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Posted on 10/10/2003 3:35:30 AM PDT by Elkiejg
After I read "Last Jihad" by Joel Rosenberg, I researched information about him and as a result, signed up to receive emails from him. Thinking it would simply be notices about his forthcoming new novel, I have been amazed to read updates about his visit in Israel with an insiders look at the day-to-day conditions. Received the latest this morning - thought you all would be interested in first hand information about the situation there.
(October 10, 2003) -- As I write this not far from the Israeli border with Syria, there's news of another Palestinian suicide bombing in Israel. It's the second since my wife, three kids, parents and I arrived here two weeks ago. It's not yet clear whether this attack was coordinated by the Syrians or from Syrian territory. But the stakes couldn't be higher. Israel hasn't attacked so deeply into Syrian territory for three decades. Will they have to again?
No deaths reported this time, thank God. The terror operation seems to have gone awry --stopped by Israeli border guards. But more than 800 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians since the "second intifada" began in September 2000. Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points out that relative to Israel's population these deaths are the equivalent of more than 20,000 Americans dying at the hands of terrorists.
20,000.
It's almost an unfathomable number.
As we sit at a traffic light on the crowded, congested streets of Jerusalem or Tel Aviv or Nazareth -- idling next to public buses and silently wondering if we'd live if any of those buses suddenly blew up -- we try to imagine the anger Americans would feel if 20,000 of our fellow citizens were butchered over the past three years. How might Howard Dean react? Or Dick Gephardt? How might General Clark respond?
The Bush administration, to its credit, didn't criticize Israel's strike into Syria. Yet at the same time, it is demanding that the Israeli government to show "restraint" in the future. Have we shown restraint in the war on terror? Hardly. After we lost 3,000 precious souls on September 11, 2001, we set out to destroy the regimes of two separate countries. And rightly so. How might we be reacting if six more 9/11s were to occur?
In my travels through Israel and the West Bank over the past few weeks, a few things have struck me:
First, the Israeli people are absolutely determined to go on with their day-to-day lives, despite the constant, ever present threat of terror...since we've been here, over thirty suicide bombers have been intercepted and arrested by the Israeli military -- yet life goes on....we've been out to dinner with Israeli friends at outdoor cafes, McDonald's and pizza parlors....we've gone with them to movie theatres and ice cream shops....we've driven with them through the West Bank to ride on camels and visit archeological sites....we've gone to shopping malls and restaurants and even walked with them through the Muslim Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem, and it's clear that Israelis refuse to hunker in the bunker....yes, they candidly admit they get anxious, especially for their children....they admit they've altered various shopping and other habits and schedules and routines in various ways....but people still eat out, they still take buses, they still swim in the Dead Sea, they still go out with friends and family for piping hot cups of Turkish coffee....after all, they say, what choice do they have?
Second, many Palestinians feel absolutely terrorized by Yasser Arafat and his regime....that much is palpable....as I mentioned in my last email, my family and I had lunch last Saturday with some Palestinian Christian friends near Jerusalem, just as the suicide bomber from Jenin was inflicting her act of murder in Haifa....we didn't know about the bombing until after lunch, nor did our friends....instead, they answered our questions about life in Bethlehem amidst the current "situation"....they showed us the damage caused by Israeli tanks and bullets and bombs....they worried about finding jobs and caring for their families amidst the economic depression caused by the cycle of violence....but it is also clear that not all Palestinians agree with Arafat's terror regime, nor with the Islamic militants....not every Arab here wants to wage jihad....they've already suffered so much and in so many ways.
Third, there's a curious, bewildering, emotional paradox going on here....on the one hand, it is clear that political tensions are rising rapidly -- the bombings…the Israeli threats to expel or assassinate Arafat...the Israeli air strike against a terror training camp just eight miles from the Syrian capital of Damascus...the emergency session of the U.N. Security Council on the eve of Yom Kippur to condemn Israel rather than those who support and sponsor this horrific campaign of suicide bombings...Syria threatening to ratchet up tensions and strike back militarily if "provoked" again, and so forth -- and yet at the same time there's also a counterintuitive sense of calm in every day life here that you'd never get from watching the news or reading the papers back home in the U.S.
Except for the first few days in Jerusalem -- cringing every time a public bus would drive by -- we've felt very safe, even with our three young sons on their first visit to the Holy Land….yesterday, for example, we baptized all three of our kids in the Jordan River, at the base of the Golan Heights, just a few miles from the Syrian border....I know that sounds bizarre....maybe it is....but the past few days in the northern part of Israel haven't felt dangerous at all....yes, we saw a half dozen Israeli Air Force Apache and Cobra helicopter gunships flying north, presumably to safeguard the Lebanese and Syrian borders....and we've heard the distant rumbling of explosions further north of us as the Israeli military runs routine bombing exercises near their forward positions....but honestly, it doesn't sound like bombs being dropped from an F-16....it sounds more like a northern Virginia thunderstorm off in the distance....such is life in Israel these days.
Fourth and finally, Arafat's days are numbered....reports have been buzzing throughout Israel and the disputed territories for the past week: Arafat's had a heart attack....no, he's been suffering from food poisoning....no, he's got stomach cancer....no, he's just suffering from exhaustion....the stories and rumors and counter-rumors go on and on....but one thing is becoming clear: both Israelis and Palestinians are rapidly beginning to prepare for the day -- which may come very soon -- when Yasser Arafat will no longer be in charge, or will no longer be alive....what then?....no one is sure, but talk is growing of a post-Arafat Palestinian civil war for control of the West Bank and Gaza…the Palestinian legislature is considering approval of the creation of an emergency cabinet to aid in a transition, should Arafat suddenly depart from the scene....yet at the same time, there is talk that the newly appointed Palestinian prime minister wants to quit....one leading Palestinian figure speaks of the current political picture in the territories as absolute "chaos"....no one is quite sure what will happen next....but there is a growing sense it won't be good.
All this while Russia continues to help the radical mullahs in Iran build nuclear power plants and North Korea continues to sell Iran longer and longer range ballistic missiles.
Somehow -- at least from the vantage point of the Syrian border -- the "who leaked what to whom" story back in Washington doesn't seem quite so interesting.
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FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
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It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
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I am not aware that the IDF deliberately seeks out mothers and children as targets, although the terrorists do like to use them as "human shields."
Throwing rocks at a tank is a photo op.
The people on the #2 bus, in the Café Maxim, the Café Hillel, etc. etc. etc. were not killed by rocks.
Just curious -- are you a female?
NO!! I am, however, a tri-sexual - spotty owls, alligators, and other 'endangered' species.
Well someone has to 'Valhalla' the little buggers...........FRegards
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