Mark Steyn: Struggle puts a premium on being anti-Jew

The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 03/30/2002 | Mark Steyn

[Pokey78]

EASTER usually finds me at my little New Hampshire Baptist Church, one of those white clapboard meeting houses that, as medieval stone churches do in English villages, make Christianity seem indigenous. This year, though, I'm en route from Europe to the Middle East, which puts a different spin on things. Jesus never saw a clapboard church or an Anglican vicar in a dog collar. Nineteen hundred and sixtysomething years ago, He was celebrating Passover. Christ's Last Supper was the first day of Pesach, the same ritual those Israeli diners were observing on Wednesday when a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated himself, killing 20 and injuring almost 200, but no doubt earning big bonus points with those 72 virgins who will surely pleasure him in Paradise all the more assiduously.

In Jesus's Last Supper, one miracle - the Jews' liberation from slavery in Egypt - prefigures another, Christ's resurrection. Christians have prospered in the two millennia since: they have the luxury of turning a celebration of survival into an excuse for chocolate eggs and toy bunnies. Not so the Jews. Throughout the same period, they have raised a cup of wine each Passover and spoken the same words from the Haggada: "In every generation, they rise up against us to destroy us." And this year, in Netanya, before they could even say the words, they were blown apart. This wasn't a pizza parlour or a bus: the terrorist struck, as the New York Post's John Podhoretz put it, "at the very core of what it means to be a Jew". It made explicit, as if that were necessary, that this particular "liberation struggle" puts a premium on being anti-Jew rather than pro-Palestinian.

Just as revealing was the reaction from the European media. In the American press, you read things like: "An observer to the bomb-blast scene described a dead young girl, perhaps 10 or 12, lying on the ground with her eyes open, looking as if she was surprised." For Europe, on the other hand, the main significance of this development was that it was "unhelpful" to the "peace process". Before I'm accused of being more upset about dead Jewish than dead Muslim kids, let me say that I take people at their own estimation: in the Palestinian Authority schools, they teach their children about the glories of martyrdom; indeed, the careers guidance counsellor appears to have little information on alternative employment prospects; at social events, the moppets are dressed up as junior jihadi, with toy detonators and play bombs. It's not that I place less value on Palestinian lives, but that Chairman Arafat and his chums in Hamas do. So does Saddam Hussein, whose government (the subject of an admiring article in this week's Spectator) gives $25,000 to the family of each Palestinian suicide bomber. So does the Arab League, which at last year's summit passed a resolution hailing the "spirit of sacrifice" of the Palestinian "martyrs" and thus licensed Wednesday's massacre. As for the "peace process", those Europeans who, just a few months ago, were urging the Americans to cease operations for Ramadan evidently feel no compunction to demand from Chairman Arafat and his dark subsidiaries any similar "bombing pause" for Passover.

In the days after September 11, we were told that Muslims had great respect for their fellow "people of the book" - ie, Jews and Christians. This ought to be so: after all, the dramatis personae of the Koran include Abraham, Moses, David, John the Baptist, Jesus and the Virgin Mary. It's one thing to believe that the Israelis are occupiers and oppressors and that the Zionist state should not exist. But no Muslim with any understanding of his shared heritage could in good conscience blow up a Passover Seder. It marks a new low in the Palestinians' descent into nihilism - though, as usual, the silence of the imams is deafening. As for the nonchalance of the Europeans, that too should not surprise us: in my experience, the Continent's Christians, practising and nominal, find the ceremonies of Jewish life faintly creepy, notwithstanding that these were also the rituals by which their own Saviour lived.

But this year, when the Christians' solar calendar and the Jews' lunar calendar have coincided and Easter and Passover fall together, it's a safe bet that George W Bush will make the connection. The first time I ever heard him speak, he spoke openly about his faith and about Christ in a way that would be unimaginable for a British politician. He will know all the details - "the baby tried to crawl away, but it died, too". Unlike the Europeans, he must know too that Yasser Arafat could never run any kind of state: give him Switzerland and he'd turn it into a sewer. The only question now is whether Bush will realise how disastrous the last month has been in his retreat from the moral clarity displayed after September 11. The President has been reduced to mumbling Beltway shorthand about the need to comply with "Tenet" and "Mitchell", while Dick Cheney's shuttle diplomacy to shore up "moderate" Arab support for war with Iraq has resulted only in spectacular rapprochements between Iraq and Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, etc. Wednesday's bloodbath should open their eyes: just because it's Easter, that's no reason to lay any more huge eggs.

