                                                                 A Voice From Hebron
                     by Gary M. Cooperberg
                   Where Have we gone Right?
                       November 25, 1996

     Our various governments over the years have made every effort to prove to our people
that we have a bright future of peaceful relations with our Arab neighbors.  It mattered not if we
witnessed occasional stabbings, bombings, shootings, and rock throwing.  That was just done by a
few fanatic "terrorists".  Clearly the rest of the Arab population only wants to live in peace with
us.  
     The last time Zvulun Hammer was our minister of education he instituted a special
program to show our children how much Jews and Arabs are alike.  He arranged for mandatory
class visits between Jewish and Arab schools in Israel.  We remember, too well, how a friendly
soccer game between Jews and Arabs in the village of Shvar Am broke into a riot in which only
by police intervention was murder avoided.  But, not to worry, our system never gave up its
efforts to prove that the Arabs really love us.
     With the intifada, rather than admit we were dealing with insurrection and crush it from
the outset, our government, under Shamir,  insisted that we can live with rocks and fire bombs
and made arrangements to equip our cars with protective plastic windows, and paid for damage
caused by "falling rocks".  "We will not let the terrorists win", was the motto of both left and
right, even as our civilians were shot down in cold blood.
     Education was the solution to our problem of "racial intolerance".  The real cause of our
strife was the "racist" ideology of  the Kach Movement.  So, in an unprecedented display of
national unity, all the opposing political factions banded together and outlawed the Kach Party as
being "racist".  Any suggestion to transfer Arabs out of Israel or to in any way "discriminate"
against them would result in criminal prosecution.  We must all consider our Arab neighbors as
equal citizens who want to live in peace with us.  Those who violated the rules were arbitrarily
arrested and placed under administrative detention as an example to others not to say bad things
about our enemies.
     This ideological effort by our government and educational system to brainwash the
population into believing that we can live in peace with our enemies has been going on relentlessly
for many years.  Our news media, public school system, and political ideology has been
hammering away at the "evils of racism" to the point where one would be hard put to find anyone
who would dare suggest that we remove our enemies from Jewish soil.  Such a statement would,
at the very least, result in social ostracizing, and at the most a prison sentence.
     One would expect our educational leaders to be proud of their marathon efforts to impart
the concept of  "tolerance" to our children.  There is only one problem here.  It seems that our
malleable little ones are not as naive as were our ministers of education.  A new poll was just
released.  School children throughout the Jewish State were given a survey and the results found
our Minister of Education totally stunned.  It seems that, in spite of our sterling education system,
well over a third of the students polled claimed to hate Arabs.  A full two thirds declared that
Arabs should not share equal rights with Jews in Israel.
     Where did we go right?  How is it possible that, despite all of the time, effort and money
spent to convince our children to love our enemies, so many of them have refused to be
brainwashed?  How could they stand up to all of the subliminal television programs and school
curriculums which proved how nice Arabs really are?
     What Hammer, Sarid, Aloni and others have failed to take into consideration is the
intelligence of the Jewish student.  You may tell him whatever you want, but you cannot fool him. 
One needn't be a college professor to know that the Arabs are our enemy.  As a matter of fact,
being a college professor might qualify you for the ability to assume otherwise.  
     No matter what the commentators might say about "peace", our children have their own
eyes,  ears and minds.  They saw their Prime Ministers shaking hands with the man most
responsible for the murder of hundreds of Jews.  They saw through the perfidy of an "autonomy
agreement" which immediately disintegrated into a loss of Jewish sovereignty over parts of our
sacred homeland.  They watched our "peace partners" tear down and burn our flag and murder
our soldiers with guns we gave them.  They see how our army prepares for "peace" by building
by-pass roads and building bunkers in our cities.
     Our children are not stupid.  They will not believe something just because it is in the
school curriculum or mouthed by a left wing reporter.  They have their own eyes and ears, and are
well able to formulate intelligent opinions based upon truth rather than unfounded utopian
dreams.   They listen to our enemies who openly tell us that when they take over Hebron, Jews
will not be permitted to pray at the Tombs of our Patriarchs; this in spite of the fact that we have
never denied them the right to pray there.
     The peace envisioned by the PLO and all the other Arab nations is very similar to Peres's
New Middle East.  It will find the Jewish State abolished and replaced with an Arab Islamic
"democracy" under which Jews will be an insignificant minority subject to the whims of our
enemies.
     Our children understand this even as our government and its intellectual advisors do not. 
Hammer, clearly upset with the results of this latest poll, angrily quipped that the educational
system much teach our children that "just because some people are not exactly like you, is no
reason to hate them." 
     A minister in a right wing government, and a leader in the National Religious Party, opens
his mouth and reveals that he is either a liar, or has less intelligence than a child in his elementary
schools.  Our children are not fools.  They don't hate Arabs because they are "different" from
Jews. They hate Arabs because they understand that the Arabs are our enemies who seek our
destruction.  Why is it that our leaders cannot think with the clarity of our children?   
     "Have you seen a man who is wise in his own conceit?  There is more hope in a fool than
in him."  Proverbs 26:12