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Germany, 1938?
Arlene Peck 19 October 2001
When the vehement anti-Semitic rhetoric began in the early days of Hitler,
I have often wondered at the reaction of the Jews, “Damn fools, why
didn’t they leave when they had the chance?” After all, the signs were
clearly there to see. As I grew older, I began to realize that only Israel was
the haven for every Jew around the world in case, G-d forbid, it happened
again. Had the Jews of Europe been able to flee the Nazis and go to a
country that would have accepted them, six million innocent people would
have escaped the slaughter and ovens of Germany.
Ah, but that was then, today is a different time and place. America is the
melting pot of the world. We’ve learned from our mistakes and history
could never repeat itself…or could it? Life changes in the blink of an eye.
Not so long ago, all we had to worry about in the United States was
Madonna’s concert, shark attacks and the crimes of Congressman Gary
Condit. Now, the newspapers and the entire news coverage is of Taliban,
Taliban, Taliban. All they discuss is the success of our modern
technology over people with the IQ of an eggplant. Their social skills are
rooted in the ninth century. Even in the ninth century, I believe, people
lived in houses, while this group has settled under rocks and in caves.
Yet, these same barbaric souls are crying out deploring the mistreatment
of their Palestinian brothers. Had they checked closely, they might have
noticed that, before Sept. 11th, about 150,000 of the Palestinian Arabs
made a daily trip into little Israel as part of the Israeli work force, a reality
I’ve always found almost mind-boggling considering the precedents of
terrorist behavior.
It’s no wonder the terrorist Bin Laden feels a kinship with Yasser Arafat
and has publicly embraced the Palestinian cause. Chairman Arafat has
been the father of modern terrorism for several decades. Hizbullah,
Hamas and Islamic Jihad were weaned on the antics of Arafat. So, is it
any wonder that Bin Laden rushes to identify with the man who, a decade
ago, closely aligned himself with Saddam Hussein? However, this time the
leader of the Palestinian Authority has to be careful to tow the line and
appear to be in a coalition with the West in the new war on terrorism. It is
a coalition that strongly depends on countries like Saudi Arabia, which
appear to be, despite their protests to the contrary, closely aligned with
the terrorists in terms of political and financial support. Arafat, at the same
time, in order not to anger his terrorist support groups, must accede to
their demands and not lose whatever support he still has.
During all of this positioning between President Bush and Arafat, who is
caught in the middle? Why should Israel be responsible for opening the
gates to allow these workers/terrorists in to work in the Jewish homeland?
Yet, if Israel keeps these Arabs out of little Israel, they are considered to
be strangling the Palestinian work force. The human rights organizations
are out in full force deploring Israel for compromising the rights of the
Arabs. However, those human rights groups are conveniently blind to the
fact that these same ‘rights’ are unheard of in any of the twenty-two Arab
countries. Rather, in many of those countries, the populace is murdered
and mutilated daily.
Prime Minister Sharon is publicly rebuked for surgically hunting and
executing terrorist leaders who have aided and planned attacks on Israeli
citizens. So why is President Bush applauded when he says that we are in
a war with terrorists and we will find them and destroy them? His ratings
rise when he states that the United States will not, and with good reason,
negotiate or ‘make a deal’ with Bin Laden and his band of terrorists. So
why is Israel attacked for not wanting to negotiate with terrorists or their
governmental supporters until all acts of terrorism stop? As of this
writing, there have been over one hundred suicide attacks within Israel
since the signing of the horrific Oslo Accords. Arafat is Israel’s Bin
Laden, so why must Israel be forced to sit down and make a deal while
under fire?
I hear the anti-Semitic discussions on the radio about Israel being at fault
for everything that has happened. The talk shows are full of rhetoric of
how the United States must change their preferential policy towards Israel.
President Bush, and now Tony Blair, only exacerbate the situation when
they publicly state the need for a Palestinian state carved out of the Jewish
State of Israel. I wonder if they have given any thought, considering the
past history of the PLO, what would be on the horizon with this
Palestinian state. The first thing that state would probably do, considering
Arafat’s close ties with Saddam Hussein, would be to align itself closely
with Iraq. We speak about routing out terrorists, yet this Palestinian state
would become a prime training ground for Hizbullah, Hamas and Islamic
Jihad. What influence would be given in the Middle East to Russia and
China, once they would have a platform beside the only democracy in the
Middle East? The current Arafat regime is totally corrupt. It stands to
reason that this territory would continue to be closely allied with the
narco-terrorists in the area and serve as a springboard for their activities.
We would do best to consider all the major intelligence information that
Israel can provide about the terrorists and how to find and handle them.
Instead, Bush seems bent on keeping Israel out of the coalition against
terrorism so not as to offend the true terrorist states such as Iraq, Iran and
Syria. I don’t understand the logic, but, somehow, Israel being attacked
by Scud missiles from Iraq and suicide bombers from Gaza, Ramallah
and Hebron is not cause for retaliation. That would ‘upset’ the coalition.
It’s OK for the United States to bomb and hunt those that offend us, but
not for Israel.
What does it take for those who believe that Islamic fundamentalist
terrorism will just go away to realize that violence has always been their
method of operation? Other than Turkey, all of the Islamic regimes have
achieved and maintained their power, not through ballots, but through
bullets. I don’t think that the Arab states truly care about their brothers as
much as they are unified in the hatred of the ‘Jews’.
There are lessons to be learned from 1938. Unlike our brothers then, we
do have a place to go today. History probably won’t repeat itself, but it
could. For the sake of every Jew around the world, we cannot let Israel be
sacrificed to appease the Arabs, the United States, or anybody.
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Arlene Peck is an internationally syndicated columnist and television talk
show hostess. |