[MeekOneGOP]

Mark Steyn: Struggle puts a premium on being anti-Jew

Excerpt:

Just as revealing was the reaction from the European media. In the American press, you read things like: "An observer to the bomb-blast scene described a dead young girl, perhaps 10 or 12, lying on the ground with her eyes open, looking as if she was surprised." For Europe, on the other hand, the main significance of this development was that it was "unhelpful" to the "peace process". Before I'm accused of being more upset about dead Jewish than dead Muslim kids, let me say that I take people at their own estimation: in the Palestinian Authority schools, they teach their children about the glories of martyrdom; indeed, the careers guidance counsellor appears to have little information on alternative employment prospects; at social events, the moppets are dressed up as junior jihadi, with toy detonators and play bombs. It's not that I place less value on Palestinian lives, but that Chairman Arafat and his chums in Hamas do. So does Saddam Hussein, whose government (the subject of an admiring article in this week's Spectator) gives $25,000 to the family of each Palestinian suicide bomber. So does the Arab League, which at last year's summit passed a resolution hailing the "spirit of sacrifice" of the Palestinian "martyrs" and thus licensed Wednesday's massacre. As for the "peace process", those Europeans who, just a few months ago, were urging the Americans to cease operations for Ramadan evidently feel no compunction to demand from Chairman Arafat and his dark subsidiaries any similar "bombing pause" for Passover.

In the days after September 11, we were told that Muslims had great respect for their fellow "people of the book" - ie, Jews and Christians. This ought to be so: after all, the dramatis personae of the Koran include Abraham, Moses, David, John the Baptist, Jesus and the Virgin Mary. It's one thing to believe that the Israelis are occupiers and oppressors and that the Zionist state should not exist. But no Muslim with any understanding of his shared heritage could in good conscience blow up a Passover Seder. It marks a new low in the Palestinians' descent into nihilism - though, as usual, the silence of the imams is deafening. As for the nonchalance of the Europeans, that too should not surprise us: in my experience, the Continent's Christians, practising and nominal, find the ceremonies of Jewish life faintly creepy, notwithstanding that these were also the rituals by which their own Saviour lived.

But this year, when the Christians' solar calendar and the Jews' lunar calendar have coincided and Easter and Passover fall together, it's a safe bet that George W Bush will make the connection. The first time I ever heard him speak, he spoke openly about his faith and about Christ in a way that would be unimaginable for a British politician. He will know all the details - "the baby tried to crawl away, but it died, too".......................

---

Steyn has a way with words unlike anyone I have ever known.......

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my ping list!. . .don't be shy.

[onyx]

He's pegged the Euro-trash, that's for sure. Another bull's eye column regarding Muslims.

[MeekOneGOP]

Before I'm accused of being more upset about dead Jewish than dead Muslim kids, let me say that I take people at their own estimation: in the Palestinian Authority schools, they teach their children about the glories of martyrdom; indeed, the careers guidance counsellor appears to have little information on alternative employment prospects; at social events, the moppets are dressed up as junior jihadi, with toy detonators and play bombs.

How in the world does he keep coming up with good stuff, Pokey??..............

[father_elijah]

Wednesday's bloodbath should open their eyes: just because it's Easter, that's no reason to lay any more huge eggs.

A Pesach/Pascha BUMP for Mark Steyn!

[mlmr]

Actually Yes, I did think Steyn is a Jewish name. In the notrheast Steyn and its variations are usually Jewish names, although I do realize that in the midwest this is not true.

[dennisw]

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[maica]

It's not that I place less value on Palestinian lives, but that Chairman Arafat and his chums in Hamas do. So does Saddam Hussein, whose government (the subject of an admiring article in this week's Spectator) gives $25,000 to the family of each Palestinian suicide bomber.-----

But this year, when the Christians' solar calendar and the Jews' lunar calendar have coincided and Easter and Passover fall together, it's a safe bet that George W Bush will make the connection. The first time I ever heard him speak, he spoke openly about his faith and about Christ in a way that would be unimaginable for a British politician. He will know all the details - "the baby tried to crawl away, but it died, too". Unlike the Europeans, he must know too that Yasser Arafat could never run any kind of state: give him Switzerland and he'd turn it into a sewer.

The news clip of President Bush's response to this bombing was very telling. He paused and then said "Mister Arafat". I believe this was a signal that he will not recognize Arafat as a Chairman of anything. I also believe that the Israelis who have Arafat under siege got the message from our president, too.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Illbay]

Why? They gained them in an act of war.

Simple-mindedness is somewhat understandable on a Saturday morning.

But the REALITY is, that Israel OCCUPIED those territories to give themselves a buffer zone. Period.

It was only later, when radical Jewish factions in Israel began to talk about "greater Israel" and the "law of transfer," etc., and began building (illegally, even according to Israeli law) settlements in the areas, that the whole complexion changed and you started hearing all this nattering about "spoils of war."

If you'll read MORE CAREFULLY (not just taking statements out of context), you'll see that I am simply suggesting they go back to their original intent, and stop displacing Palestinians who have lived there for centuries.

People seem to forget that Israel now has more land than they started with as a result of the wars with the Arab states, but that land was already OCCUPIED by Arab CIVILIANS--non-combatants.

The radical Jewish groups have been harrassing and trying to force them off the land that was theirs centuries before Israel existed.

I don't agree with the Intifada, but I understand why they are fighting.

[majordivit]

I don't agree with the Intifada, but I understand why they are fighting.

I know why they are fighting. Read the Koran. Gor to an arab website and read it. Read their own translation.

