On sovereignty, human rights, truth and falsehood, Left and Right and a few other things. Here are a few short excerpts from weekly columns published on Arutz 7:
Every week on Saturday night, journalist and publicist Shimon Cohen publishes a column on the Arutz 7 site with comments on events of the past week. The remarks include more than a few thought-provoking points centering on the idea of two states and the establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of the Land of Israel compared with the vision of sovereignty. We have collected and distilled a few of the remarks that were published during the year 5779 that highlighted various angles on the subject. Part I of the series:
24.5.19
What is the meaning of the Silent Monument
On the Channel 12 News Ohad Hemo wrote a piece on the dramatic improvement in the checkpoints where PA Arabs cross on their way to work. The facility, which, in the past, was crowded with thousands of workers waiting for hours in line, today appears like a modern terminal and the workers pass through within 3-4 minutes, pass through security checks electronically and are identified by an electronic card that allows them to pass quickly.
It’s all good, but in the second part of the piece Ohad interviews the head of the PLO in Beit Lehem. He describes the economic distress of the residents, including himself (despite his expensive suit and his senior status, but we will not deal with this now) and while touring Daheisha, expressed his hope for the day when there will be true peace, when it will be possible to dismantle the reminders of this period.
The thing is, that the piece concluded with a quick video that passed without noticing or relating in any way to the stone monument of more than two meters in height on one of the squares. It seems that this monument explains exactly what peace they are working toward there. The monument is designed as a map of the entire State of Israel with an Arabic inscription and a portrait of some terrorist. There is no Judea and Samaria, no Gaza, the entire State of Israel is Palestine for them. Is this news to anyone?
They shoot children too
One of the veteran citizens of the town where I live has passed away. Eli Cohen, obm, had a pure heart, the roots of his family are in the court of the Ben Ish Hai and his hands are sinewy from building the Land of Israel.
Eli grew up in Jerusalem and experienced the difficult days as well as the joyous ones. During the seven days of mourning, his son told of his last visit to Jerusalem. It was during the intermediate days of last Pesach. Family members traveled along with Eli, who was already at that time quite ill, to the sites of his childhood. When they came to Yehezkel Street, he asked to get out of the car. The family got out with him and he told them a bit about Jerusalem of other times.
‘You think that it was easy to pass through here’, he asked his children, pointing up the famous street in the heart of the city, ‘but up there, there was a Jordanian sniper. We little kids knew that to cross this street you took your life in your hands. Whoever passed through here was in danger of taking a fatal bullet from the sniper’s position. Only when we really had to do it, we would wait for a second of opportunity and one of the children would run quickly to the other side of the street. The next child also waited to pass because the Jordanian sniper, who saw that someone passed without his responding by shooting, would hurry to aim the rifle and wait for the next child in order to shoot him’.
This is what Eli, obm, told his family, commenting that even if this was not well known, there were children and adults who were injured and even killed by those Jordanian snipers’ bullets.
This is the tragic image of Jerusalem when it was divided. Now, we may ask those senior retired officers and commanders, who propose to divide the Land, but they are no longer in the picture, so they are not the ones who will be responsible for the results of those proposals: since our ostensible political partner does not intend to give up part of Jerusalem in a final agreement, I would like to know if this is the sort of peace that you are working so hard to lead us to.
31.5.19
The cruel of your city take precedence
Next Sunday the rabbaniot of Midreshet Ayn Hayatziv will participate in a gathering in Jerusalem, demanding that the Israeli Knesset pass a law to determine restrictions and increased oversight on all security exports, in order to assure that Israeli weapons will not reach the hands of the world’s cruel regimes.
We can only hope that at this event the rabbaniot will also remember to call for preventing the transfer of weapons to the brutal regime of the Palestinian Authority, not only to regimes in Africa and others of that sort. It is important to remember “the cruel of your city take precedence”*. Even before we rush to constrain the State of Israel from selling weapons beyond the sea, it is important to restrict the power of the oppressive, cruel and brutish regime that is just around the corner. The fact that there are those among us who define them as peace partners is part of the problem, not a solution.
