                                                               
                      A Voice from Hebron
                     by Gary M. Cooperberg
                          May 14, 1997
                     Arafat Wants us to Die
                    What are we Negotiating?
 
     Recently I saw a science fiction movie called "Independence Day".  It is not my intention
to review the movie, rather to comment on one tiny scene which gave me a de ja vou experience.
     Like many such movies which find monsters from outer space coming to conquer the
world, the inevitable moment came where the President of the United States came face to face
with the enemy.  In a stance which reminded me of Shimon Peres, the President asked the alien if
there weren't some way in which we could co-exist (this after the aliens exterminated millions of
people all over the world and demolished tens of cities).  The alien responded in the negative. 
Next the President asked if there weren't some way that we could make peace.  Again the alien
responded in the negative.  Desperate now, the President simply asked the alien what it was he
wanted us to do.  The answer was brief.  "I want you to die!"
     Ridiculous?  Maybe.  But I could not help but recognize a strong similarity between the
negotiations of  the President with the alien, and those of the government of Israel and the PLO.
Of course the alien was simply a little more honest than Arafat.  But, clearly, his goal is identical,
to destroy the enemy.  
     While the President did attempt to find some way to negotiate, as soon as he realized that
there was nothing to negotiate he decided to fight.  Here in Israel, our leaders refuse to recognize
that our enemies seek to completely destroy us.  Thus Netanyahu, like Rabin and Peres before
him, is continuing to negotiate our self-destruction under the self-delusion that we are making
peace.
     In this country it is not enough that we have had governments which place our very
existence in jeopardy.  We also have a politically controlled media which viciously attacks any
attempt to oppose this policy of national suicide.  
     While we have a supreme court whose subservience to the concept of democracy did not
incline it to intervene when the Knesset elections committee, made up of members of political
parties, decided to deny the Israeli electorate the right to choose Kach in the 1988 elections, this
same "high court" saw no reason to prevent the screening on television of a clearly biased
production which blamed the "religious right wing" elements of Israeli society for the
assassination of Rabin!
     It is true that Rabin was murdered.  It is also true that tens, if not hundreds, of thousands
of outraged Israelis considered Rabin a traitor.  This does not mean that those who exercised their
democratic right to express their opinion at a demonstration were conspirators to assassination. 
Nor does it mean that they had no right to express those opinions.  
     After the assassination we saw a backlash of hate which found Jews being beaten in the
streets for the "crime" of wearing a skullcap!  After we had hoped that the hatred resulting from
this labeling of a huge segment of our population as conspirators to assassination had subsided,
we see the Israeli Channel Two television station creating a propaganda piece designed to
regenerate that hatred.  Segments of demonstrations were taken out of context to reenforce the
allegation that it was legitimate demonstrations which led to the assassination.  
     Rabbi Meir Kahane, z"l, who was himself a victim of assassination years before Rabin,
was presented as a perpetrator of the atmosphere leading to murder!  Kach was particularly
singled out for responsibility even though Amir, the assassin, had no connections to Kach and has
even been shown to have been involved with the GSS!
     A staged presentation of an unnamed rabbi who "deliberately" left a tenach open to a
provocative page and then left his office as Amir entered to get his "religious justification" to
commit murder, left nothing to the imagination.
     Angry demonstrations in the wake of terrorist murders were shown as personal attacks
against Rabin.  What we did not hear or see was Rabin's response to a quarter of a million
peaceful demonstrators that they could spin around like propellers for all their demonstrations
meant to him. We also were not shown scenes of police on horseback beating women and children
for the "crime" of demonstrating peacefully.
     The issue which brought so many citizens to take to the streets was not raising taxes or
the misappropriation of government funds.  The people were outraged at having to live with a
rampage of terrorism while our government was "negotiating" with our murderers!   Perhaps
there was some justification to the anger we saw on our television screens.  Yet, for the casual
viewer, there was no presentation of such justification.  All the viewer saw was anger leading to
assassination; not anger resulting from government negligence to fight terror.
     Pictures of rabbis and leaders of the so called "right wing" were presented so as to imply
them to be co-conspirators.  A point was made to show, over and over again, the photo montage
of Rabin in a Nazi uniform.  This poster is known to have been made by Avishai Raviv who was
under the employ of the GSS!  They took a known setup and presented it as if it were
spontaneous.
     The result of this kind of programming and use of propaganda stunts to delegitimize an
entire segment of the population is predictable.  It fans the flames of hatred between Jews, and
intimidates those who disagree with the government from employing the legitimate democratic
right of freedom of expression.
     What is worse, it makes any expression of opposition to the so called "peace process" an
act of provocation which could lead to assassination.  Thus it becomes "criminal" to oppose the
traitorous sellout of our country to the PLO!!!
     Arafat just had an Israeli Arab murdered for allegedly selling land to a Jew.  No attempts
were made by the PLO to denounce the murder.  On the contrary.  It was openly stated that
Arabs who sell land to Jews are traitors to Palestine.  This Arab was labeled an "infidel" and
denied a Moslem burial!  
     In spite of this obvious proof that all Arafat wants is for us to die, we still seek to re open
the negotiations on the terms of our self destruction!  Aside from the fact that Torah Law forbids
us from giving away or even selling any part of the Land of Israel to a non Jew, even a secular
Jewish "democrat" would be assumed to have the intelligence to realize that we are not
negotiating with a partner who seeks to live with us.  Everyone knows that the PLO, and all of the
Moslem world, seeks to take the Land of Israel away from the Jewish people.  What kind of
individual responds to the efforts of a thief by offering to give him parts of his property without
fighting for it?
     Arafat does not come from outer space.  He is a fellow Earthling.  As such it should be
easier for us to determine what his intentions are then it was for the fictitious President to
understand the alien from outer space.  The fact is that we know exactly what Arafat wants.  Yet,
in spite of that fact, we choose to close our eyes and ears and choose to co exist with our
murderers who have no desire to co exist with us (witness the many new bypass roads)!
     Channel two's propaganda suggests that legitimate protest to policies which literally
endanger our very existence should be banned as incitement!   It vilifies Jews who dare to openly
point out the nakedness of the emperor. When it becomes illegal to challenge the policies of our
government, the next stage is slavery or annihilation. If Arafat is your friend, you are my enemy.