Following the Jewish values by AMR 1:02am Sun Nov 16 '03 Jewish values should show us the way for the conflict resolusion. print article 8 years ago I was writing the exact term as regarding to Rabin Assassination… Namely: “There is no much difference between those that are killing by the SOWRD then by those that are killing by the WORD”. Well my original phrase is in Hebrew. I said already that the Jews are own best critics and that is stemming from the Judaism teaching. Jews are excels in science and moral issues not because they are smarter then the others, though some Jews faultily believe that they are equipped physically better then the others. The many years that I worked with Gentiles brought me to the conclusion that those are smart as and in many cases better equipped physically and mentally then the Jews. The Jewish misconception is regarding to the very deep definition of the Term ‘Jew’ falsely believing that the Jews excellent achievements are stemming from being a race. That is wrong. Jews excels due to their Judaism belief, nothing to do with the race issue. If it was a race issue why am I looking more Arian then the ‘German Arians’ and mister Yemany in Israel is looking just like the Yamanes from the Saudi Arabia peninsula? Yet we all are holding the same mental qualities and moral values!! The reason I bring it here is due to the Jewish inclination to hold tightly with ‘Objectivism’, ‘Eternal truth’, ‘Diving deep inside nature’s phenomena, ‘Observing the other as theirs’, relentless search for justice etc. Here are the true differences between Jews and the others and here is the main reason for the others’ hatred to Jews. All those qualities are too heavy to carry and absorb by many in the world at all times. The World militant Left and Right wings are a good example of social bodies that can not handle such values, it is just too much of a burden for them, they are looking for solutions but not necessarily just ones…kind of, “finish off the problem and let go over it…” Having said all that, I am not dismissing the Jews and Israelis from the results of their wrong deeds. Jews feels that the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea is theirs and historically they are correct, it was theirs. On the other hand we should not ignore the fact that Palestinians are the major inhabitants of the land in the past thousand years and more and that fact is giving them right on the land as well as the Jews’. My solution (and of other’s as well) that is supporting two homelands for the two nations is basing itself on the Jewish moral (…”Divide it by fair parts”…). My advocating about treating the Palestinian population fairly and making them Israel’s allies in the quest for peace is again part of the Jewish sense of justice (“Do not do to the other whatever is hated by you”….”Love your neighbor as yourself”). My advocating regarding of holding the strongest arm (a wall of steel) against the Palestinian Terror, relentlessly (Rise and kill the one that is rising to kill you) is coming from the same source. Needless to say, as a prerequisite, the Palestinians should realize the same from their side. An agreement that is not materializing the WIN-WIN schema is due to fail shortly thereafter. The Palestinians as well as the Israelis should feel that in the frame of practical matters and facts they have achieved the best deal for themselves and living peacefully side by side is serving their utmost national interests. On the other hand reality check is sometime cruel. Just yesterday in an interview to a Saudi newspaper, Shekh Yasin the Hamas leader declared that any Hodna (temporary cease fire) is only a step in the Arab wishes in destroying Israel and take over the whole area from the ‘River to the Sea’. Sure enough, he said, it is only a matter of time until the Arabs will materialize their wishes. We should not guess, it is not anybody’s hallucinated imagination, it is a sheer fact; that is what Arabs are planning for Israel towards its destruction. He is not the only one, many others including many ‘Phony Jews’ that never realized that WORDS do kill and they are actually calling (sure indirectly – but go and explain that to the murdered one) for the second genocide of the Jewish nation only 60 years after the previous one ended. So what the Jews and Israelis should do? They should make sure that any solution will take in consideration their security needs. A solution that will assume the Arab desires for Israel’s destruction and close any foreseeing gap that will ever allow the Palestinian terror and the Arab desires for Israel’s destruction to be materialized. Israel should assume that those wishing its destruction will not vanished in the next tens or even hundred of the coming years. I know, it is sound pessimistic but it is not actually. Many countries are standing stable while threats are all around them, just to mention the Islamic world Terror that is threatening many countries all across the world as a good example for this thesis. Israel should aimed at total separation from the Palestinians as a first stage to built up the trust again and that one will take a long time…tens of years probably. The Security Fence should go along the Green Line and it will be used defiantly as a corner stone in the security thesis of Israel. Israeli Settlers should get back inside 1967 borders (in return for the same amount of Palestinians settlers in Israel going back to the Palestinians territories) or accept being a Palestinian citizen, just like the Palestinians are being Israeli citizens. Palestinians and Jews refugees from the Arab countries will be compensated accordingly. Both countries will keep their chosen identity namely: Jewish-Israel and Muslim-Palestine. The predefined penalties that will be imposed as part of the agreement, in physical assists, backed by the international community, will be so huge that no side will dare to breach the peace agreement from the fear of the consequences (I mean cutting and transferring predefined peaces of land in a response for those breaches or equal remedies). This posting is aiming at showing how moral values and measures should be translated into practicalities. It is much more “beneficial” to stay a moral nation and alive then a demolished moral nation. The recent holocaust taught us a lesson that being a moral one by nature as Judaism is providing us with is not enough if it is not backed up by the proper practical measures. God (or for those that are not holding much of it –The Destiny) is helping only for those that are willing to help themselves. This posting will be published for all to read as well. add your comments Source file