*’The poor of your city take precedence’ (from the Talmud, Baba Metzia)
9.6.19
The quiet Revolution
Several years ago, the late Shimon Peres, among his roles as Foreign Minister, Minister of Regional Cooperation, prime minister and other roles, roared at people of the Right who blamed him for the failed ideas of Oslo and the vision of dividing the Land and uprooting the Jewish residents in favor of establishing a terror state on the ruins of their homes. Peres, at that time, roared in a thunderous voice ‘what is the alternative’? And his question, it must be admitted, echoed from one side of the Land to the other. Again and again the spokespersons of the Left, in the media and in politics, adopted Peres’ concise question even before the Right’s representatives could open their mouths they also flung Peres’ question, and the entire Right and all of the religious people were furious, and had no answer.
This was the reality until about eight years ago. But then, two women took a stand and decided that the time had come to take the idea that had been discarded in the corner, which no one dared to bring to the front of the stage, and turned it into the leading political discourse on policy.
Those two women, Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar, established the Sovereignty Movement and led a turn-around in consciousness. It began with billboard signs, hasbara conferences and discussions with decision makers, continued with the publication of a journal, establishing an Internet site and leading a youth movement along with many more conferences, certificates of recognition and appreciation to MKs and a long list of other activities leading the idea of sovereignty. Many other movements, public figures, politicians and discussion groups took up the vision and it reached the government’s desk, where there is already a majority who support the idea in various forms, and onward until the declaration by the prime minister himself of his intentions regarding this policy. Today, the occupant of the White House also knows that it is no longer possible to ignore the voice of this large segment of the Israeli public, who already understand the alternative to the illusion of dividing the Land and establishing a new Arab state in its heart.
True, there are several question marks that must be attended to in order to find a demographic, security, social, economic, political and policy-oriented solution, but the exclamation points that reality has presented, in light of the two-states idea, are much more dangerous and disastrous.
The two women who have brought about this dramatic change received the Moskowitz Prize this week. If the Right indeed controlled our tiny Land, prizes of this sort and even beyond, would have been awarded to these two women long ago, but it seems that this will also happen sometime. Meanwhile, the two women do not rest for a moment and are continuing their momentum of activity with another conference that will be held this week for the Sovereignty Youth. The next generation of Zionists is already here.
(Full disclosure: this writer has the privilege of supporting the movement a bit from time to time)
5.7.19
Why all the fury
The Palestinians are angry about the excavations in Ir David and the exposure of the path that led the pilgrims to the Temple. Their fury focused mainly on the support and participation of senior American figures in the historical project.
I don’t understand what they are so angry about. I thought that they would actually be in favor of the archaeological excavations in Jerusalem and in Israel in general. Because only in this way will Palestinian archaeology finally be discovered, which would reveal the rich past of the ancient Palestinian people. Why, this could finally allow the Palestinians to use the findings, in coins and pottery shards, writings in ancient Palestinian and would yield the headlines that would show the archaeological heritage of the ancient Palestinians, and present all of this as proof of their ancient holding in Al-Quds and Palestine. But for some reason, they do not want us to excavate. Strange.
2.8.19
Cohen versus Cohen
Former head of Shabak, Yoram Cohen, cautions against the annexation of Area C, saying: “The annexation of Area C might drag us into a needless bloodbath. We must go in the direction of reducing the occupation in Judea and Samaria: improve transportation, increase employment, and transfer territory from B to A”.
I have no intention to enter into a competition on security with his honor, the expert. I, unlike him, don’t pretend to be able to predict the future, whether for bloodbaths or peace doves. I only want to recommend examining the past, and if, in case his Shabak’s honor has forgotten I will remind him that the bloodbaths began here at exactly the moment when we began steps similar to those that Yoram Cohen is recommending.
Actually, as we limited what Mr. Cohen nonsensically calls “occupation”, we got dozens of fatalities in the streets every single month. After all, the primitive means that they had back then in the days of Oslo brought upon us death, destruction and bloodbaths with buses, shopping centers, intersections and markets, so what, exactly, is his honor suggesting to us?
