Another Arab Tactic

 by  Richard H. Shulman

I was writing "A & I" while Hillary Clinton, who consorts with terrorists and their promoters, marched to aver devotion to the Jewish state.

Jewish nationalists held their annual celebration in Central Park, with performances and speakers.  Former PM Netanyahu pitched his candidacy for the next election, as if he had not been repudiated for deceiving his voters and putting the nationalist camp in disarray.  He touted the same policies that he betrayed when he was elected before, without a word of apology or expression of resolve not to be so weak under US pressure next time.

Sitting in the first row, my associate's husband, a large man, bellowed out, "Liar!  Did you come here to fool us a second time?"  He cited the Hebron Accord as evidence.  (He could have cited much more.)

Netanyahu preached that now is the time for unity.  But unity for what? An Israeli man approached the husband and told him to shut up or else.  The husband replied in Hebrew, "Unlike Israel, the US is not a police state."

ANOTHER MOSQUE FOR MISCHIEF

In the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, "frequented by tens of thousands of Jewish worshippers, yeshiva and seminary students, school children, and tourists every day, Arabs began to renovate an abandoned mosque.  PLO official Faisal Husseini claims that the only purpose is to provide access to the facility for Muslims who wish to pray.  However, Arabs who have come there have been harassing Jews  (Arutz- 7, 6/5).

Any assurance by a terrorist leader is suspect.

You may recall similar episodes in Tiberias and Jaffa/Tel Aviv, where mosques  were being rehabilitated in the middle of all-Jewish areas.  Muslims hardly are in need of having prayer places there.  The prayer place is an excuse for "creating facts on the ground" and for gaining access to Jews for malicious mischief.  It is a tactic in the Arab strategy of spreading around in, and harassing the Jews out of, the country.

Indeed, the country is starting to slip away from the Jews, as is Yesha.  Wouldn't it be wiser to demolish unused mosques?  However, in this struggle, the Arabs may do almost anything and the Jews may do almost nothing.  Such is the eviscerated state of the Jewish state, thanks to the delusions of political correctness, the interference of the ideological Supreme Court, and the treason of leftist government.

ARABS & ISRAEL 5192: Jerusalem
ENCIRCLEMENT OF JERUSALEM

Ramallah and Bethlehem abut Jerusalem like pincers on north and south.  The government, i.e., Ehud Barak in that state of one-man rule, plans to give way most of the other adjoining areas.  He would leave Jerusalem besieged and let PA soldiers into Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem neighborhoods at risk harbor 200,000 Jews  (MK Benny Elo

Barak welcomes the Arab Trojan Horse.
GOVERNMENT MINDSET REVEALED

The spokesman for Min. Michael Melchior gave David Bedein an interview after the Minister had an opportunity to preview the main questions.

1. Q: Why did the Minister vote for deployment of the PA army in Abu Dis?
A: He voted only for a technical change in Abu Dis' status from Area "B" to "A."

Q: Since the change means that the PA may move troops in, does the Minister define the redeployment of troops as a "technicality?"
A: The Minister sees this as a step for peace.

Q: Is the Minister aware of the "NY Times" report of 5/21 that the PA will establish a military base in Abu Dis?
A: No.

2. Q: Does the Minister approve of continued funding of PA schools, whose curriculum calls for Israel's extermination?
A: Who says that Israel finances their schools?

Q: Israel signed agreements obligating itself to provide funding for PA health, education, and welfare.  Israel now funds 62% of the PA operating budget.
A: "There is no question about it that the people in the PA will start speaking in a new language when we sign a comprehensive peace agreement with them.

Q: Why?  Has the Minister any evidence that any PA official ever communicated a word of peace to their people, in Arabic, in the past 7 years?
A: All I know is that the Minister has had many peaceful contacts with officials of the PA.

Q. So did David Bedein, but when he asked Arafat about speaking to his people in Arabic about peace, Arafat changes the subject.

3. Q: What comment has the Minister on Sharansky's warning about governmental concessions in Jerusalem and other vital issues.
A: Sharansky was talking out of politics  (IMRA, 5/31). Sharansky cited specifics.

As with other such interviews, the government official is ignorant of the subject, evasive, unconcerned about security risks, and naively trusting of the Arabs despite all experience and scholarship to the contrary.  We have had incompetent officials in the US, but Israeli government is so riddled with fools such as nowhere else ever.           