Pursuing Peace, Justice, and Jewish Values by kenny freeman 8:01am Sun Nov 16 '03 print comment AMR, you have brought us back to the ‘basic issues.’ What are Jews supposed to do, given a religion that not only is very specific about how to act, but that also anticipates our being surrounded by enemies, continually. The Holocaust is beyond understanding, yet we must anticipate and prevent the next one. Our existence as a people has been demonstrated to be something we have to take responsibility for. And on top of all that inner turmoil and confusion that is the legacy of post-Holocaust Jewishness, comes Israel’s precarious status, from beginning till now. And a ‘history’ with the Palestinians that is unfortunate. And a present in which they’re strapping on bombs and boarding buses. And Jewish values are the only way to end this conflict. As you point out, it is the Judaism that matters, not being born into the race. Converts who achieved great spiritual heights, from Ruth through Rabbi Akiva, etc., prove this. But when it comes to the ‘relentless search for Justice,’ this is not part of the ‘Jewish inclination.’ This is a Commandment. The ‘main reason for the others hatred to Jews’ is that we are Different. And despite the passage of thousands of years, a lot of dispersions, intermarriages, and false-gods, we insist on remaining ‘different.’ “For all the earth is Mine; And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:5-6) So people hate us because we aspire to ‘holiness.’ And you point out that both Arabs and Jews have justified, and conflicting claims to the “Promised Land.” From Ishmael to ‘Abu Ammar.’ (forgive me, I still can’t write his name…). And if both claims are valid, than the need for Justice is exquisite. Is dividing the land in two a path to Justice? And ‘divide it by fair parts,’ I believe is ‘overruled’ by the words attributed to G-d, not to Moses, in Leviticus 19:34 : “The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens, you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” And you know that the Palestinian State you propose is cut in two; the West Bank has no access to the Sea, to the beach, has no airport, no railroad, one road from Jenin to Nablus, nothing but stones, goats, olive trees. And Gaza: just desert, and people. And Israel has the Sea, the Emek, Haifa, the Galilee, the Kinneret. All the resources, all the development. And Haifa, Akko, Yafo, etc., were built on top of pre-existing Arab cities. It is injustice. Anyone can see it. You don’t need politics, statistics, religion, or history. All you need are eyes. Look at Israel, look at Judea and Sammaria. After Peace, tourists would come to visit Palestine, but they’d sleep in Israel. How much rocks and goats does anyone need…? And their slogan is “No justice, No peace.” It is obvious that we must consider ‘Jewish security.’ Since the Europeans tried to exterminate us, and the rest of the world was willing to let it happen. And it is probable that Palestinians are equally hated, and destructible, and in need of protection for a long time, as the ‘Arab World’ evolves. You call for ‘total separation from the Palestinians.’ But what about economic? postage? telephones? water, ports, friends, relatives, medical problems, universities? If settlers stay behind and become Palestinian citizens, they’re going to want access to Israel, and then the other Palestinian citizens will want equal access… You say Israeli settlers should return for ‘the same amount of Palestinian settlers.’ My closest friend in Nazareth, Elias Joubran, was born in Acre, and then in 1948 his family was forced to leave, and settled in Nazareth. Is he a ‘settler?’ Who is? And you say the Palestinian State should be ‘Muslim.’ But only Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad want that. The PLO, and now the ‘PNA’ have always been for a Secular State, because part of their people are Christian. The last thing Israel wants is a Muslim State, esp. if the ‘settlers’ have become Palestinian citizens. (‘do not do to the other…’). If there is peace, however it comes, there will be an outpouring of resources from all over the world, esp. investment capital, which will do so much for both starving economies that there will be no need for ‘planning for breaches.’ The positive incentive will be so strong that fear of jeopardizing it will be sufficient ‘control’ over extremists. Mao said they have to have a ‘sea to swim in,’ i.e. community support for revolutionaries, and there will be no such sea. Not on either side. The most obvious practical response to the Holocaust is that any solution has to have the Right of Return (for Jews; and for Palestinians…) underlying it, be it partition, unification, Bi-nationalism, etc. And for the foreseeable future, military super-power status. I find that concept repulsive, and yet what is the choice if the world hates Jews, then, now, and tomorrow? But any of the solutions, including unification and Bi-nationalism, could include both Right to Return and military security. To avoid the ‘second genocide of the Jewish nation,’ is the absolute obligation of us all. Not just the nation, Israel, is threatened, the survival of the whole Jewish people is at risk. So we will ‘seek peace,’ and ‘pursue Justice,’ and see where this exchange can take us. So far, it’s only ‘us’ talking among ourselves, and at this point, that’s appropriate. If we exchange ideas, come to understandings, reach out to others, perhaps we can give the next generation a better situation than the one we inherited, G-d willing. p.s.:“Each man kills the thing he loves; the brave man does it with a sword, the coward with a word.” Oscar Wilde, “Ballad of Reading Gaol” add your comments