To abandon another area to the various terrorists and hope that this time they will not take advantage of it to arm themselves and prepare for a continuation of the battle against the Zionist entity? Einstein once said something about someone who repeats the same acts and hopes for different results, right?
6.9.19
Netanyahu’s seismograph
Whether he keeps them or not, it is worth listening to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s election promises. Once, they promised color televisions and cars to every worker as an election promise because that’s what the people wanted. If Netanyahu believed that the People of Israel wanted to exchange the trains for elephants, we would see him before the election waving as-yet unsigned agreements to buy herds of elephants from Kenya. If he thought that a cheap ticket to Mars was the desire of the People who dwell in Zion, he would have announced air trains to Mars at half price. But no. He sniffs the residents of Israel, understands what they want and this is what he promises.
This is precisely the reason that he is promising sovereignty (partial, and therefore problematic, but that is another matter) in Judea and Samaria, when he swears allegiance to Hevron and when a senior political figure emerges from his jet talking about the achievements of the quiet transfer of the Gaza Arabs, it is quite reasonable to assume that he understands what the Israeli public wants and that is why he promises exactly that. Now, there are two key questions: 1. If he believes in it so much, why hasn’t he done it until now? 2. When will we have a right-wing government that will do what the People want?
13.9.19
Exploding balloons
Netanyahu’s announcement again brought the challenge of sovereignty to the Israeli agenda. The left raises the demographic concern regarding awarding citizenship to the Arabs of Judea and Samaria and on the Right, the concern is about what is behind the big announcements: sovereignty in the Jordan Valley, the application of Israeli law in the Jewish communities while the remainder, 95 percent of Judea and Samaria, is open for proposals by American President Donald Trump.
According to all the hints creeping out from Washington and emissaries of Trump’s plan, it is exactly this – a Palestinian state wherever there is not a Jewish community and sovereignty to some extent in the Jordan Valley. This situation leaves the communities without the ability to expand because the construction of every new neighborhood will require a change in the status of the land and especially because it leaves them like balloons, as defined by more than a few leaders on the Right. A balloon community, held by the swaying string that holds it. All the rest of the expanse would be held by the hostile Palestinian state or “ Palestinian state minus” (as those with blinders like to define it, while in their hearts they know that there cannot be any such animal. The moment a state is established, no one would be able to tell it which weapons it could bring in and with whom it could form alliances).
So what would those who demand sovereignty suggest? Full sovereignty along with the demographic threat or the suffocating balloon sovereignty along with a Palestinian state?
Here is a little suggestion for you: As of now, yes to balloon sovereignty, but Arab balloons. Have the Israeli government outline the entire area where the Arab population lives and declare that it is applying Israeli law and sovereignty in phases, and in the first phase, for all of the area that is outside of those Arab balloons.
This way there will be no limitation on the development and expansion of the Jewish communities. This way, Israel will not be limited in its actions beyond the traffic arteries and the communities. This would erase the legacy of Oslo, which divides the territory into the letters A,B and C. This would make it clear that it is simply the first step toward the future sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.
One wouldn’t have to use an especially sophisticated hearing aid in order to hear the shock of the knights of human rights by the idea of delimiting the Arab communities. This is terrible, they are already yelling. What’s going on here? Are you putting the Arabs into a ghetto? Well, no. But it’s a fact that when speaking about Jewish balloons it’s totally okay from their point of view.
4.10.19
Between Theology and Palestinology
Somehow, without anyone noticing, a piece on Channel 12 by Ohad Hemo on the miserable fate of the Christian community in Gaza suddenly was in the news columns.
Hemo interviewed an elderly Christian there who had escaped the Gaza Strip by the skin of his teeth, but not before he had been imprisoned in a Hamas jail and had undergone a series of long and severe torture sessions just because he is a Christian. Of the prior 4,200 members of the Christian community in Gaza only a few hundred remain. All the rest took advantage of any possible crack to slip through to escape the hostile Palestinian regime there.
