Dateline Jerusalem — This week on Shemini Atzeret, the Jewish holiday at the end of the weeklong Sukkot holiday, Jews throughout the world prayed for rain. In less than 48 hours the blue skies in Israel opened up with downpours. G-d heard our voices. Across Israel now we are praying that the violence perpetrated by Israeli Arabs and Palestinians — using guns, knives, explosives, cinderblocks and rocks against Israeli civilian men, women and children — will end.
The dispute has nothing to do with land. Even before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Arabs murdered Jews who have continuously lived in the Land of Israel for over 3000 years. In 1929, for example, Jews were massacred, synagogues burned, yeshivas destroyed in the south, in Hebron, in Jerusalem, and as far north as Safed. This had nothing to do with the Jordanian-coined “West Bank,” which did not exist at the time (it always has been Judea and Samaria), or the liberation of Jerusalem and the re-taking of Jewish land in 1967. No such thing as an Arab Palestine existed until the Egyptian Yasser Arafat (yes, he was not a “Palestinian” but an Egyptian) founded the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964. Prior to 1948, the name “Palestinians” always referred to Jews living in Israel. The Arabs identified instead with the notion that Palestine was a part of “Greater Syria.” They referred to themselves as Southern Syrians.
The first intifada (Palestinian uprising) lasted from 1987 until 1993. The second intifada was from 2000 to 2005. Some say the current violence and horrific murders of civilian Israelis are the start of a third intifada, especially since Hamas and Abbas’s Palestinian Authority Fatah have incited against Jews. Candies and other sweets are distributed among Arabs in celebration of the killing of every Israeli, be he an old man or a tiny baby. Fireworks are shot off.
As usual, the media, such as CBS News, have portrayed these incidents as “lone-wolf” attacks. But Fatah, the armed wing of the PA, took responsibility. They called for further attacks. Terrorist cells were found with stockpiles of weapons and ammunition. When terrorists were shot by Israelis, the BBC portrayed crimes as though the terrorists were the victims of Israeli security forces, ignoring the real victims, innocent Israeli men, women and children going to pray, returning from synagogue, or just walking down the street. Again, Abbas condemned Israel. He requested international protection for the “innocent” Palestinian people. Of course, the U.N. Secretary General Ban condemned the violence in Israel, making no mention of the Israeli victims.
When a young rabbi and his wife were shot to death in front of four of their small children recently, there was speculation about why the children were miraculously saved. Investigation showed one terrorist accidentally was shot by another. Immediately they fled to a hospital for treatment, leaving the children physically unharmed. Can you imagine the psychological damage they suffered and will continue to suffer? When one woman’s husband was brutally murdered and her young child injured, she ran to get help, Bleeding profusely with the knife still in her shoulder, she was kicked and spat upon. Palestinians even attacked an Israeli ambulance carrying a critically wounded Palestinian to a hospital. The stabbed Palestinian was thought to be a Jew by fellow Palestinians.
Within the last month, the deadly rock-throwing has escalated into the use of knives, Molotov cocktails, explosive devices, sophisticated firearms. These incidents were not limited to the “West Bank,” but occurred throughout Israel. One Israeli was stabbed across from the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, a 5-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl were shot while eating a festive holiday meal in their respective sukkahs in Lod and Binyamina, opposite ends of the country. The boy suffered a skull fracture when the bullet entered his head. The girl suffered a leg injury. Rioting in Yafo (Jaffa), the southern end of Tel Aviv. Just today, a Palestinian man stabbed a soldier in the neck and ran off with the soldier’s rifle in Israel’s south. In Petah Tikva, not far from Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan, a young man was stabbed. Arab men are not the only culprits. Today a Palestinian woman stabbed an Israeli.
Despite all these attacks on Jews, I feel safe in Israel. It is hard to believe that in 1979, 36 years ago, I was afraid to make my first trip here. I thought it was a war zone. Yet I continued to visit Israel. Finally took the step to move here eight years ago. I have not regretted it. Considering the violence in Europe and the U.S., I realize that the entire world is a war zone and Israel is pretty safe by comparison. We might have occasional terror. But everywhere else there is both terror and crime. Despite the bad publicity, people are visiting Israel by the droves.
L’hitraot. Shachar