to kenny and AMR by RC 5:57pm Sun Nov 16 '03 print comment You are both speaking your own truths, and that is always commendable, i feel. I think it is a good dialogue here. I come from a spiritual perspective, usually, cause i think that ideas and inner understanding and beliefs preceed all action..It is all about how we frame things. The story of Job, being the best example, i think.. Job resolved his suffering and moved on, to a new place of peace in himself, and in his life, after he had a psycho/spiritual breakthrough..He was 'told' by Gd, that creation is infinitely deep and mysterious. He was 'told' that narrow and fundamentalistic views of reality are always an insult to Gd, and also make people unable to be compassionate (in the case of Jobs friends). They were fundamentalists..They saw things in black and white. "If you are suffering, you must be sinning." Job's enlightenment is that he saw the suffering that stems from limited thinking, and realized, as Einstein said, that "no problem can be solved by the consciousness that created it"..This implies evolution of consciousness. And I think it is no accident that it is the last time Gd spoke to a human being in the Bible. It says so very, very much. It points the way for the future. We must always look for the deeper lessons in life, or else we will repeat history..Israeli people are somehow recreating history. So something is wrong here. There would not be a rise in antisemitism if this were not true..Same with the 'antisemites'. There hasn't been any real learning here, except, more lack of trust. And a feeling of needing to be separated from the 'other'..We need to really take the story of Job to heart, and realize that no one is meant to be stagnant..Evolution and growth and expansion is the way of the universe, and we are part of that..As we expand, Gd expands..We are all connected. The idea of "they are out to get us" is going to create more and more of the same cycle. We can't hold on to old truamas and move forward..This is true of individual psychology, and it is true of whole societies..If we hold on, we are creating our own prison. Something needs to be worked through here..I personally think it has to begin with ourselves, because that is what we have control of..Feeling vicitimized seems to be on bothe sides of this situation. Jewish victimization should not be part of the Jewish religion. Unless it is to be examples of how to transcend victimization and learn from it..And see how our perspectives help to create our own reality. Which is what Job was really about. We need to get that only human beings who follow the truth of 'do unto others' (and this can only come from the heart, from empathy), are going to lead the way to a future of peace..We can see quite clearly at this point in history, it cannot happen any other way..Because someone will always find something to project onto others and act out destructively from it. I believe that every major religion has the same underlying message, of course, which is human respect for each other, since we are all one..To honour Gd is to honour this Truth..NO EXCEPIONS OR EXCUSES...If someone is making excuses, then they don't get it..Period.. I don't know if I am even responding to the previous two writers, but somehow I believe I am...Shalom add your comments

