DEAR JEWS

Many speak of unity in Israel but most do not practice it. As the enemy bombs Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, YESHA each still stays separate - thinks separate - acts separate and each quietly thinks: "I am glad it happened there and not here." That's a natural, human reaction.

When a bomb goes off in Jerusalem or YESHA (Yehuda, Shomron and Gaza),Tel Avivians feel safe and glad it was not them. When there is a road side shooting a mortar attack in YESHA, those who live in Haifa are momentarily interested in the news but, YESHA is far away - that's 'their' problem.

When a bomb goes off in Haifa or Tel Aviv, those in YESHA usually do not go to Haifa and offer help and sympathy thinking: "We have enough of our own problems with terror."

And where are the American and other Diaspora Jews during these eleven months of terror? They have NOT come to Israel - except for a few small solidarity missions. Tourism of American Jews is almost non-existent although many American Christian Zionists are still coming on their regular tours to Israel.

As for American Jews, they cannot grasp the fact that, should Israel fall, the anti-Jewish establishment will fall on them like starving wolves on a herd of lambs. Whether the White Supremacists, the Black Muslims, the Arab Islamists, the Ku Klux Klan, Louis Farrakhan's Fruits of Islam all will be emboldened to attack the Jewish establishment. Jews in the street will be the same as the Jews of Europe, standing there in shock as their world falls apart and they beg: "Why me?"

American Jews had better start asking ourselves: "Will we end up like our brethren from the last and lost generation?"

Granted, America isn't the sinkhole of anti-Semitism of Europe but, there are enough disturbed anti-Semites, black and white, who would love the opportunity to get even with the world, starting with the Jews. But, if you want Jews to do anything to defend themselves, even to save their lives, offer them 25 cups of coffee, talk a lot and, maybe, in several months they, maybe, just maybe they will start to listen ... but, don't count on it. I cannot help but wonder who started the rumor that Jews are clever.

So it goes among the Jews. Unless it is your relative or in your neighborhood, terror is always someone else's problem. We Jews have a problem of distancing ourselves from unpleasant things as long as it isn't we who are suffering.

Dear Jews, there is an old American saying: "Either you hang together or you hang alone." That translates to: "Either stay together united or die alone."

This is the time for the Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon to really be a statesman and a leader. Call the people to meet from all points on Israel's compass. Pull them together as President John F. Kennedy once did when he said: "Do not ask what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." The people responded to a call to their better instincts.

Granted, there will always be the spoilers who will say we are not at war and we can appease our self-declared enemy. They tell us: all we need is for Arafat to give orders to "Halt all the killings" and we will give him everything he wants. Peres, Beilin and others are readying themselves for the next elections for Prime Minister. They have already started their meetings with 'hints' to Arafat's negotiators and promises to return to Taba status if they will vote for the Labor party. Oslo is supposed to rise from the grave like a troubled spirit who is waiting for a final burial.

Dear Jews, smell the air; extend your antennae for the dangers that are closing in. One cannot help but be reminded of the historian Josephus' portrayal of our history in his book, "War of the Jews", when the Jews battled each other while the Romans crept up to slit their throats and burn the Jewish Temple. Then there were the deniers when Hitler's SS were committing every atrocity and practically announcing that they were coming to kill all the Jews. We simply could not believe or grasp the fact that there were people who planned to extinguish the Jewish people. They came; they killed and we were surprised.

Some Jews sense it; know it - but they cannot convince the others that the war for Israel did not end in 1948 - 1956 - 1967 - 1982 - 1991 - 1987-93 and September 2000 to August 2001.

But, know this: Israel is in a fight to the death with Islam. The choice of entering or not entering a religious war does not lie with the Jews. The Muslims want Israel ground into the dirt with not one Jew left alive. In Islam, there is no room for compromise. Islam is in a religious war with Jews first and Christians later. They say it: "First the Saturday people; then the Sunday people." The Muslims simply cannot be placated, soothed or bribed.

There is no more pretense of separate entities called the PLO, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezb'Allah, PFLP, et al. They are all one fighting force under the authority of Yassir Arafat, dedicated to the total elimination of the Jewish State and her people. According to Clyde Haberman in the NEW YORK TIMES of August 13th : "So concerned is Mr. Arafat about his standing that he has invited the Hamas and Islamic Jihad to join him in a coalition - a unity government, he has called it, a term used as well by Israel."

This fighting force is fed by the ever-present confrontation states of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Libya, Sudan. Jordan will likely soon be taken over by the Palestinians and added to this list. This unifying of the Arab confrontation forces was always there but now it is confirmed publicly.

So, Dear Fellow Jews: Either you gather together in one cohesive force or you will die in bits and pieces - as has been happening too graphically.

I know that the various Israeli governments have always been more concerned with getting into power and holding onto that power than really unifying the nation. There is always a first time although I hear no call from Sharon - yet - to rally around the flag. Arik, like all Prime Ministers before him has gathered around him an impenetrable political wall of advisors dedicated to keeping him in power. There is also a second wall who coalesced themselves out of those dedicated to the failed agreement called Oslo and a return to the debilitating and self-destructive pretense misnamed "The Peace Process".

