                      A Voice From Hebron
               When the Pressure Cooker Explodes
                        November 8, 1995
                     by Gary M. Cooperberg
                                
     Yigal Amir is not a madman.  He is not a member of any right wing radical organization. 
He is a student of law at Bar Ilan University and a sensitive Jew who cared enough about his
country and his people to sacrifice his life in a desperate effort to save both.
     I do not justify the concept of killing those with whom you do not agree,  nor is it my
intention to suggest that political assassination is an acceptable practice.  While I cannot rejoice at
the fact that my Prime Minister was killed, especially by a fellow Jew, neither can I smugly stand
on the sidelines and condemn him as all those around me are doing.
     Considering the kind of person Mr. Amir is, any reasonable, thinking person must stop for
a moment and ponder what drove a decent person to commit such an extreme act.  
     It has been suggested that, considering the fact that Israel is a democracy which allows for
expression of dissent, and that its rulers were elected by a majority of the people, that such an act
as assassination could, in no way, be anticipated.   But let us take a minute to examine the
premise.   Is the State of Israel truly a democracy?   Does it really allow for expression of dissent? 
Is it sensitive to the will of the people?   Does its leadership accurately reflect the choice of the
governed?   In my opinion the answer to all of the above questions is an emphatic NO!!
     The government of Yitzhak Rabin was never a true majority government.  As a matter of
fact, two members of his cabinet were elected by voters who thought that they were voting for the
right wing party of Raphael Etan!   Mr. Rabin's government broke their own law when they
clandestinely met with PLO chief Yassir Arafat.   The "Peace Prize" claimed by Mr. Rabin and
Mr. Peres was given in exchange for the rejection of that which every former government of
Israel, including the present one, considered a basic tenet, not to speak to the PLO, much less
enter into an agreement which was tantamount to surrender to it.   While it may be true that
Rabin's shoestring government did endorse his violations of their own principles, in a true
democracy such radical changes in policy should be submitted to the people before being acted
upon.     When, in angry reaction, a quarter of a million Jews did protest in Jerusalem, our Prime
Minister mocked them and told them that they could spin around like pinwheels for all the good
their protests would do.   It then became the norm to see Jewish policemen acting like storm
troopers beating peaceful civilian demonstrators.   
     I do not condone the concept of assassination; certainly not by a Jew against a Jew.  I do,
however, in the interest of preventing further such extreme acts, feel obligated to point out the
facts which have placed the people of Israel into a position of desperation. 
      When we watched our Prime Minister shake hands with a cold blooded murderer of Jews;
when we saw the agreement to permit Arab autonomy in Gaza and Jericho turn into a military
victory as we watched the PLO army shooting in the air and trampling the Jewish flag as they
took over what was proclaimed to be the new Palestine; when we saw tens of our brothers and
sisters drenched in their own blood since we have made "peace" with our enemies; when we heard
our leaders telling us that this is the price we must pay and continue to pay for "peace"; and when
we are faced with the prospect of yielding more and more of our homeland to those who propose
to take it all from us by force; then, perhaps, one can begin to understand what motivated Mr.
Amir to take such a drastic and desperate action.
     I do not rejoice at Rabin's death.  I mourn the fact that his policies drove a decent Jew to
commit such a desperate act.   One can call a process of self destruction "peace".  But the self
deception cannot go on indefinitely.  If you keep heating a pressure cooker it will eventually
explode.  Only when the leaders of the Jewish state come to grips with reality and govern with
regard to the will of those whom they presume to govern will there be hope for us to avoid the
further catastrophe of civil strife.
