WHY DO THE NATIONS RAGE? (Continued from p.7) courts can hardly be said to exist. The court of appeals in Gaza and appellate court in Ramallah compete in no clear-cut way with military and revolutionary courts whose very names are constantly changing." Similar lawlessness distinguishes the Palestinian "council" set up after the much-touted elections last January. Culled from "a list of Arafat yes-men," Haetzni writes, the council "cannot influence, cannot criticize, and has not legislated a single matter of substance. The opening of the tunnel leaves them seething, but they are unconcerned with routine murder and torture by the PA. Under the aegis of the almighty dollar and United Nations, Arafat precariously rules by utter gangsterism, and it is likely the recent riots are a strategic maneuver to re-assert his control of the resentful mob. Even now, Arab demonstrators are screaming "liar, liars!" at PA police who first incited and then clubbed them per the decrees of their puppet master. So the term "Palestinian Authority" is worse than a joke; it is an oxymoron. Hadrian must be snickering in his damned grave. With favoritism, torture, censorship and brutal whim the order of the day under Arafat, it is no wonder that, as Haetzni notes, "Netanyahu's election was greeted with jubilation by many Arabs in Hebron and East Jerusalem [where] there was hope the new Israeli Prime Minister would rescue them from the dictatorship... throughout the area of the PA, the blue Israeli identity card has become the most valuable commodity." A curious event from August illuminates the mentality, if one can call it that, of the characters with whom the Israelis struggle to reason. In Sebastia, the PA staged a pageant purporting to show their kinship to the ancient Canaanites. Youths in faux bronze age costume danced with torches around idols of Ba'al. Serious Muslims must have enjoyed this evocation of Belial, Ashtoroth and Moloch. But after all, the name "Palestinian" means "Philistine." Just as Afro-centrists and boosters of black Aphrodite afflict American schools with their odd notions and demands, in his lighter moments Mr. Arafat invokes a culture of sodomy, orgies and child sacrifice. Such is Shimon Peres's "partner in peace." Perhaps after Israelis have joined the Arab league, they too, led by Shulamit Aloni, will dance to the glory of Ashtoroth. That would align them splendidly with American popular culture. The sensitive souls of the American and European left forever clutch at anti-colonial rhetoric, a reflex which impels the unjust foolishness of their response to Israel's agony. For if there is a singular anti-colonial triumph in the world today, it is that of the Jewish people. Assaulted and slain by a succession of violent pagan imperialisms, Assyrian, Babylonian, Greek, Roman, Arab, Turk, British, the Jewish people fought, turned the other cheek, created history and treasured in their hearts and

minds for millennia the land and city where the moral order was established. In this century, against the disinterest and often the hostility of the nations, they won back a sliver of their ancient and precious homeland. Returning land, returning good for evil, kindness for wounds, and reason for rage, they allow those who repeatedly threaten to kill them to worship even atop the ruin of their holiest site. In return they are vilified. "Despised, condemned and afflicted with grief," they collectively embody the long-suffering anguish Isaiah attributed to the messiah. The loneliness of a Jew on a Roman cross is repeated in the position of the Jewish people besieged in Israel and among the nations. It is long overdue to assert fact over fantasy and Assaulted by a succession of violent pagan imperialisms, the Jewish people fought, created history and treasured in their hearts and minds for millenia the land and city where the moral order was established. memory over forgetting in our response to Israel. Near the spot where Isaiah declared we are purified in the furnace of affliction, today's crisis carries with it a wonderful opportunity to restore the national home the British pledged to establish 76 years ago, and then betrayed. It's not up to them anymore, but to Jews everywhere, to Israelis above all. A proper self-respect and knowledge of Jewish heritage and history points the direction for policy, and will reverse the decline of morale in the IDF. It is difficult to expect soldiers to give service their full measure of devotion if the land they defend is returned to their enemies. Instead of pipe dreams of a New Middle East and membership in the Arab League, Israel's leaders would do better to quote Isaiah, "Arise, Jerusalem, rise clothed in light... though darkness covers the earth, and dark night the nations, the Lord shall shine upon you, and over you shall his glory appear." PA police have shot and killed Jews, and the Palestinians say "the peace process is finished." Fine; it's about time that the lie that there is a peace process was exposed and discarded. The abomination of the PA should be effaced, for the sake of the Arabs as well as the Jews. And since some have been questioning the Law of Return, it must be resolved with Constitutional finality that Israel is and always must be a Jewish state. That would be a process for peace, and for life. Eugene Narrett is Professor of English at Framingham State College.

October 1996               - 11 -               Outpost