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What most Jews don't want to verbalize is that they know, deep down, this is never going to stop’
Jewish World Review ^ | June 4, 2003 | Joel Mowbray

Posted on 06/04/2003 5:11:59 AM PDT by SJackson

JERUSALEM Although it isn't instantly apparent, most Israelis seem to be keenly aware that the struggle Americans view as an Israeli-Palestinian issue is, in fact, much larger — which President Bush acknowledged by visiting Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau before the latest "peace summit."

Talking with a wide range of Israelis in the week immediately preceding Bush's Middle East visit has proven revealing about the perceived prospects for peace. Israelis with whom I spoke in both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv the past few days realize that they are wanted dead by a massive portion of the world —almost all of which surrounds their tiny country. President Bush's journey to the region has done little to inject ordinary Israelis with a sense of optimism.

Walking down the residential streets of Jerusalem Thursday afternoon and through the business district of Tel Aviv the night before, the atmosphere is one that could be found in Los Angeles or New York. Sitting outside restaurants and nightclubs, people are walking, flirting, laughing. Most of the Tel Aviv delis (or convenience stores, as some Americans would call them) have no fourth wall, conveying an openness that belies the residual anxiety many Israelis feel.

One Israeli, a light, olive-skinned woman in her mid-20's whose family emigrated here from Yemen, told me that if you are here long enough, you see that not everything is actually copasetic. "Israelis are nervous, but we are allowed to be," she explains. "I used to live right over there (pointing to an apartment building near the U.S. Embassy, about two blocks in from the Mediterranean Sea). There were three bombings right nearby in the year I lived there." Just one block from where that conversation occurred is Mike's Place, the site of a suicide bombing just a month earlier that killed four.

Walking past Mike's Place now, an observer would see no signs that an attack had taken place —except for the small, makeshift memorial about 15 feet from the entrance. Photos of the victims adorn a small sign that stands about four feet tall. The bar, which is a popular hangout for U.S. Embassy staff (who work next week), was re-built within one week of the April 30 attack. That is common here in Israel. More than anything else, it is a statement of perseverance, a determination that Israel will stand strong in the face of evil.

To an American on his first visit here, Israelis can seem unflappable. But talk to anyone long enough, and emotions ranging from apprehension to angst come to the fore. "What most Jews don't want to verbalize," notes an Israeli man who emigrated from the U.S. over twenty years ago, "is that they know, deep down, this is never going to stop." The high-ranking official in the Jerusalem police force continued, "This has been going on for thousands of years." At a jazz nightclub in Tel Aviv Thursday night, an American Jew on his fourth visit here said, "The Holocaust was not of a different kind, but of a different degree." The two Israelis at the table with us nodded solemnly in agreement.

Continued...

(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Israel
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Continued....

In the United States, parents' greatest fear for their children is a senseless car accident. Here it is senseless and savagely brutal mass murder. One Israeli father told me told me that he gave his 5-year-old son a cell phone as a way to soothe his nerves. "Sometimes, if my son hasn't called after he should have arrived at school, I call him up, just to hear his voice."

Skepticism is the norm on the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Almost no one really believes peace is imminent. They've been teased with the promise of a truly normal life too many times before. Israelis are, if anything, less amenable to compromise after having been willing to give up so much in the past. Younger Israelis are slightly more sanguine, but it seems superficial, dissipating if the conversation progresses beyond casual chatting. When asked if Bush's visit would accomplish anything, a 23-year-old Israeli woman who works at a beachfront hotel answered, "I hope so." After a few minutes, though, she expressed the same sentiment as many others: "Can peace really come? I doubt it."

1 posted on 06/04/2003 5:11:59 AM PDT by SJackson
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To: SJackson
As a Christian, I sympathize with these people but I also am very frustrated with the Jews here in the United States. Most Jews are democrats and democratic politicians are for the most part, pro-palestinian supporters.

Why is that?
2 posted on 06/04/2003 5:28:21 AM PDT by Arpege92
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Yehuda; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; ...
If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.
3 posted on 06/04/2003 5:35:43 AM PDT by SJackson
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To: Arpege92
I, too, would like someone to explain why American Jews vote Democrat (or at least seem to most of the time). And why they seem to be anti-gun.

As a Christian, I don't think this Middle East conflict will be resolved nor will there be peace until the Lord has decided enough is enough.
4 posted on 06/04/2003 5:35:44 AM PDT by Maria S
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To: Arpege92
Lack of knowledge of Israeli history, and that of their Arab neighbors. Lack of knowledge of Arab/Islamic "culture".
5 posted on 06/04/2003 5:38:39 AM PDT by FreedomPoster
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To: Arpege92
Most Jews are democrats and democratic politicians are for the most part, pro-palestinian supporters.

Why is that?

