Posted on 04/21/2002 4:40:32 PM PDT by Nix 2
Sharon, Peres clash over Larsen's status
By Herb KeinonPrime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres clashed yesterday over whether UN Mideast envoy Terje Roed-Larsen should be declared persona non grata and expelled from the country.
But one senior diplomatic source said last night the fact there is a disagreement over the issue all but ensures Larsen will not be shown the door over damning comments he made to the press and diplomatic corps over the weekend.
Larsen has blasted Israel for the destruction wrought by Operation Defensive Shield, saying it was unwarranted by any military objective and created a human catastrophe "horrifying beyond belief."
Larsen's comments dominated yesterday's cabinet meeting, with Sharon saying he instructed his office not to have any contact with Larsen. Sharon is also weighing whether or not he should be declared persona non grata.
Since Peres is abroad, there was no one in the cabinet meeting to support Larsen.
On the other hand, speaker after speaker lambasted him for his remarks.
Industry and Trade Minister Dalia Itzik said Larsen disqualified himself by his one-sided comments. His words, she said, were "not worthy of an objective diplomat."
Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein said he read the transcripts of Larsen's statements and found them to be "lies" and "baseless."
"If he was working within the framework of his job," Rubinstein said, "he should have turned to the Israeli government to check these things instead of coming out with these types of accusations."
Rubinstein said he would look into whether Larsen could be declare persona non grata.
Peres, who was in Washington and will travel to Spain today, reacted to the criticism by issuing a statement saying he has known Larsen for more than a decade and that he has demonstrated friendship to Israel while "trying all the time to bridge the wide gaps between Israel and its neighbors." Larsen and Peres worked closely together 10 years ago in forging the Oslo Accords.
Peres said Larsen recognized the mistake he made by his statements on Jenin, and he is convinced Larsen will not make the same mistake again.
According to the statement, Peres rejected the "horrible calls to declare Larsen persona non grata. A procedure like this would do injustice to a man who has made a special contribution toward peace in our region for years."
Larsen should be judged by his actions, commitment, and contribution, Peres said, and not on the basis of statements that Peres termed "grave."
Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, who was highly critical of Larsen's comments, also came out against declaring him persona non grata, though he said will reconsider the defense establishment's relationship with Larsen.
Larsen's relations with the IDF and the defense establishment have been strained since last year, when he denied the UN had a video of the kidnapping of soldiers from Har Dov - a video that later did emerge.
According to the Foreign Ministry legal adviser Alan Baker, Peres has the legal authority to declare diplomatic officials persona non grata. He said, however, that prior to taking this step, there are other means available to the government to demonstrate its displeasure.
Among these steps are to call Larsen in for a formal reprimand, to cut off government contact with him, or to write a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan censuring Larsen and asking for his removal.
Baker said kicking Larsen out of the country, which is what declaring someone persona non grata means, would created complications with the UN, where Larsen enjoys the title of under-secretary-general, and with Norway.
Baker said Larsen violated the UN Charter, which calls upon their diplomats to act in an objective manner. By showing himself to the international press and to the diplomatic corps, Baker said, Larsen went beyond the accepted behavior of an international diplomat.
"If he wants to pass on a message to Israel, that is his job," Baker said. "But there are channels for that. By going to the press and the diplomatic corps he is going against Israel."
Larsen rejected the criticism yesterday, saying it left him "puzzled." Larsen told The Jerusalem Post that when he characterized the situation in Jenin as "horrific beyond belief," he was referring to the humanitarian situation in the camp as he saw it during his visit, and stressed he never accused Israel of a "massacre."
"I said the same things as [the American and Russian envoys] who toured the camp," Larsen said. "For that, Israel can make the entire diplomatic corps personas non grata."
Larsen also rejected the criticism leveled at him by Ben-Eliezer, who said Larsen never condemned terrorist attacks against Israelis. "A variety of characters are saying I never criticized suicide attacks... but that is simply not true. Either I or the secretary-general have always condemned these attack in the strongest terms," he said.
An aide to Larsen said he has repeatedly pressured Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat to take actions against those who are behind such attacks and to outlaw terrorist organizations.