ARAB JERUSALEM RESIDENCY 

Almost all the Arabs living in Jerusalem are not citizens of Israel.  They are classified as "permanent residents."  They vote for the PA council but may travel, work in, and visit all parts of Israel.  They are subject to Israeli and municipal taxes but get Israeli national insurance and health insurance.  Their "Israeli identity card has become one of the most sought-after documents in the W. Bank." "Permanent residency" is not permanent.  If those non- citizens move out of the country, they lose the privileges of it.  Many do move out but do not notify the authorities and do not voluntarily relinquish their Israeli identity cards.  One may find their cars, still bearing Israeli license plates, in the PA towns near Jerusalem.  Their identity cards list their previous addresses in Jerusalem. For example, dozens of members of one Arab family in Ramallah all remain registered as if still living in grandfather's house in the Old City. When Arabs with such identity cards come to the Interior Ministry to register births or changes in marital status or to obtain travel documents, they are asked to bring extensive documentary proof that they still live in Jerusalem.  Otherwise, they must return their identity cards.  Hence, many avoid the Ministry and its benefits. The long lines and scalping for the sale of places near the head of the lines are another reason and another story. Complicating the situation is that dozens of Arab families who once were evacuated from the Jewish Quarter of the Old City were authorized to retain the rights of residence. Many, many Arab agents of Israel have those cards, too. Others get them by bribery and forgery  (IMRA, 5/28 from Danny Rubinstein, Haaretz). The facts here demonstrate that many Arabs hold on to their identity cards by fraud. When relieved of them by the government legitimately, they raise a further, fraudulent and slanderous cry of ethnic cleansing.  It takes a special chutzpah for crooks to slander law enforcement like that.  I think that Israel made a mistake in extending Israeli benefits to the Arab residents.           

ISRAELI PREPARATION FOR WITHDRAWALS 

Weeks ago, PM Barak was ready to turn Abu Dis over to the PA, when the riots intervened.  The PM's office admits that it has not yet considered the security ramifications of the turn-over.  One would be the need for erecting special fences at the entrance to Jerusalem  (IMRA, 6/1). Israelis had thought that they were getting a military strategist as PM and Defense Minister.  They made the same mistake with Rabin.  Those officials have failed to consider the security ramifications of the political decisions.  They ignore experts' advice instead of evaluating it.  Arrogance is one pre-requisite for blunder.

COMMENTARY ON BARAK'S TURN-OVER 

The entire Arab population of Yesha occupies less than one- fifth of the land area.  Four-fifths of Yesha is either unpopulated or populated by Jews.  Nevertheless, PM Barak intends to give the PA about 625,000 acres on which no Arabs live but some Jews do  (Arutz-7, 6/2).  6/18/00    ARABS & ISRAEL 5193: Barak's Diplomacy 

ATTRITION IS LEAD-IN TO WAR 

In Yesha, Arabs use guns Israel provided, to shoot Israelis (,to which the Right objects).  They are not afraid of Israel's reaction.  Reaction -- PM Barak offers them more land.  The PLO war of attrition has gained most of Yesha de facto and in pledges, including key portals into Jerusalem and offers of the Jordan Valley on the border with Jordan. Barak has opened a clear path for Syrian tanks to sweep into Israel (if he doesn't also give them the Golan mountain passes and a downhill coast into Israel's cities). Barak keeps raising Arab expectations and therefore Arab demands.  He symbolizes Israel's inner weakness.  Arafat will exploit that in two ways.  One is by harassment over the Green Line from land that Israel gave him adjoining it. The other is from Israeli Arabs, now gathering arms from the PA.  Jews will find driving in Israel as dangerous as in Yesha. When Israel becomes embroiled in the PA war of attrition (yet hesitates to put the Arabs down firmly), the outside Arabs will join in, believing Israel unable to defend itself (Emanuel Winston, Jewish Press, 6/2, p.57).

BARAK VS. BARAK 

Former Defense Min. Arens resents Barak's assertion that Israel should have left Lebanon long ago.  Mr. Arens took it to mean that Israel had no right there.  (I believe that Barak meant that he didn't think Israel was accomplishing anything there.)  "The fact is that when I was Defense Min. and Barak was Chief-of-Staff then, he never came to me and said we have to leave Lebanon  (Jewish Press, 6/2, p.3) When Barak entered politics, his formerly sensible (though not pioneering) notions of strategy reversed.  Was the reversal due to opportunism, corruption, intimidation, blackmail of Israel, acceptance of the Leftist neuroses of Jewish guilt, or personal dementia? The head of some party ought to challenge Barak, during a debate in Knesset, by quoting from the earlier Barak and asking how the later Barak would disagree.

 "NO-NOTHING" BARAK KNEW 

Ehud Barak's campaign was found to be unlawful.  After a civil fine, a criminal investigation began creeping its way forward.  Barak defends himself by claiming that he was not involved in the law-breaking and did not know about it. That defense was shown to be false. On January 27. 1999, the Controller Gen. got a press release into all the leading newspapers.  It was short (hence likely to be read).  It warned the parties against accepting contributions from corporations or organizations in Israel or abroad, from people not eligible to vote, more than IS 1,700 from eligible voters.  It advised that the Controller Gen. would be checking party and non-party fund-raising and propagandizing. On January 31, the Controller Gen. sent registered letters to all the parties, lists, and political factions, reiterating the warnings. The Labor Party's legal advisor repeatedly warned the party leaders verbally and by writing, too. In order to raise campaign funds from wealthy Americans (which, itself, is illegal), Barak solicited  illegal contributions in person.  He made two such trips.  His appearance was reported in newspapers.  Nevertheless, he told a press conference held after the Controller General had issued his critical reports, that he didn't raise funds. He was lying. Barak knowingly broke the law and tried to cover up (Freeman Inst., 5/30).

