Posted on 04/01/2002 11:47:08 AM PST by Stand Watch Listen
Last month, 6,000 Jews died in Israel.
You heard the official death toll was 100. However, when you are dealing with such a tiny state and population, it´s important to keep things in perspective.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disclosed the real mortality statistics in a calm and unwavering tone, as nonchalantly as if he had been talking about making breakfast. He explained: For every Israeli murdered per capita population, simply multiply that number by sixty, and you will have the equivalent number of American dead. In the past month 100 Israelis died, or 6,000 Americans. In the past year, 340 Israelis have died, which is equal to 20,400 Americans. That´s seven World Trade Center attacks in only one year.
To listen to the Palestinians tell it, they are the ones getting shafted. After all, their death toll is significantly higher, since Arab mortality rates in this war are three to four times higher than that of the Israelis. If their official body count is higher, it is because Hamas and various terrorist factions are miserable lowlifes sponsoring their own martyrs for the suicide bombings. Israeli Defense Forces are stretched to the limit, with troops stationed at hostile Hezbollah terrorist sites in the north at Lebanon, to the settlements in the West and Gaza and in Israel proper. Palestinian body counts are a self-fulfilling prophesy, piling up as Israel desperately tries to defend its citizenry following almost daily suicide bombings that are out of control.
On the tail of the Passover Massacre, the suicide bombing and slaughter of merely two Jews barely raised an eyebrow. Yet another followed at a café in Tel Aviv, drawing less attention because only thirty were wounded. As I write this I learn that in Haifa, 14 more Israelis are dead. It´s gotten to a point where dead Israelis are so common that only those attacks that reach epic death proportions are worth reporting, or those regarded as “massacres.”
However, think about this: the girl, Ayat Akhras, who blew herself up was only eighteen years old. Young and attractive, she was planning a summer wedding. However, reared on the promise of immortality rewarded for Jewish slaughter, she willingly sacrificed herself for a perversion of a “faith.” This is the mind and heart of a monster, bred by a deformed culture malevolent to every religion but their own.
This young terrorist is not an isolated individual: she is the product of a people that created her and nourished her intense hatred for Jews. She is no more isolated than Arafat who, without confinement in his compound quarters, spent years fomenting a thirst for Israel´s destruction in his Arabic radio broadcasts, not to mention the recent slaughters committed by militants he refused to round up and imprison.
Once again, Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke the words of “restraint.” President Bush reacted to the Passover Massacre with the usual “harsh” rhetoric to Arafat: “Stop the violence!” Then came the U.N. Security Council resolution on Friday night, backed by the Bush administration, calling for Israel to withdraw from all Palestinian cities, including Ramallah. Then he warned Israel not to miss the opportunity for peace. Then he said he understood Israel´s actions because their country was under attack and they had to defend themselves.
You know what? I don´t think President Bush has a foreign policy with regard to Israel. I don´t think he has a clue.
Meanwhile, Nobel Peace laureate and Master Terrorist Yasser Arafat is holed up in his Ramallah compound as Israeli tanks moved in to isolate him and other terrorists receiving sanctuary there. Arafat refused to surrender these terrorists, proclaiming he´d rather sacrifice himself and become a “martyr.” The Debka Files (www.debka.com) reports:
“The military operation was vital, Israel explained, not only to isolate Arafat and cut off his terror machine, but to uncover the vast stores of secret weapons he has amassed in violation of the Oslo Framework Accords he signed with Israel in 1993. Israel intelligence had learned that Arafat had hid these forbidden depots beneath Palestinian Authority buildings in their government compound in Ramallah. As Israeli tanks and bulldozers advanced through the compound during the day, huge tunnels came to light containing an array of weaponry, including anti-tank and anti-air missiles – apparently only one section of a many-branched storage system.”
Another reason to attack the Ramallah compound was that Arafat was providing a safe haven for master terrorists including those responsible for the assassination of Israeli minister Rehayam Zeevi last year.
In spite of the above disclosures and the fact that the Al Aqsa Martyrs´ Brigade which is linked to Arafat´s Fatah movement has claimed responsibility for the last two suicide missions, there are still some asking if Arafat can “reign in the terrorists.” Please.
For the love of foreign oil, since 1973 Americans have been preoccupied with the “occupied territories.” It eludes the defenders of peace that long before there were occupied territories, there was no peace in Israel. In fact, long before the 1948 U.N. Resolution that established the State of Israel, one of the worst massacres occurred - in Hebron. The year was 1929 and a two-day Arab revolt left 67 Israelis slaughtered. Without occupied territories. Don´t you Israel bashers get it?
CNN´s Jerusalem correspondent Ben Wedeman gets it. On Capital Gang, he registered surprise after speaking to several Palestinians as they made their resolve clear. Any man, woman or child would be considered an acceptable target - not only in the settlements - but in Israel proper, pre-1967 Israel.
Now, if only the Bush administration would get it, they´d realize the War on Terror and the War on Israel are one and the same. They´d devise a strategy that would throw full support behind Israel, stop interfering with the IDF´s military offensive, cut-off all ties with the Palestinian Authority and join forces with Israel to defeat world terrorism. The alternative is an endless bloodbath, and the signs all point in that direction.
I hope they don't take too long. A lot of lives are at stake as they 'tarry'.
One thing that stands out clearly to me is the contrast between two sets of events, one here and one in Israel. Remember the panic that ensued relative to the Anthrax threat and realty? Only between three and five people died in our nation from Anthrax. Now, compare the violence in the State of Israel compared to that.
It is this startling comparison that truly brings home for me the terror the Israelis must be feeling at this time. And it's part of the reason why I think our nation should shed the bonds of procrastination and resoundly back Israel's actions and condemn Arasplat for the terrorist animal he is.
If anything, this implies an exact value to both side's dead citizens. 100 deaths for Israel is equated as exactly the same loss as the same percentage in the US.
Let's say this works out ot 0.00025% in Israel. The same percapita deaths in the us would work out to exactly the same 0.00025% loss in our nation. This is an exact equivelance.
Uh, no. The implication is that there are 60 times more Americans than Israelis
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NOPE! Only your life.
No, genius, that is not what was said or implied. It is meant simply to put things into perspective for an American audience. Not to be callous, but after all, a few people here and there mean little for this country (except for the families and friends of the deceased). Now, however, if you scale it up, the relative impact upon Israeli society can be measured in terms that we can more easily relate to. It would be, for example, a pretty big deal here if we lost 6 more WTC disasters worth of innocent people to terrorism in the year following 9/11/01 - such a big deal that what we are doing now in Afghanistan would look like a joke in comparison.
The whole point that Netanyahu is making is that Israel is doing what it is doing for a reason - a reason that Americans need to understand as if it were happening to us. Israel is at least as justified as we are in responding harshly to terrorism against its citizens, and perhaps more so given the relatively greater toll upon its society (and we have been undertaking a large effort that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of the enemy and a pretty significant number of innocents).
That per-capita arguement falls flat with me. Perhaps others like it.
See above, less the "genius" part.
Ding ding ding. We have a winner.
Margaret, you are the first Holocaust denier I have seen this year.
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