Ariel Sharon's Indecent Proposal by Jack Engelhard Jun 30, '04
There he is, Mr. Munich Massacre himself, and what's he doing? He's lighting up the Olympic Torch for this year's Games. Yes sir, that's our baby Yasser, and yes ma'am, that's the world we live in.
The prophet Isaiah warned about this moment, when we'd say day is night, night is day, good is evil, evil is good. Welcome to Armageddon.
What an image -- this mass murderer grinning like the cat that ate the canary, or the rat that ate Peres and Beilin -- and you insist that a picture is worth a thousand words?
In Israel, the picture of a grinning Arafat is worth a thousand lives.
Which brings us to this late news from Israel's leading Hebrew-language newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, which asks this editorial question: What's better, to be loved, or to be alive?
The envelope, please. And the winner is - to be loved.
Israel's actions, like building that fence, are proving harmful not only to Jews in Israel, but to Jews around the world. That's the approach taken by those editorialists. Here's a taste: "Since the days of Rabin-Oslo, Israel's international image has undergone an upheaval that has directly influenced for the worse the personal security of Jewish communities around the world."
But this crybaby reasoning is nothing new. Other bash-Israel revelers have used this maneuver to "blame Israel for worldwide anti-Semitism."
The crafty thinking goes like this: "It's getting uncomfortable for Jews all over, and all because of Israel. So, Israel, stop, whatever you're doing. Please, behave. Play by the rules. We kill, you die. That's how it's been for 2,000 years. So now you're fighting back? Shame on you. No wonder you're not popular."
Try this. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising provoked the Nazis and caused the spread of anti-Semitism.
So anyway, when the honorable men and women at Yediot Ahronot spoke of "Jewish communities around the world," I assume they meant me. I am a Jewish community and I am around the world and guess what, I agree. Yes, I agree that Israel's actions make me feel unsafe and uncomfortable.
Only they've got it all backwards.
Dear editors, let it be known that the fence and other deterrent measures have thwarted another thousand Israeli casualties. Is this a problem?
We know it's a problem for terrorists and those who love them, like the United Nations, the European Union, and the International Solidarity Movement, but it should not be a problem for Israelis or for "Jewish communities around the world." I am speaking of Jewish communities outside of Chelm.
In fact, when Israel shows muscle, that's when we feel secure, all of us. When Israel walks with its head down, that's when we feel lost.
Check your files. Somewhere you'll find that the more Prime Minister Ariel Sharon speaks of retreat, the more Jewish girls in France get swastikas carved into their faces. Check again and you'll find that acts of anti-Semitism swing upwards not when Israel goes strong, but when Israel goes wimpy. Anti-Semites are like dogs -- they smell fear.
Conversely, when Israel shows spine, as when it targets terrorist leaders, oh, the usual suspects scoff and complain. But they do not mess with us. We, of the Jewish communities around the world, were never more proud or more safe as when tiny Israel took on its enemies in 1948, and in 1967 and again in 1973, and certainly in the case of Entebbe.
Read Patton: "Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed." Does this offer a clue as to which Israel we prefer? We prefer Israel when it is chutzpadik. Sensitive men usually do not score with women and sensitive nations have no shot in the world of real men. (I am sure to be hearing on this.)
In their secret hearts, even Israel's worst enemies gulp in admiration when Israel does the brash and unthinkable. Yes, like Entebbe. That, dear editors of Yediot Ahronot, is when we "of the Jewish communities around the world" puff out our chests, and feel comforted. Not when Israel rolls over.
When Israel plays up to the tender mercies of the world, this is when we get scared and worry about our "personal security."
By the way, America's most popular TV show is the Sopranos, and it's not because they're Mafia. It's because they're tough. We loved Sinatra first because he could sing, and second because he was tough. The joke around New York is that Mayor Bloomberg wouldn't dare tell old blue eyes to snuff out his cigarette. Yes, we go for tough and hate snivelers.
Tough guys don't dance (Norman Mailer), and tough guys don't give up land.
Perhaps deep-thinking editorialists should worry more about the home and less about the neighbors who complain about the noise.
So what's the problem? Oh I get it, you're afraid to alienate the affections of Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schroeder and Kofi Annan. Well here's a news flash. These guys never gave a hoot in hell for you anyway. Sure they'll praise you, but only when you're dead. They admire dead Jews. They've already laid a thousand wreaths for dead Jews and they're waiting to lay one more wreath, over the entire nation of Israel; the tomb (God forbid) of the Unknown Nation. What could make them happier?
No wonder they're offering their services, and rubbing their hands in delight, to help Sharon uproot the Israelis of Gaza - as a first step! - which means that they favor ethnic cleansing. That is established. Ethnic cleansing is good, by consent of the world's leaders. The only question is this: which ethnics are to be cleansed? (This is not multiple choice.)
There is such a giddy rush to erase Israelis from Gaza (as a first step) that the New York Times is already spelling Gush Katif, "Gush Qatif".
Trust me, there is already debate as to when to start datelining Jerusalem as Al-Quds.
Meanwhile, Sharon is being universally congratulated for having the courage to uproot his own people. Behind his back, they're laughing. They're laughing, and contrary to Yediot Ahronot, we're quaking, those of us who are part of Jewish communities around the world.
We are quaking from fear and from shame. A frightened Israel frightens us all.
Once upon a time, there was a different Ariel Sharon. Listen to him a few minutes after Israel took out the nuclear facilities at Osirak. This was back in 1981, when the entire world blasted Israel for such unmitigated chutzpah: "If I have a choice between being popular and dead, or unpopular and alive, I'll choose being unpopular and alive."
That was yesterday. Today, since he's switched sides? "Are you naïve? ...Of course by the year 2005 there will not be Jewish communities in Gaza."
Obviously, Sharon read my novel Indecent Proposal, or saw the movie, not so? But he got it all wrong. The deal was for a million dollars in exchange of a night of love with a stranger (in the case of my novel, not the movie, the stranger was an Arab, not Robert Redford). The deal was not for the soul of the Jewish people.
Truth is indeed stranger than fiction. Sharon is offering a pile of shekels (if not a million dollars) to those Jews who leave Gaza this minute. Leave later, and you get less. Make trouble and you get zilch. This is an indecent proposal that no writer of fiction could ever make up. I mean, a Jewish leader paying off his people to exit the Biblical land of Israel? No clear-minded editor would buy such an off-the-wall scenario. Or as the Japanese commando said to his drill sergeant when he first heard of what was expected of a kamikaze pilot: "Are you nuts?"
Listen, we're not so popular ourselves. President Bush gets jeered even in Ireland. That's because we're taking on "Islam Gone Wild".
Bush says, "Bring it on." Chirac says, "Bring on the capitulation papers; where do I sign?" No, we're not popular at all, just like Israel. Not popular, but maybe we're right?
Who is popular? Those thugs that are terrorizing our entire world. Don't ask me why.
Ask the prophet Isaiah. He saw this coming. Evil is good. At this moment in history, it is Arafat who lights up the nations.