King Solomon by RC 6:03pm Sun Nov 16 '03 print comment He was wise enough to know that the law of dividing into equal parts has its limits. (just as Job found out about the belief that all human suffering was punishment from a just but punishing Gd...and he was shown this was wrong)... Solomon, the symbolism here, is showing that the "heart" transcends this law of equal parts..The one who truly loved the child would not allow it to be cut into parts..Would rather see the other woman have the baby, rather than see it destroyed....Where do the Israeli and Palestinians fall in this story, i am asking?? To build a wall like this, i feel, is cutting the baby in half... add your comments

RC, You R Right by JjimmyJ 6:15pm Sun Nov 16 '03 print comment There must be no division, no walls, and no terror. There is only one way to achieve what RC is demanding, and its starts with a few empty buses, and ends on the other side of the Jordan. We are dealing with real wisdom here. RC, thank you for backing the transfer solution. add your comments

And thanks to you Jimmy! by David James Vickery 6:52pm Sun Nov 16 '03 print comment Thankyou Jimmy for playing the devil's advocate. You have very effectively shown us all another example of just how evil some secular Jews can really think. A pox on you and your ilk! d. add your comments

Pox?????? by JjimmyJ 7:03pm Sun Nov 16 '03 print comment So much for your high-mindedness. We see your true face now. add your comments

For Jimmy by RC 9:19pm Sun Nov 16 '03 print comment It is unfortunate that you are so bitter. You suffer from from a character flaw that appears to be entrenched within the Sharon administration. It is called hubris. But more.... You seem to confuse being 'clever' with being 'wise'. And it doesn't work. The rest of the world, and of course, a sizable number if Israeli citizens, are rather sick and tired of this kind of game. Your leaders seem to play it the same way. You do not exhibit values based upon any kind of moral foundation. You would probably be a "jew hater", if you were not jewish yourself. Which, of course , is exactly the point that is not understood by many. People like you are like football fans who beat up the fans of the opposing team. You just happen to be jewish, so this is your 'side', your 'team'..And you will do whatever it takes to win. Even if it means destructiveness to those on the 'other side'.. And of course, feeling you are being 'clever' by intentionally misreading my intent, is part of the game. You would put your political interests over your common humanity..This is what allowed the holocaust to happen..And Kenny, that is also my answer to your question of, how did it happen?? Take a good long look right here, my friend...Shalom add your comments

i couldn't resist one more thought here.... by RC 11:10pm Sun Nov 16 '03 print comment Jimmy's response to David says something even more telling..It is a though certain people cannot believe that others are truly 'high minded'...I believe it is because they have no reference points to heartfelt empathy. They are always looking for the 'trick'..And i see it alot on this website. It is like, "see, i gotcha now!" They want to prove that no one has ethics or morality, because they feel innately threatened by it. Now, I wrote a response to a posting a few days ago, regarding an Israeli U.N. proposal that mimicks a palestinian proposal that was passed, regarding protection of palestinian children, because they are in a unique position in certain ways. The first proposal israel has made to the general assembly, and it was even said by the israeli representative, whose name escapes me now, that israel will now see for themselves.. Because if the U.N doesn't pass this israeli proposal, they are antisemitic, and have a double standard..I see this type of game the same way I see Jimmy's response to David..How? The israeli just couldn't fathom the fact that there is a different and unique circumstance around the passing of the palestian proposal. Didn't even want to know, really. But assumes that it was passed as a way of condeming israel, just because they are so antisemitic in the U.N....Cannot understand that other people really did feel a deep compassion, and this is why it was passed. I don't think that even occurs to them,because they have no reference points to it personally. Then, to use this as a way to play the game of "gotcha now!" Well, it is a real embarrassment ..It is a primitive attempt to be clever..But because they really don't understand the deeper context, they just look like fools. And , you see, this is where the intellect breaks down, if it is not supported by intuitive, heartfelt understanding..And this government plays that part out so often..Projecting its own lack of human understanding onto everyone else. Because they are stuck in a very narrow universe. They really are anachronistic...Wow, i sort of got off topic here...oh, well.... add your comments

