                                                           B"sd

                      A Voice from Hebron
                     by Gary M. Cooperberg
     If Netanyahu won't make Havdallah, Why should Clinton?
                       December 16, 1998
                                
     The boyish charm of President Clinton got him elected to the most powerful position in
the world.   And, it may well be, that this same charm will enable him to survive the impeachment
proceedings against him.  Certainly the majority of the American people are eager to forgive their
young, handsome, and eloquent chief executive.  When he speaks and looks the camera straight in
the eye, truth becomes irrelevant.  He just sounds so honest, so self-assured, so wholesome.  In
spite of the fact that the entire world knows him to be a liar, a cad and an adulterer, the American
people prefer not to think about anything that would tarnish the perception of their knight in
shining armor.

     In Israel too, a great many people are affected by the Clinton charm.  When he addressed a 
crowd of high school youth here the response was one of overwhelming love and joy such as that
reserved for a movie or rock star.  Everyone wanted to catch a glimpse of this special man, and
many climbed over one another just to touch him.

     Clinton is a skilled orator.  He knows how to say what his audience wants to hear.  They
loved listening to him in Israel.  And they loved listening to him in Gaza.  Yet, clearly, there is
something very wrong here.  There are axiomatic, iron-clad, differences between the ideology of
the PLO and Israel.  This being the case how can it be possible to please both audiences and still
have a consistent policy?  One thing is sure, had Clinton made the same speech he gave in Gaza to
a Jerusalem audience he would not have gotten the standing ovation he got in Gaza.  Yet, despite
his obvious duplicity, the Clinton charm seems to be able to overcome it all.

     One obvious example is to be found in his heart-rending expression of sympathy for the
suffering of both Arab and Jewish children.  The President admitted to having been moved to
tears at the suffering of Arab children whose fathers are in Israeli prisons, and also at the suffering
of Jewish children whose parents had been murdered by Arabs.  He declared that it is time for
something to be done to stop the suffering on both sides.

     Responding to expressions of anger by his fellow Israelis that Clinton could make such a
comparison, virtually equating the murderers with the murdered, Rabbi (sic) David Hartman was
indignant that anyone could cast aspersions against his president.  After all, Clinton wasn't
referring to adults.  He was merely expressing his hope that all children should be free from tears
and suffering.

     What Hartman, and so many others like him, failed to perceive was the clear implication
by the American president that both sides, Arab and Jew, share responsibility for this suffering and
thus both sides need to make concessions in order to bring it to an end.   This is simply not true.
The Jewish children were crying because their parents were murdered by Arabs.  The Arab
children were crying because their fathers are in Israeli prisons as a result of murdering the parents
of the Israeli children!  Had the fathers of the Arab children not murdered the parents of the
Jewish children none of the children would be crying today.  What exactly would Clinton have the
Jewish side concede in order to stop the suffering?   

     The American president is no fool.  He knows full well that he was addressing a
convention of murderers.  He knows that there is no balance between the "differences" harbored
by Arabs and Jews.  The Jews want to live in peace in their only homeland, and the Arabs want to
take that homeland from us.  The compromise has already begun.  We are beginning to give away
our homeland to Arafat, and the Arabs are moderating the degree of terror and murder against the
Jews.  Now that is progress.

     The only hope to achieve peace in our region is for a Jewish government to arise and
recognize its responsibility, not only to the Jewish people, but to the entire world.  The ability to
achieve world peace lies with us alone.  Appeasing murderers will never bring peace.  Giving
away pieces of our sacred homeland will only whet the appetite of our enemies to try to wrest the
rest of it from us by any means.  Only when a Jewish leadership arises and declares,
unequivocally, that the Land of Israel is the exclusive homeland of the Jewish people, whose
sovereignty cannot and will not be shared with any other nation, will we at long last be on the
road to real peace.  The PLO has no business poaching on Jewish soil.  It has no business raising a
foreign flag in our homeland.  It has no business operating an airport, issuing automobile
registration, or minting stamps in this country.  And, most certainly, it has no business establishing
a full military infrastructure on Jewish land.

     It was and is the responsibility of the Jewish government for permitting such abominations
to take place.  The only way to correct these grave errors is to undo them completely.  It is not
enough merely to stop giving away our homeland.  It is a national and Jewish imperative to take
back all of our homeland from the thieves and murderers who now occupy it.  To do less is to aid
and abet an enemy which is dedicated to our destruction.  I do not fear the duplicity and crocodile
tears of the American president.  One can hardly expect him to be more Jewish than our prime
minister.  I am terrified, however, when I hear my prime minister repeat with utmost sincerity, his
intention to give away more of our homeland to our enemies for any reason. . . much less for the
meaningless gestures of those who openly declare their intention to take our homeland from us.  If
a Netanyahu cannot stand up as a proud Jew and declare that Israel belongs only to the Jewish
people and that Arafat and his people are murderers with whom we can never negotiate, certainly
no American president will do it for him.