israel a nervous country

When a country becomes too nervous because of terrorism , the terrorist should be very aware of the due consequences .

A nervous country
By Arlene Peck December 22, 2002


I remember that, when I was living in Israel, everyone smoked. Coming from Los Angeles, where they want to tar and feather you if you're smoking within a fifty-foot radius of anyone, it always bothered me. How could people, in this day and age, still smoke? The answer I always received was, "We're a nervous country." Then, I would laugh about this lame excuse. Today, the tension the Israelis are living under has to be unbearable.

Just the fact of having to justify yourself to the biased world press would be enough to do it. The double standard under which Israel continues to function is enough. Recently, there was a column in the Los Angeles Times by Tracy Wilkinson, whom I usually count on to be biased against Israel. It was titled "How Mid-East Violence Moves to the Home Front." As usual, Ms. Wilkinson didn't disappoint me as she once again found an absurd equivalence between how the Israeli and Palestinian societies vent their hatred. It drives me up the wall when the Times refers to 30,000 Hamas supporters packing a sports stadium in Gaza - to cheer a parade that consisted of gunmen and 20 would-be suicide bombers wearing white shrouds - as "militants." They are not militants, nor are they "activists." They are terrorists.

So, while, Ms. Wilkerson talks about how the Palestinian children are learning hate, she omits that the Arab society teaches its children hate from the womb to the tomb. Their youth are educated to revere suicide bombers as part of the daily curriculum. Hey, it's one thing for individual Israelis to harbor hatred and violent thoughts, or, even to put them into actions. That is still vastly different from the Arabic controlled press or self-appointed political or religious figures spewing hatred on a daily basis.

Yet, it is logical that after two years of constant terror attacks, the abnormal becomes the norm. They were right back then. Israel is a nervous country and two years of living on the edge have done their damage. Living in a state of constant defense is difficult, at best. Word is coming out that the daily military confrontations between Israelis and Palestinians has negatively affected levels of domestic violence. And, the world pointing its finger of blame in the Middle East has only exacerbated the situation.

When the Los Angeles Times reports as it does, it ignores the fact that Israel offered the Palestinians 98% of the West Bank and part of Jerusalem, plus an additional two percent of land in Israel proper. The Times, however, doesn't say that. The Times reports about "Sharon's West Bank folly," and that "permanent peace between Israel and the Palestinians was interrupted nearly two years ago by a failure to agree on how to exchange land for peace." It's obvious they just don't get it. Those living in Israel, I believe, finally understand that the "final solution," to the Arabs, is the complete and utter destruction of the Jewish state. They will settle for nothing else. Did you ever notice that the map of Palestine worn on Yasser Arafat's military uniform is the map of greater Israel? Do you honestly believe that they want or will settle for the land west of the Jordan River, in the "West Bank" and the Gaza Strip?

While Wilkinson refers enthusiastically to the "often bellicose media," she does not discuss the daily, widespread phenomenon of official Palestinian incitement, which is a fundamental factor in the violence. And, though she neglects to attribute Palestinian violence to Palestinian incitement, she frequently cites Israeli actions - "occupation," closures, checkpoints, demolitions, the killing of a child - as contributing to Palestinian violence.

Recently, I had a leftist Israeli friend email me a column about the plight of the poor Palestinians and the depression they are experiencing. Are these Israelis of the left crazy? Conveniently, they have forgotten that the situation in which the Palestinians now find themselves is one of choice. Because of their rabid desire to obliterate the Jewish state, they have lined the pockets of Yasser Arafat and his gang of thugs, instead of using funds given to them for their own development. Their obsession with Israel has retarded the development of the Arab societies.

The Palestinians once had an income higher than any of the surrounding Arab states. Now, their factories, which once produced economic growth and development, have become mortar and bomb factories. Universities, which could be used to train construction engineers, have now become centers for teaching demolition engineers. Foolishly, Israel, through it's various joint economic projects and direct transfers of funds, added to the military coffers of Arafat by a billion dollars. I remember, when I was last in Israel, the Israelis would run to Jericho to visit the gambling casino, which was built for their tourist shekels. What has happened to them now? All of it - their industry, their higher education (those universities were built and funded by Israel), their hospitals, and their jobs in Israel - was consciously discarded in their fever to destroy Israel.

So, forgive me if I don't worry about the plight of the Arabs. I worry about the trauma that their terrorism is causing to the psyche of the Jewish State. I fear that Israeli youth cannot avoid the repercussions of imposed violence as a way of life. When that happens, the value of life becomes cheaper.