Posted on 08/02/2002 8:01:54 AM PDT by 1bigdictator
The Shopping Cycle Yehoshua Mizrachi 02 August 2002 Email this story Print this story
‘Cycle of violence?’ For months now, our extensive international network of Israeli hasbarah (PR) professionals (all two of them) have decried the attempts of Arab propagandists and other Jew-haters to equate the indiscriminate murders of innocent civilians by homicide bombers with Israel’s legitimate, surgical military operations undertaken in self-defense. There is no cycle of violence, they argue, only acts of vicious terrorism.
However, gentle reader, I have a terrible secret to reveal: the hasbarah-niks have it wrong. There is indeed a cycle, a cycle that repeats itself with almost mathematical precision. It’s called the ‘shopping cycle’, and here’s how it works:
First, Jews go shopping and get blown up by Arab terrorists.
Step two: Enough Jewish blood has to run in the gutters to trigger the conscience of our dozy government (exactly how much Jewish blood is subject to interpretation; one or two dead Jews a day used to be enough, now it’s in the double digits). The politicians send in the IDF to enforce closures on the Arabs areas and arrest fugitives and terrorists.
Step three: As if by magic, the terror attacks grind to a halt. The Jews can go shopping again.
Step four: Under intense pressure from international Jew-haters and home grown self-loathing Jews, the government eases the closures and restrictions on Arabs "not involved in terror activity," so that the Arabs have a turn to go shopping (I’m not sure how soldiers can know who’s not involved in terror activity and therefore allowed to go shopping; maybe they use dowsing sticks or analyze auras).
Step five: Boom! Jewish blood once again fills the storm drains of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv (The dowsing sticks don’t seem to be working). And once again, the ‘shopping cycle’ loads for another go-around.
Last Friday, right before Shabbos (the Sabbath), four people were murdered near Hevron by a young Arab male who decided to use his shopping privileges to shoot an assault weapon into oncoming Jewish traffic. Earlier that week, a teacher was killed at 4:30 am, on his way from the Shomron to B’nei Brak for Torah study (this shooter was obviously an early-bird shopper). Yesterday, a savvy Arab shopper blew himself up at a falafel stand in downtown Jerusalem and, as I write this, seven Jews are dead and 86 wounded at the Hebrew University. Well, that’s one way to get those blue lights spinning.
When does this stop being OK? In the good old Dark Ages, Jewish communities had to raise large amounts of gold to ransom kidnapped Jews. A Jewish life was worth tens of thousands of guilders. When did the lives of a dozen Jews become worth the price of some eggs, a sack of flour and a bit of butter in the Arab souq? Last week, Shimon Peres said that closures on Arab areas would be eased to "test the ability of PA security forces to prevent the violence." Close to 1,000 Jews have been murdered by Arab terrorists since the beginning of Oslo, an even dozen in the past week. How many times must we perform this test, Shimon? Here’s a novel test: let’s have the Arabs absolutely cease all terror attacks for a while, and then test the IDF to see how many attacks we carry out against Arabs...
The United Nations spends nine times more per capita on ‘Palestinian refugees’ than they do on any other refugee group. Why are they still near starvation? Perhaps the IDF should unremittingly enforce the closures, but allow the UN and NGOs to enter Arab villages and towns, their trucks laden with free food for distribution. Eliminate the sticky fingered, stubbly-faced, kafiyyed middleman: Food in, but no Arabs out.
Perhaps the larger question is why foreign governments, who are well aware of the results of the ‘shopping cycle’, pressure Israel each time? And why does the timorous Israeli government capitulate? The answer is an underlying prejudice: deep down, all parties - the Arabs, the Europeans, the Americans and even a lot of Israelis - believe that we get what’s coming to us, because we don’t really belong here. We are interlopers, occupiers and encroachers of stolen Arab land.
Beneath that, the real reason: abject existential panic. No system for interpreting the history of Western civilization can account for the impossible renaissance of Jewish nationalism - except one. To many Christians, Moslems and secular humanists, a viable, Jewish State is a direct and unanswerable challenge to their belief systems. What if the Jew is right? What if the "Old and Everlasting Covenant" is still in full force and effect? Mais non, the Jew cannot possibly be right, so we must destroy the evidence that argues in his favor. Not so difficult, thinks Europe; we’ve fomented pogroms - and far worse - before.
So the whole world seems to agree that the Jews don’t belong here, the only debate is on the details: do the Jews not belong in the Middle East at all, or do they belong on an indefensible beachside strip of land, a Jewish Guantanamo Bay? These details are debated in the august chambers of the UN, down in Foggy Bottom, in European legislatures in a dozen capitols, in Riyadh and Cairo. But while the debate rages the ‘shopping cycle’ goes on, and on, and on.
The spiritual leader of Hamas declared this week that terror attacks against Jews will continue until there are no Jews left in Israel to go shopping (OK, I’m paraphrasing a little here). Only two things will stop the cycle: an authentic, unapologetic Jewish leadership, and a Jewish people that demonstrates, by their unity and through their aliyah, that nothing is more important than unleashing the awesome symbiosis of the Children of Israel, in the Land of Israel, clutching the Law of Israel. Because the Nations may not want us here, but the Lord does.
From the Prophets:
"Any weapon sharpened against you shall not succeed, and any tongue that shall rise against you in judgement you shall condemn; this is the heritage of the servant of Hashem, and their righteousness is from Me, the words of Hashem." - Isaiah 54. ---------------------------------- Yehoshua Mizrachi is a columnist living in Gush Etzion. He can be contacted at smitten@zahav.net.il.
From your lips to Gods ear. IF Israel falls Judaism will vanish within a couple centuries. From hostile outside forces and antipathy from the formerly observant.
Moreover, Islam's attention will then turn to Christianity as the next target for extinction.
To many other Christians, myself included, the Jews are God's chosen people and nothing in our Bible contradicts that.
Fight on, oh Israel!
Sounds like a logical solution to me--of course the UN works side by side with Hezbollah on the northern border of Israel so maybe the UN doesn't really want to solve the problem--GW needs to use his plain talk to demand that the UN stop playing footsie with the terrrorists. These terrorists groups are like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton--there ain't no money to be had in solving a problem--keeping the problem alive keeps the money flowing.
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