In addition to taking Larsen to task at the cabinet meeting, Sharon also reacted angrily to a suggestion by Minister-without-Portfolio Ra'anan Cohen that the cabinet should hold a discussion on evacuating some of the isolated settlements in the Gaza Strip.
Banging his fist on the table, Sharon said, "There will be no discussion on uprooting settlements until November 2003." Even after this date, the scheduled election date, he said, "I am not sure there will be a discussion on this."
Regarding the decision to accept a UN fact-finding committee to investigate the battle that took place in Jenin, Sharon said he agreed to the suggestion because it was clear the US would not veto such a resolution in the Security Council , and that this option was better than the British proposal - to dispatch an international fact-finding committee.
Ben-Eliezer told the cabinet Israel need not worry about the fact-finding committee, because it "has nothing to hide." He said he appointed his deputy director-general, Moshe Kohanovsky, to coordinate Israel's position.
Kohanvosky was the head of the committee that prepared Israel's case for the Mitchell Committee investigating the causes of the intifada in early 2001.
Ben-Eliezer said Israel has paid a public relations price for the just concluded military operation, and an impression was created that Israel used disproportional force.
"This stems from erroneous reporting and lies spread by the Palestinians," Ben-Eliezer said. "I know the IDF operated in the most moral and professional matter possible. At the same time, the information campaign is no less important, and all the means necessary must be dedicated to this as well."
In a related development, the Foreign Ministry announced yesterday it is closing the media center it set up at the end of March when Operation Defensive Shield started. One official said the closing of the center sends a message that the operation is over. He said many of the more than 1,100 journalists who arrived over the last month to cover the war have left or are in the process of leaving.
Ben-Zion Nemett
The son of a Holocaust survivor, is also the father of a Sbarro survivor. His message spans the generations.
Friday night, after Sabbath evening services, my daughter and I were discussing the weekly Torah portion. What does the commentator Rashi say at the beginning of the portion, I asked? And Shira (Hebrew for "song") answered me, paraphrasing Rashi. I breathed a contented sigh.
Why would I burden you with such a description? It is such a common sight that of a father discussing the weekly Torah portion with his son or daughter. Except that everything here is new: the person, the time, and the place.
The place: Recovery Room, Intensive Care Unit, Shaarei Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem.
The time: 24 hours after the suicide bomber terrorist attack at the Sbarro pizza restaurant in central Jerusalem.
The person: my daughter. Her body is bruised, battered and broken after a long surgery that bestowed upon her the gift of life. A new Shira, a new song.
Sabbath evening at the recovery room. The color white dominates every corner, so different from the Sabbath white that we are used to. The white of the operating room feels nerve-wracking and threatening, compared to the white of the Sabbath with its soothing aura of splendor and sanctity. Until then, I had no idea there was such different significance to the color white, depending on where you are.
Shira is alternately sleeping and awake. She is drowsy from the many painkillers she is being given. At one point she wants to ask me something. I lean down to listen. "Daddy, what about that family that was right in front of us in line for pizza? What happened to them?"
I know what family she is talking about. Both parents and three children were killed. In a choked voice, I tell her that God willing, the Almighty will help them. I thought to protect my child from the bitter news until a later stage. Fortunately, the humming of the machines around her drowns out the emotional storm that encompasses me.
But after several minutes Shira asks again, "Daddy, how is that family?" I ask her why she is asking specifically about them.
Shira tells me that when the terrible explosion occurred, the children were seriously injured. They were actually burning. Then one of the small ones cried, "Daddy, Daddy, save me!" And the father yelled back to him, "Don't worry, say with me Shema Yisrael -- Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."
"And suddenly there was quiet, Daddy." She stares at me, "What happened to them?"
And I, the son of my father, the almost sole survivor of his family that was destroyed in the Holocaust, grew up on the Shema Yisrael that Jews said before they were murdered, and knew well the spine-chilling stories of the Jews led to slaughter, losing their lives at the end of that phrase, "the Lord is One."
And here, now, I hear from my little girl the same story, and the Treblinka death camp and the Sbarro restaurant become one.