Part of the answer: http://www.arutzsheva.com/article.php3?id=1760
6 posted on 06/04/2003 5:38:46 AM PDT by Sir Francis Dashwood (LET'S ROLL!)
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To: SJackson
I agree that it is not going to stop because the arabs don't actually want peace. It's for this reason that I in fact support the creation of a Palestinian state. In my opinion (and I don't claim to be an expert), by allowing the creation of a Palestinian state the acts of terror of the "oppressed" against the "oppressor" (not my terms, but many people see it that way) would then become acts of war. I think that would dramatically sway world opinion towards the Israelis, and the attacks of the Palestinian State against the Israeli State would then provide a better framework for Israel to take care of the problem (via war against an invader) then the current situation (via police action against a people who don't have self-government)
7 posted on 06/04/2003 5:39:59 AM PDT by Rodney King (No, we can't all just get along.)
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To: SJackson
"Israelis with whom I spoke in both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv the past few days realize that they are wanted dead by a massive portion of the world - almost all of which surrounds their tiny country."
8 posted on 06/04/2003 5:47:14 AM PDT by Clive
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To: Arpege92
History.

Penniless Jewish immigrants who came to this country during the late 1800's and early 1900's found the Democratic party best represented their interests.

That remained true right through the '60s - despite such things as the rampant anti-Semitism which characterized many in Roosevelt's cabinet, for example.

The anti-Semitsm of the Left is a new phenomenon in America - an outgrowth of political correctness - which has completely confused most Jews. They don't know how to respond, where to turn.

9 posted on 06/04/2003 5:48:36 AM PDT by liberallarry
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To: Rodney King
In the mean time, Jews here in the United States are doing more harm than good by not voicing their concerns for the Jews in Israel and not to mention the Jews in Europe.
10 posted on 06/04/2003 5:49:51 AM PDT by Arpege92
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To: liberallarry
American Jews don't know how to respond, where to turn? If there is any particular group of people on this planet who should be more aware of anti-Semitism....it is the Jews.

The Jews in Europe are the opposite....they are aware but they don't know where to turn for help.
11 posted on 06/04/2003 5:54:46 AM PDT by Arpege92
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To: Arpege92
"Why is that?"

That, my friend, is the $64 question! That nature was what got them to be good sheep, pack their one suitcase, and walk to the train station, and get into the boxcar. All during that time, they convinced themselves that it was all a misunderstanding that would be corrected.

And I have heard these liberal Jews bad-mouth the Sabras for being neanderthals and embarassments to the Jewish Culture.

Have you ever heard the saying, "A Conservative is a Liberal who got mugged last night!"? The problem is that too many of these liberal Jews, when they do get mugged, a la Nazi Germany or Arab, don't survive to get mad!

12 posted on 06/04/2003 5:56:44 AM PDT by Redleg Duke (Stir the pot...don't let anything settle to the bottom where the lawyers can feed off of it!)
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To: Redleg Duke
They don't survive to get mad! This is exactly the kind of attitude that puts their very existance in danger. They don't see it but Christians and muslims do. Muslims want them dead and no matter how hard Christians scream this threat, they don't listen.
13 posted on 06/04/2003 6:05:38 AM PDT by Arpege92
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To: Arpege92
I've found my own answers.

Realpolitic. I've joined Machiavelli in his cycnical view of human nature.

Most of the people I know - liberal or conservative, Jew or Christian - cannot travel this road.

14 posted on 06/04/2003 6:08:44 AM PDT by liberallarry
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To: SJackson
All this Jihading against Jews, Hindus, Americans, Christians in Africa and others will stop. It'll stop when Islam is humbled by Mecca/Medina/Qom being oblitertated. Will it come to that? I give it better than 50% chance.
15 posted on 06/04/2003 6:12:01 AM PDT by dennisw
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To: Arpege92
I believe that is one of the many reasons it will never stop, that, and human nature.
16 posted on 06/04/2003 6:13:04 AM PDT by stuartcr
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To: stuartcr
It sure would be nice to see the muslims on the recieving end for once....and it would be even better if it were the Jews who does the giving.
17 posted on 06/04/2003 6:16:49 AM PDT by Arpege92
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To: Arpege92
I am frustrated with American Jews also. I think for the majority their religion/pride in Israel is not very strong. It is something that they were brought up with...For many Jews, liberalism seems to be their religion.
18 posted on 06/04/2003 6:21:51 AM PDT by votelife (FREE MIGUEL ESTRADA!)
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To: votelife
That is sad.
19 posted on 06/04/2003 6:28:04 AM PDT by Arpege92
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To: SJackson
Is it true that Israel will become Muslim in the next generation or two because the Muslims have so many more children, and they will have the votes?
20 posted on 06/04/2003 6:32:39 AM PDT by 7 x 77 (w)
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