Actual Quotes from the Koran

The Muslim Bible commands Muslims to murder all non-Muslims:

"O Prophet! Make war against the unbelievers [all non-Muslims] and the hypocrites and be merciless against them. Their home is hell, an evil refuge indeed." (Koran, 9:73)

"When you meet the unbelievers in jihad [holy war], chop off their heads. And when you have brought them low, bind your prisoners rigorously. Then set them free or take ransom from them until the war is ended." (Koran, 47:40)

"The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and his messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be to be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet and genitals cut off, or to be expelled out of the land. Such will be their humiliation in the world, and in the next world they will face an awful horror." (Koran, 5:33-34)

"When we decide to destroy a population, we send a definite order to them who have the good things in life and yet sin. So that Allah's word is proven true against them, then we destroy them utterly." (Koran, 17:16-17)

"In order that Allah may separate the pure from the impure, put all the impure ones [all non-Muslims] one on top of another in a heap and cast them into hell. They will have been the ones to have lost." (Koran, 8:37)

"How many were the populations we utterly destroyed because of their sins, setting up in their place other peoples." (Koran, 21:11)

"Remember Allah inspired the angels: I am with you. Give firmness to the believers. I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers: you smite them above their necks and smite all their fingertips off of them." (Koran, 8:12)

[Pokey78]

You're on there....as of now.

[Travis McGee]

Harder days ahead I'm afraid.

[knighthawk]

Steyn is on a roll, a lot of good articles lately.

[knighthawk]

"Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity serves only tactical purposes. The founding of a Palestinian state is a new tool in the continuing battle against Israel...

-- Zuheir Muhsin, late Military Department head of the PLO and member of its Executive Council, Dutch daily Trouw, March 1977

Arafat:

"The suicide bombers of today are the noble successors of their noble predecessors...the Lebanese suicide bombers, who taught the US Marines a tough lesson in [Lebanon]... These suicide bombers are the salt of the earth, the engines of history...They are the most honorable [people] among us..." [Al Hayat Al Jadida Sept. 11, 2001].

"[Our aim is] to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian one." (Yasser Arafat, Closed session with Arab diplomats in Europe, January 30, 1996. Quoted in the Middle East Digest, March 7, 1996)

"The struggle against the Zionist enemy is not a matter of borders but relates to the mere existence of the Zionist entity." (PLO spokesman Bassam-abu-Sharif, Kuwait News Agency, May 31, 1996)

"The strategic goal is the liberation of Palestine from the Jordanian [sic] River to the Mediterranean Sea, even if this means that the conflict will last for another thousand years or for many generations." (Faisal Husseini, interview with Al-Arabi [Egypt], June 24, 2001)

"After the establishment of a Palestinian State in all of the West Bank and Gaza, the struggle against Israel will continue." (Israeli Knesset member Azmi Bishara, Ha'aretz weekly supplement, May 22, 1998)

[Victoria Delsoul]

Bump.

[happygrl]

The least surprising aspect of this article is that Mark Steyn is a faithful Christian.

[Ziva]

Let's not forget the words of the immortal Allan Sherman's song "Shake Hands with your Uncle Max," when listing a slew of relatives.

"... and Stein with an E-I and Styne with a Y."

[daviddennis]

Every other country in the Middle East except Lebanon is many, many times bigger than Israel.

You could hide the West Bank and Gaza Strip in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc, etc and nobody would find them for weeks.

It is my understanding that most of this land sits unused. Why not have a consortium of Arab countries accept present residents of Palastine?

I have this odd suspicion that many people in the Occupied Territories would rather blow things up than build a real nation, and that's the problem. Which is more satisfying, sending blows to the evil enemy or trying to run a business or raise a family, with all their ugly complications?

If you want to solve this problem, make sure that schools in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that are neutral towards Israel. Have the curriculum point out that Israelis are human beings, however flawed, and also have deep roots in the land.

If this could be done in a matter of fact way, without the kind of histrionics we see from the Arab peoples, it might do a world of good.

D

[My Identity]

Thanks to TomGuy for the above.

Still wondering if the only way to honorably "solve" the Arab-Israeli conflict is to use "ethnic cleansing" (by which I mean the polite, but forceful relocation of all 3 million Palis outside of Eretz Yisrael -- which is not "genocide" which is how some on the Left use it).

This is justified, even required, by the almost 10 years of official "judeo-nazi" indoctrination by the PA of the Pali masses. The current wave of suicide bombers is unprecedented, and is the direct (and obviously planned) result of brainwashing that started with Pali children as young as 1st and 2nd grade. What unspeakable, vomitous horror.

And to the extent that this Pali policy was conducted, funded, supported, promoted, and otherwise enabled by their Arab bretheren (notably Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia) then it is concomittant upon these countries to pay for their sins by taking in the Palis. Moral clarity demands nothing less.

Nothing less than the equivalent of an "Allied invasion of Nazi Germany" will suffice to rid the world of this monstrosity. Eject all Palis, round up their leaders (including "clerics" and "teachers"), put them on trial for Crimes against Humanity, and then hang them in public.

There is NO POSSIBILITY of a negotiated settlement within the lifetime of these people, not when the PA has been preparing its people, not for peace, but for visceral hate and unrelenting war.