                                                               
                      A Voice from Hebron
by Gary M. Cooperberg           
                         April 7, 1997
                                
    Mr. Terrorist Policeman, What a pretty Uniform you Have
          All the better to Deceive you with, My Dear
                                
     Joel Greenberg is not a reporter.  He is a highly talented manufacturer of fiction designed
to denigrate the image of the Jewish State.  When he wrote for the Jerusalem Post he consistently
described Arab murderers as decent, respectable people who were being baited and humiliated by
belligerent Jewish outsiders.
     Of all the anti-Jewish Israel bashers, those of the Joel Greenberg ilk are the most
dangerous.  They are disgruntled Jews who have a personal axe to grind with their own identity,
and, because they themselves are Jews, they lend a sense of authenticity to the malicious libel with
which they smear their own brothers.
     In a recent diatribe presented as "news" in the New York Times issue of Monday, March
24, 1997 under the title "A Rock and a Hard Place in Hebron", Greenberg takes great pains to
prove to his readers that the PLO police are really working hard to fight terror.  In spite of their
own personal desire to murder Jews, as respectable police they have intervened to prevent their
fellow terrorists from killing or injuring Jews in Hebron.  Arab riots are, of course understandable
in view of Israel's provocative decision to build Jewish homes in Jerusalem.
     While the photo of a clean-cut PLO policeman used in the article might seem convincing,
anyone who took the time to look at the clips on television could clearly see with their own eyes
just how hard the PLO police worked to stop the violent Arab mobs.  They stood like paper dolls,
half-heartedly holding up their hands in a mock demonstration of restraining the rioters.   Rarely
was an Arab rioter as much as slowed down much less prevented from launching his stone
missiles.
     If there was any blame for the stone throwing it rested purely upon the Jews.  The fact
that a small number of Jews dared to upset the great number of Arabs in Hebron by having the
audacity to live there too, is enough of a provocation.  But, just to drive home his point,
Greenberg described a Purim parade, where Jews were dancing and singing (as they do every year
at Purim) as "proof" that the "settlers" caused all the trouble. He quoted Rabbi Levinger's
expression of joy at being able to celebrate a Jewish holiday in the Jewish holy city of Hebron as
words of a fanatic trouble maker, and implied that this attitude in some way justifies the Arab
desire to murder Jews.
     I was very impressed with remarks in the article attributed to a "Palestinian lieutenant":
"We're also against settlements, but like any police force in the world, we have to keep the peace. 
Violence will only cause casualties on both sides, and we've gained more by political means."
There can be little doubt that Joel helped the PLO interviewee with his eloquent remarks.      I don't know where Greenberg's kind words for the PLO police were when they murdered
Jewish soldiers in cold blood in the town of Shechem several months ago, but I have no doubt
that his glib pen could easily find a way to show that even such an act was well justified.  He
probably would have proved to us all that the opening of an exit to an already functioning tourist
site in Jerusalem was justification for such legitimate Arab expression of resentment.
     His clearly biased presentations are read by people who just have no way of knowing the
truth.  It gives the impression that these "former" terrorist murderers are now clean-cut policemen
who only want to stop violence and promote peace.  This was the kind of impression the Big Bad
Wolf tried to give to Red Riding Hood when he dressed up as her grandmother.  Too bad that
Wolfie didn't have a Joel Greenberg to write for him.  If he had there is no doubt that the story
would have had a different ending.  And, without a doubt, Greenberg would have convinced us all
that Red Riding Hood had it coming for provoking the poor hungry wolf.