The Christian who was interviewed by Hemo stated confidently that the simple population in Gaza would be happy if Israel was in control again of the Strip and rescue them from the hands of the despotic and cruel regime that shoots people in the streets and eliminates them by the hundreds and thousands.
Since we know how much the Christian population has diminished and thinned out in Beit Lehem under the enlightened rule of Abu Mazen and the gang of terrorists that surrounds him, we can ask a few questions. The first one is where is Pope Francis’ merciful and compassionate heart? Why haven’t we heard his voice calling for help to rescue his poor, oppressed believers? How is it that the Vatican can only hear about the Israeli “occupation” and does not dare to tell the truth about what is happening to the Christian community under the oppressive Palestinian regime?
And if we are already asking questions, where are the human rights activists? We should have expected them at least to gather for a protest in front of the gates of Gaza, calling for a stop to these heinous acts, but the knights of human rights, like the Vatican, are silent for the most part.
And here is another small question, if I may: Since the Christians in Beit Lehem or Gaza are not responsible for any occupation, we do not understand why they are persecuted. Could it be that the violence, terror, abuse, persecution and brutality are simply part of our neighbors’ atmosphere and the reason doesn’t really matter to them?
And a really tiny question in conclusion for those who advocate a Palestinian state, division, disengagement and the rest of the euphemisms – As a champion of freedom and liberty, are you sure that this is the future that you want to give the residents of this “Palestine” that you so long to create? Where is you tender and merciful heart?
11.10.19
Tears of laughter and weeping
Everyone praises the British humor as witty and sharp and I am left wondering, and what about Arab humor? Perhaps it is less sophisticated, but there is no doubt that their jokes rock the listener with laughter as well.
Take, for example, the decision that was taken by the Arab League to include Palestine in the League’s Committee for Human Rights. Yes, yes, it is really so, don’t laugh. This is exactly what happened. A state that doesn’t exist will be responsible for human rights that don’t exist.
Just so we can better understand the fine Arab humor: it is not just a state that doesn’t exist, it is an entity that has torture apparatus like that of the inquisition for those who oppose the regime, an entity whose representatives burn people to death as part of their penal code (I did not make this up. A report that I received from a Palestinian who saw one of these fire pits, and don’t ask me to go into detail); an entity that pays salaries to those who murder children and civilians; an entity that abuses members of other religions who are unfortunate enough to live in the shadow of this entity; an entity that has a law that sentences one who sells land to death; an entity that defines members of the Jewish religion as sons of apes and pigs who must be persecuted and killed; an entity that names town squares, schools, camps, sport events and other things after cold-blooded murderers; an entity whose leaders deny the Holocaust, an entity whose leaders boast of taking part in brutal acts of murder and this is just a partial list. This entity will be a member in a Committee on Human Rights. What can you say? Is it funny or do you really feel like crying?
Abbas is as good as his Word
The Palestinian Authority’s desperate cry over its economic crisis are quite noisy, but are also interesting. The rais, Abu Mazen, promised that even if there remains only one last shekel in his coffers, he would give it first to the imprisoned terrorists and their families, and Abbas is as good as his word.
The work done by “Palestinian Media Watch” shows that the PA is energetically rebuilding the four-story building that houses the family of Abu Hameid, whose five sons are murderous terrorists; four are serving life sentences and one was killed during a murderous terror attack that he perpetrated.
To Abu Mazen and his people, the mother of these five, Umm Nasar Abu Hameid, is an example and role model for the entire Palestinian society. Hussein a-Sheikh, Abu Mazen’s representative, said less than a year ago: “We bow to this audience, to the history of the struggle and their heroism, therefore, the least that we must do is to rebuild their house”. Abu Mazen’s deputy also expressed admiration for the terrorists’ mother, stating that she is “the mother of us all, the mother of Palestinian fighters and we must embrace her and build her house anew”. By the way, Abu Mazen himself ordered that a committee of ministers be formed to be responsible for the rebuilding of the murderers’ house.
And now, go and make peace with them.