Grandfather, granddaughter -- and I the father in between. A genetic code -- mysterious, painful, deep -- connects the holy victims of the Holocaust and those of Sbarro, holy victims whose only sin was being a part of the Jewish people.
Children were murdered then and are being murdered now for being Jews. The father, mother and three children standing in front of Shira were killed for being Jews. Images merge of the child of then and now that wanted his father to save him, and the father who knows where they are going, and cries to our Father in heaven the phrase "Shema Yisrael" together with his dying son. Shema Yisrael from within the flames, then and now.
I can hardly choke back the tears, and the heart refuses to believe. And I hear Shira's voice bringing me back to the present. "Daddy, I will never forget those voices. Never."
And then a difficult thought passes through my head. Maybe I myself forgot? Maybe I fell asleep while on guard? Maybe my father remembers that, "In every generation enemies rise up to destroy us," because he was there and felt the Holocaust. But, my friends and I, the generation of Israel's revival, have already sensed the light at the end of the tunnel, the vision of peace and humanity at our doorstep.
And now the images of flames and smoke, the voices crying out "Shema Yisrael," have been heard by the generations before me, and after me.
Shira, I want you to be able to forget the horrible images. I want you to have peace of mind. But I don't want you to forget the significance of those voices. Because faith from within the flames is refined, pure, unrestrained, firm and burning. But how can I ask you not to forget when I myself lapsed into forgetfulness and allowed myself to be led astray by illusions of a new Middle East?
"Shema Yisrael" is heard, blood flows into blood, and we here in the Land of Israel will continue to raise a generation with a healthy soul and with faith, a generation that can eat a slice of pizza without fear.
A generation that remembers it all.
Today we buried my 21-year-old nephew Gedalya.
At midnight last night four soldiers and a doctor knocked on my sister Penina's door. Her husband Simcha had just left for the Ukraine on a mission for the Jewish Agency. They called him in the Ukraine to tell him to come home for his son's funeral.
At 7 AM, they called me. I had to tell the rest of the family. I had to ask a relative, Yakir, to go to my son Yoram and inform him of what had happened. My other son Yossi is also serving in the army. When Yoram saw Yakir's face, the first thing he thought was: "Which one is it? My cousin Gedalya or my brother Yossi?" Without a word exchanged, Yakir understood and said, "Gedalya."
I can tell you that although the fear is always there, the worry about "hearing the knock," you are never prepared. The shock is total. The grief is inconsolable.
Twice today the radio replayed a recording of Gedalya's interview on the Army Radio Station. He told how he saw himself as a teacher of his soldiers. His mission was to teach them to be ethical, moral, and humane in their treatment of others. He would not allow any of his soldiers to insult or mistreat Arabs whom they encountered while carrying out their duties. When asked to describe himself he said, "I am a humane soldier."
During the fighting in Jenin, Gedalya had candies in his pocket and whenever he came across Arab children, he gave them candies to calm them down so they would not be afraid of the Israeli soldiers. When we looked at pictures that Gedalya took of the fighting, the battalion commander pointed out a building and said this is the "cake building." Four houses before Gedalya was killed he came across a family with five children huddling in a room, scared. He pulled out a cake he had put in his bullet-proof vest and gave it to the children. He had been saving it for his soldiers.
Gedalya was a poet, composer, and musician. He played piano beautifully. And he was a master at computers. At the age of 17, he even set up his own computer business, which he closed down when he went into the army.
Every unit in the army wanted him. He could have had any job he wanted. But he hid from the army the fact that he suffered from severe asthma, and somehow got himself into a combat unit.
His soldiers said that Gedalya only gave; he never took for himself. He was always calm and collected, always a smile, always optimistic, always doing things 110% perfect. He radiated an inner strength. He was blue-eyed perfection.
At the beginning of this war against terror, Gedalya was fighting in Ramallah. He found the keys to Arafat's office, and led his soldiers in. When the other soldiers wanted to destroy the computers, Gedalya said, "Wait. Let me work on them." He stayed in the office by himself, locked the door, and started checking the computers. When he saw what damning material they contained, he took a screwdriver and removed all the hard disks, which he then handed over to Intelligence.
Gedalya also found a million and a half shekels as well as dollars -- all counterfeit.
