                                                               
                      A Voice from Hebron
                     by Gary M. Cooperberg
                       February 25, 1997
         How much more Self-hatred can we Put up with? 
                                
     Elana Padolsky works in the kitchen at Yeshivat Kiryat Arba.  She and her husband, Alex,
are recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union who came to make their homes in Israel. 
They are both hard working people, gentle souls who truly are an asset to our community.
     Three years ago, before we had the "benefit" of the new road that bypasses the vipers den
called Hahul, just outside of Hebron, all traffic between Kiryat Arba and Jerusalem had to drive
through this hotbed of Arab terror.  Rocks, fire bombs, other unidentified flying objects, as well as
bullets often greeted commuters on their way to and from Jerusalem.
     Elana just happened to be one among countless victims of a violent stoning attack. 
Terrified, she fired in the air to frighten her attackers away.  As fate would have it, one of her
unaimed bullets found a target and killed an Arab.  
     Just today, the Israeli courts, in their high regard for "justice", ruled that Elana must serve
a year and a half in prison for using her weapon to defend herself while under attack!  This same
"justice" system saw fit to release thirty Arab women who callously and willfully participated in
the murder of Jews, and who, to this day, are proud of their deeds.
     How does one continue to function in a society which rewards murderers and punishes
victims?  We have but begun to witness the results of what happens when our leaders convince
themselves that they are making peace as they continue to make a pact with the Devil.  
     The PLO has become "kosher".   Armed murderers are no longer terrorists.  They are
former "freedom fighters" and now they have become "policemen" who are working hard with
Israel to stop terror!  Our government is trying so hard to believe that rot that it has taken to
freeing Arab murderers from our prisons, and replacing them with good Jews.  
     It is the Jew who still remembers and loves Zion who is the enemy of peace in Israel
today.  Bibi, the disciple of the great Zeev Jabotinsky (who must be rolling over in his grave) has
reshaped Zionism into distorted foreign object which bears little resemblance to the original
concept.  Imagine even Ben Gurion first consulting with Arab leaders all over the world before
deciding to build in Jerusalem!
     Arafat is harboring murderers of Jews in the safety of his mini-state, within the Jewish
State, and, rather than demand that they be handed over to Israel, Bibi hands over more such
murderers to Arafat. . . for peace of course.   What ever happened to the famous Bibi concept of
reciprocity?   The only form of reciprocity we see is that we try to free as many Arab murderers as
does the PLO!
     Had any other government tried to justify the outrages that this one has already
perpetrated upon an unsuspecting electorate, it would have been booted out long ago.  But we
worked so hard to get Bibi elected. . . to defeat the miserable Peres.   What are we to do now?  
Are we to agree that Peres is better?   
     The fact is that nothing of any significant value is waiting in the political arena to salvage
what may yet remain of Jewish self-respect and pride.   But we dare not throw up our hands and
quit.  That would be to lend our support to our own self destruction.   It matters not what, if
anything, is standing in the wings.  This government is the worse thing that ever happened to the
Jewish State.  It may not have initiated Oslo, but it had an obligation, a mandate, to nullify it.   It
was a breach of trust and an act of treason for this government to take Oslo and improve upon it.  
Even now plans are being made to officially part with more of our homeland. . . for peace.
     It is time for the people to get angry.  Those who sit in our government should all be in
prison.  And, I have no doubt, there are many good Jews who currently sit in our prisons who
should be sitting in a real Jewish government;  Jews who are being punished for exhibiting Jewish
pride, self-respect, and self-sacrifice.   
     We rejected the concept of having a Jewish government in favor of democracy.  Our
reward was that we don't even have a democracy.   We are being ruled by petty and selfish
egotists who care more about their personal prestige than of the county they have sworn to serve. 
All red lines have been crossed and double crossed.   There is nothing left to salvage.  The time
has come to scrap this entire mess and start all over again.  But first we must find leaders with
self-respect and a memory of what Zionism really is.  We have been downtrodden for too long.  
It is time to stop shrugging our shoulders in acceptance of our miserable condition.  By so doing
it is we, the people, who are most responsible for creating the monster under which we now
suffer.  It is the right of the people to demand a change. 
     Even the great USA has an elastic clause in the constitution which clearly gives the people
the right to abolish a government which abuses its purpose to serve the people. No people has
been more abused by its form of government than have been the people of Israel.  It is high time
for a complete change before our alleged "right wing" government  hands the rest of our
homeland over to the PLO.