             Petty Revenge, or the Price of Murder?
                       December 29, 1993
                     by Gary M. Cooperberg

     In the December 20, 1993 issue of Time Magazine, there appeared a story which covered
the Lapid murder in Hebron under the title of "When Revenge comes First", by Kevin Fedarko.
As is always the case with Time Magazine, an interesting story takes precedence to truth, and
Israel bashing is always interesting in the eyes of their staff.
     While they do describe the brutality of the cold blooded terrorist murder of a Jewish father
and son in Hebron, they quickly find justification for it as revenge for Jews killing Arabs.  This
theme is further advanced by continued suggestive references to Jews living in Judea, Samaria and
Gaza as a small minority of extremist fanatics who are equally as savage as Arab terrorists.  "The
Settlers", as a monolithic group of vigilante law breakers, are implied to be collaborating with
Arab terrorists to keep violence alive in order to torpedo the peace process.
     The article explains that, "Rabin made it clear that the settlers represented 4% of the
population, and he cared more about the other 96%."  It further implies that most of this 4%
minority population is comprised of young married couples who were attracted to live in these
areas "by tax breaks and cheaper housing."   It further breaks down what is left of the tiny
percentage of the 4% by describing them as "messianic" hard core fanatics who insist upon
"settling the biblical lands where Jews once lived."  
     Now this minority of a minority is even further broken down:
"Among the most ardent are thousands of Americans, many of whom have found solace for the
dislocation that plagued them in the US in the uncompromising faith of the settler movement."
     Clearly this article was cleverly designed to paint a deceptive picture of "The settlers", as a
handful of fanatic misfits.  This kind of reporting is a direct outgrowth of Rabin's national policy
to politically isolate and defame Jews living in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.  Soon after the new
attorney general called the settlement movement an "organization of rebels", foreign minister
Peres announced that this thinking was official government policy.  That statement has paved the
way for foreign journalists, such as this reporter from Time Magazine, to take the low swipes it
has against "the settlers" and all who oppose Rabin's surrender to terrorism.
     The implication that 96% of the Israeli population supports the Rabin government is an
out and out lie.  Any honest observer knows that, despite the 61 seats he controls in the Knesset,
Mr. Rabin enjoys the support of less than half of the Israeli population.  Were this not so, there
would be no reason for him not to conduct a nation wide referendum to endorse his decision to
meet with Arafat and give away Jewish land and arms to Arab terrorists.  As a matter of fact it
would be in his interest to do so if he really did have the support of the majority.
     Instead he relies upon the lies and half-truths which he issues to his local controlled media
and which rags like Time Magazine are only too happy to improve upon, to convince the outside
world that he is a democratic leader who enjoys the support of the great majority of the Israeli
population.  Is it any wonder that the two biggest liars in the world are honored by Time?
     While, indeed, there may have been as many as two Jewish revenge killings in recent
months, no honest observer can attribute the reign of Arab terror to a reaction to such rare events. 
In reality there is no "cycle of revenge".  Even had these two killings not taken place, all of the
Arab murders would still have been committed.  No one is willing to admit the fact that the Arab
world is at war with Israel.  The goal of that war is to destroy the Jewish State... one Jew at a
time if necessary.  To suggest that the rare and desperate attempts to strike back at Arabs via
counter terror is a "cycle of violence" is simply and clearly an outright lie.  It implies that there is
no difference between the two acts when, in fact, Arab terror is designed to destroy and
demoralize the Jewish State, and the Jewish reaction is a desperate attempt to discourage further
terror by showing that there is a price to pay... a lesson which the Israeli government has yet to
try to teach.
     There is no peace process.  The talks with Arafat, even more than those held previously
with Sadat, are just another method of war to destroy the Jewish State.  More than 50% of the
people of Israel know this to be true but have no way to express their opinions or political
preferences owing to the convoluted mockery which passes for democracy in this country.  As
long as Rabin has his 61 seats, including those of five Arab members of Knesset, he is a virtual
dictator who can say and do as he pleases.  There is no democratic recourse for the legitimate
majority of citizens who are prisoners of a system which was designed to enable the elite few to
rule over the majority.  The local media has always been under the thumb of the leftist clique and
only "reports" the news which it feels serves the political interest of its views.  This results in
further Israel bashing by foreign antisemitic organs which are all too happy to report and even
improve upon the deliberate distortion of fact by the self haters who control the media here.
     The handshake on the White House lawn was a shock heard around the world.  It set the
stage for an absurd chain of events which will undoubtedly lead to a violent explosion.  No matter
how sweetly one wishes to speak of "peace", one simply cannot make peace between fire and
water.  Either the two must be separated, or one will vanquish the other.  The longer it takes for
the inevitable clash to occur, the more violent and bloody it will be.  While it might ease Rabin's
conscience to blame a tiny part of the 4% of the population for all of his problems, the real blame
lies squarely upon the shoulders of every Jewish government since the founding of the reborn
Jewish state.
     The only kind of peace we have ever seen in this world is that resulting from strength and
self respect.  When either of these factors is lacking, war is not far behind.  If you have self
respect, but lack the strength to back it up; or even if you have the strength, but fail to believe in
the justness of your own cause, war is inevitable.  The second scenario is far more rare than the
first one, but accurately describes the Israeli dilemma.
     The problem is not terrorism.  The problem is that no Israeli government has ever had the
courage and self-respect to declare that the State of Israel is an exclusively Jewish State, and to
back up that declaration by limiting citizenship in this country to Jews only and incorporating all
lands under our control into our sovereignty.  It is this refusal to recognize the function of this
country to be a haven for the Jewish people which has raised hope in the Arab world that they
can, eventually, destroy the Jewish State.  It is this different, Arab, "hatikvah", which we Jews are
guilty of having created by failing to declare our exclusive, non-negotiable, right to all of the land
of Israel, that is solely responsible for the horrible war which is soon to erupt from this farce
called the "peace process".