When their work was done in Ramallah, they went on to Jenin. Jenin is the place where the majority of the suicide bombers come from. My Yossi described to us how our army got control of Jenin. Jenin was surrounded by tanks on all sides so none of the terrorists could escape. The women and children were brought to a school, and fed and housed there. All men over 16 were arrested and interrogated.
Eventually, the ring was tightened around the remaining terrorists who refused to give up. Since the army did not want to hurt civilians, fighting was house to house. Of course, the easiest and safest way to eliminate terrorists is to aerial bomb them, the way America did in Afghanistan. With one or two bombs the job is finished. But, because we try to remain a humane army, we settled for house to house fighting, the most dangerous form of combat.
Gedalya at one point discovered a house from where they were being fired upon. He asked permission from the officer to fire back and was refused. The officer answered him that there was a family in the next building that had not evacuated as yet and, therefore, they could not endanger their safety.
There were booby traps everywhere: in the trees, in the manholes, on the bodies of killed terrorists, in houses, in the streets. Yesterday, 13 soldiers were killed in a booby-trapped building which collapsed on them.
The fighting in Jenin was very difficult. Yesterday, two of the soldiers who were killed were brought by stretcher to where Gedalya was. He quickly ran to help take the stretchers. All of a sudden, Gedalya shouted "It's Matanya!" and broke down crying. Matanya was his best friend. Gedalya then saw that the other soldier killed was his other good friend. The Commander quickly slapped Gedalya and told him to stop crying, saying "Tomorrow there will be time to mourn." But "tomorrow" Gedalya himself was dead.
At 9 PM, Gedalya was killed. The battalion commanders were in a room with other officers when a sniper shot him through the window. The bullet hit a grenade he was wearing.
At Gedalya's funeral today, his friend Yiftah spoke. Yiftah said that three of their friends had already been killed. One was buried only yesterday. In a poignant voice, Yiftah declared: "Only you and I are left, Gedalya. I am like a wall; I have no tears left. I cannot cry, and I want to cry."
When Yiftah came down from the podium, he fell into my arms. I had never seen this 21-year-old boy before, but I told him to cry. He held me tightly, and we both cried for Gedalya, whom we both loved so much. Even when I lightened my hold on his body, he held on to me tightly and cried.
After the funeral, I called my mother (Gedalya's grandmother) in Miami Beach to tell her that it was over and that everything is going to be all right. She answered: "It will never be all right again."
My son Yossi returned to his unit in Jenin, insisting that we not worry, that he would be safe inside his tank.
Israel is at a crossroads. If we do not put an end to terror, then terror will put an end to us. There has never been a more just war. What we need now is the support of every right-thinking person on this earth, so that the job an be completed.
Gedalya died defending Israel, so that there would be a home for all Jews. Would that his death not be in vain!
Naomi
Larsen is an irrational demagogue with a history of anti-Israel bias. From his current comments to his attempted cover-up of UN complicity in the kidnapping of Israelis by Hezbullah, Larsen has not only showed himself a biased creep unworthy of diplomatic status, but a wreckless careless man who's vitriolic baseless rhetoric distorts reality and pushes the "two sides in the peace process" further apart.
I don't know what is wrong with Peres, but to defend Larsen is an outrage. Peres should not apologize for him, but demand a formal apology and clarification over his remarks. Larsen has already proved he has no regard for logic, reason, proportion or the Jewish state.
I am all for Israel giving Larsen the boot. They should do it immediately.
Too right...I read his whole diatribe somewhere 2 days ago and I couldn't BELIEVE a diplomat was saying it...He and Reverend Sharpton should get together and try and out "View with Alarm" each other...Sheesh!
Funny that he didn't call for any UN investigations into any of the 23 homicide by suicide bombers that came from the UN supported refugee camp. But it's not surprising, as Larsen engaged in a shouting match with the Israeli ambassador to the UN floor over the tapes of the Hezbullah kidnapping. Larsen had to admit he was wrong, that he defended the UN erroneously and without knowing the facts, and apologize. Once again we find him making conclusive statements without knowing all the facts. It's obvious the guy is irrational.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.