationale for the fence in prevention of crime and terror. Fortunately at the last minute Sharon, showing a glimmer of self-respect, decided not to send representatives to this sham trial. Jabotinsky understood the knee-jerk Jewish tendency to have an apology prepared for all scenarios. In an article "Instead of Excessive Apology," written in 1911 (translation from Russian by Boris Shusteff), he wrote:
"Who are we to make excuses to them; who are they to interrogate us? What is the purpose of this mock trial over the entire people where the sentence is known in advance? Our habit of constantly and zealously answering to any rabble has already done us a lot of harm and will do much more. ... The situation that has been created as a result, tragically confirms a well known saying: 'Qui s'excuse s'accuse' (He who excuses himself accuses himself). We think that our constant readiness to undergo a search without hesitation and to turn out our pockets, will eventually convince mankind of our nobility; look what gentlemen we are -- we do not have anything to hide! This is a terrible mistake. The real gentlemen are the people that will not allow anyone for any reason to search their apartment, their pockets or their soul. Only a person under surveillance is ready for a search at every moment.... This is the only one inevitable conclusion from our maniac reaction to every reproach -- to accept responsibility as a people for every action of a Jew, and to make excuses in front of everybody including hell knows who. I consider this system to be false to its very root. We are hated not because we are blamed for everything, but we are blamed for everything because we are not loved...
"We constantly and very loudly apologize... Instead of turning our backs to the accusers, as there is nothing to apologize for, and nobody to apologize to, we swear again and again that it is not our fault... Isn't it long overdue to respond to all these and all future accusations, reproaches, suspicions, slanders and denunciations by simply folding our arms and loudly, clearly, coldly and calmly answering with the only argument that is understandable and accessible to this public: 'Go to Hell!'?"
AFSI's sentiments exactly.
According to several reports, most recently in the Wall Street Journal ( February 9), the UN's highly touted "Oil for Food" program, started in 1997 to help Iraq's poor, became a conduit for skimming off funds for Saddam's personal use and rewarding those who opposed sanctions, supplied him with weapons, and opposed military intervention for regime change.
In an urgent fax to Kofi Annan, Claude Hankes-Drielsma, an English member of an independent consulting group recently appointed to advise the interim Iraqi Governing Council, proposed that a committee be appointed to investigate the program, stating that "My belief is that serious transgressions have taken place."
Apparently, in addition to many French, Syrian,
[(Continued on p.12)]
March 2004 - 11 - Outpost