Arik no longer listens to or consults with outside resources as he used to. Strangely, the outside resources have only love of country at heart, so their voice and advice is not tainted by self-serving politics. The little men who surround Sharon suck at the teat of power and will not allow anyone in - even if the Third Temple must fall.

If Sharon will not break out of the surrounding encirclement of petty little men, then the people must do it themselves. Start with a delegation from each of the cities, towns, villages. From Jerusalem and YESHA in the east to Tel Aviv, Netanya and Haifa in the west. From the Golan Heights in the north to Eilat in the south.

Convene and decide to assist each other. If the government of Arik Sharon and Shimon Peres cannot meet their obligations to unify the people and keep them safe, then by-pass them. If the Knesset continues to be a spoiler (on its months long summer vacation) and cannot truly represent the people, then by-pass them. Keep in mind that it is your families who are in jeopardy of being blown up. The government leaders are very well protected but it is your children and wives, husbands and fathers who are at risk as they go to school, to work, meet at a movie or restaurant.

Yet STILL:

Subject: PLO Green Line

Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 10:03:36 -0400

Cabinet nixes buffer zone plan
By Herb Keinon

JERUSALEM (September 10) - The security cabinet did not decide yesterday on any new steps to fight terrorism, but reaffirmed decisions made after previous attacks.

These decisions call for immediate responses to attacks, preventive interception - a euphemism for targeted killings of terrorists - and "active self-defense" on the roads.

The bulk of the four-hour meeting, however, did not deal with terror, but with the IDF's seam-line plan.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon shot down one of the key elements of the plan: the creation of buffer zones along sections of the Green Line that would be declared closed military zones. By declaring these areas closed, the IDF would have been able to keep certain people out of them, making operations there much easier.

According to a senior source in the Prime Minister's Office, Sharon objected to the widespread use of this power in densely populated areas, because it would cause hardship to large numbers of Palestinians not involved in terror.

Rather than creating these closed military zones, the security cabinet said that these areas could be declared closed only for limited operational reasons, after the move is brought to the mini cabinet - Sharon, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Housing Minister Natan Sharansky, and Minister without Portfolio Dan Meridor - for approval.

A blanket decision to declare areas around the seam line closed military areas would raise serious legal and international issues, the source said.

The ability to declare areas closed military zones was just one aspect of the plan, whose details have not yet officially been released. The official, however, denied that its goal is to create a "physical separation" between Israel and the territories.

Meanwhile, the source said that it is highly unlikely that Peres will meet Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat today at the Erez crossing in Gaza, as has been widely reported.

"The existence of the meeting depends on Arafat, whether he continues to support terror and incitement," he said. "Peres knows not to fall into a trap and that there is no reason to hold such a meeting if nothing will come out of it."

Nonetheless, a spokesman for Miguel Moratinos, the EU's special envoy to the Middle East, reportedly said in Cairo yesterday that an initial Peres-Arafat meeting will be held this week, either at the Erez crossing or in Taba, followed by two more meetings.

Likewise, Louis Michel, the foreign minister of Belgium, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, called on Israel not to cancel the meeting.

A number of local politicians called for Peres to shelve plans to talk to Arafat. "If Arafat can't stop the attacks then there is no reason for Peres to meet with him," said Shinui head Yosef (Tommy) Lapid. "And if he has the ability to stop the attacks and doesn't do so, there is even more reason not to meet with him."

"An end has to be put to this contemptible chase after Arafat at a time when suicide attackers continue to kill our citizens," Minister without Portfolio Dan Naveh said.

Speaking after a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo, PA Minister for Planning and International Cooperation Nabil Shaath condemned "violence against civilians," but said the occupation was the cause for the violence.

Bassam Abu Sharif, an adviser to Arafat, also condemned attacks on civilians, while charging that Sharon provoked them. He said these attacks are a result of Palestinian frustration and desire for revenge for Israeli attacks on Palestinian targets.

"No one can expect President Arafat to ask his people not to defend themselves... If Israel withdraws, no one would have to resist. Let's be frank and fair," he said, addressing himself to his "good friend Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. We don't want the Israeli soldiers inside Palestine, and we don't want [Israeli settlers] on our land... Get out [of the West Bank, Gaza, and east Jerusalem] and there will be no more reason for resistance."

A senior Palestinian security officer conceded that no one in the PA will take action against Islamic Jihad or Hamas as long as Israel continues with the closure and its policy of targeted killings and retaliatory strikes.

He said the timing of the attacks had nothing to do with the planned meeting between Peres and Arafat, but was a continuation of the policy of the Islamic groups, and a result of the escalation of violence on the ground.

But another Palestinian source admitted that the Islamic groups' aim was to scuttle the meeting.

A PA source said popularity for suicide attacks is at its highest, with 80 percent to 90 percent of Palestinians supporting them.

Abu Sharif stressed that the attack at the Nahariya train station cannot be blamed on the PA, since the bomber was an Israeli Arab.

Palestinian security officials have said that militant Islamic groups and Fatah have been recruiting Israeli Arabs. But a security officer said it is not easy to find Israeli Arabs willing to commit suicide, while there is no shortage among Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza.

(Lamia Lahoud and news agencies contributed to this report.)

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