NEGOTIATING BEHIND CABINET'S BACK

 Interior Min. Sharansky wrote to PM Barak about hearing by chance about an agreement Barak supposedly made with the PA. Min. Sharansky complained that the PM neither consults with nor apprises the Cabinet nor even the Security Cabinet and heads of coalition parties. Sharansky is disturbed at hearing about the division of Jerusalem, the unsupervised entrance of PA Arabs into Jerusalem, and the failure to resolve the final status of Jerusalm.  (That invites PLO contention to establish itself and opportunity to do damage to Israel, in order to influence the final status agreement.  That's been the bane of Oslo.) He also heard that Barak was giving up so much of Yesha as to uproot 40,000 Jews from it, relinquish the fertile Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea invasion routes, and give the PA parts of Israel, itself!  He'd allow the PA to bring in millions of people and not agree to terminate the claimed right of return. Thus Israel gives up all its assets in advance, without settling the final status of Jerusalem, refugees, and borders.  Such an agreement weakens Israel and makes it dependent upon outside support.  It weakens Diaspora Jewish identity with Israel  (IMRA, 5/30). Perhaps we should publicize the notion that no Nobel prize should be awarded without a final agreement. If Israel gave up 90% of Yesha, it would have a difficult time claiming half of the water aquifer largely beneath it and only slightly beneath Israel.  If millions of Arabs flock in next door, Israel would have a difficult time drawing any water, already in short supply.  (Same for the Golan.)

BARAK'S DEPENDENCY ON CLINTON REVEALED 

Min. of Public Security Shlomo Ben-Ami (high up in Labor Party) said there are only a few weeks left to reach an agreement with the PA or not have one for years.  He said that Pres. Clinton soon would be unable to broker an agreement and Congress wouldn't have time to consider the aid package. A former aide of PM Shamir, Yossi Ben-Aharon, found in that warning confirmation of the fear that Barak has synchronized his diplomacy with Clinton's schedule. Therefore, one may put no credence in PM Barak's denial of the sweeping and trouble-making concessions he reputedly is making to the PA, in order to get an agreement. PM Barak is endangering Israeli security  (Arutz-7, 5/31). After Clinton and the present Congress, will there be no more US Presidents and Congresses?  Why cannot the PA and Israel agree without the US?  Apparently the purpose of US brokering is to pressure Israel. 6/18/00

ARABS & ISRAEL 5194: 

Thomas Friedman's Reality Israel will have to be willing to relinquish 90-92% of Yesha and the PA will have to be willing to accept 90-92% of Yesha.  Same for the other concessions that it just happens that Barak is offering the PA: some of Jerusalem, some refugee return, and some prisoner release.  So says Thomas Friedman, without explaining why  (NY Times, 5/23). These all are matter of principle.  Concession makes no sense, here.  What Mr. Friedman fails to acknowledge is the big secret kept from supporters of the Arabs.  Secret is, the Arabs don't compromise on their ambitious demands.  They accept concessions and then demand the rest.  Arafat has made half a dozen deals with Israel.  Each time he got more from them but promised the same things to them, without ever keeping his word.  He remains willing to revert to war. Why should he get 90-92% of Yesha?  What did the PA do to deserve it?  Made war?  If 90-92%, why not 100%? Inconvenient for Israel?  So what, principle is principle. But if Israel may keep 8-10% because it needs it, why only that small percentage, when it needs the mountain barriers and aquifers?  Principle is principle. You know my view, that Yesha is part of the Jewish homeland and the Arabs have all the rest of the Mideast (except Iran) for theirs. If Israel accepts some refugees, it admits they have a right of return.  If some may "return," why not all.  Principle is principle.  But if most may not return, why any?  Principle is principle. You know my view - let in no enemies and if the PA is to become a state, let Israel  send all its Arabs there.  Why should Jews have to leave some of their communities in Yesha but the Arabs of Israel, who hate the Jewish state, not have to leave?  The fig leaf of "family reunification" could be achieved by letting Israeli Arabs out. If some of the now hard-core Arab prisoners are to be released, why not all?  Why be arbitrary?  Principle is principle.  On the other hand, if some Arab prisoners are to be retained, why not all?  Principle is principle. You know my view, that these Arab prisoners are terrorists, most of whom attacked civilians.  They are ordinary murderers and attempted murderers, pirates, not POWs.  In releasing any, Israel is condoning terrorism.

THE NATURE OF BEING JEWISH 

Jewishness is both religious and national.  "This unique configuration does not, of course, fit the neat categories taught in the political academies."  (Arnold Ages, Midstream, 4/2000, p.43.) 6/18/00