Further Response to AMR and Kenny... by RC 2:58am Mon Nov 17 '03 print comment Maybe i should just write an article, and quit responding here. However, I think it is important to say some things, since i have the format within this posting. Kenny, I do not believe that the assumption that there will be another holocaust, and we should create our realities around that assumption, is a good way to go, (with all due respect, as you know.) This implies living in a state of paranoia, which does not make for an open and creative and life affirming way of being in the world. Or within oneself.. That is why you feel the conflict about suggesting that israel needs to be a world military superpower. You know intuitively, that it doesn't really sound right, but if you hold to that innate belief about the future, it would seem you have no choice.. I believe, however, what you said about positive outcome of a free and peaceful Israel/Palestine is much more accurate..As you said, no need for harsh sanctions and measures from the rest of the world, to 'keep everyone in line'. Because the benefits will keep everyone invested in keeping peace and cooperation going. And i believe this is absolutely true.. As far as how to prevent antisemitism and another 'Jewish' holocaust, which both of you seem to fear. Start with doing unto others as you would have them do unto you..No special privileges..No one is exempt from Universal Law. No loopholes for anyone. It is not 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth'..That is not justice. That is 'getting even', in a very primitive way. And I will promise you that this will never work in the long run. Justice comes from truly learning the deeper lesson from experience, and growing from it..That is our 'redemption'..Evolution and growth. And these are very Divine qualities of Gd. As long as we do not relate to each other based upon how we are alike (reflections of the nature of Gd), rather than splitting hairs about how we are different, then we are all in trouble. I do not believe that the Gd of the Jews is unique..Yes, I believe that all spiritual paths and teachings each have their own unique expressions and qualities. Jeremiah said that in the future, the words of Gd would be printed within the hearts of each individual human being. And there would be no need for anyone else to tell us how to live, because each one has the capacity to search his own heart and 'know' what is right. I believe we have reached that time. AMR, if i understand you, you are saying that being Jewish is not a race, but an ethical and spiritual way of being in the world and seeing life. Even converts have reflected these values, you said. So then, really, anyone who is in search of understanding and justice and truth, and respects his fellow human beings, etc., can be considered a Jew. And he can also be a Christian or a Moslem at the same time?? I would say, yes. They all have the same foundation, do they not? Now, also, I feel that there is a conflict when you believe that if we are truly 'moral', we could be destroyed..I must , in all respect, say that i do not agree. If this were true, why would Gd have given us this Law? Gd would not have given us this understanding, if it would cause our destruction..So, something needs to be understood here, i feel, in a deeper way. I believe that if we truly followed the Law, in creative ways, and creativity is by nature, infinite, then we would all do much better. And we will not be destroyed, i am very certain of this on many levels of my being. Plus, it makes sense. Realism need not be pessimism. We can see much to prove this point, if we shine a light on the positive actions of human beings, now, and throughout history..o.k. I will stop here..Shalom add your comments

Helping yourself by Dave 11:06am Mon Nov 17 '03 print comment Yes, AMR, you make many valid points, but, unfortunately such values seem to have been a bit thin on the ground for far too many years. Can you imagine that it's possible that the Palestinians might just have a legitimate greivance or two? PLease read what follows in its entirety and then tell me where these values were when this and uncounted other abuses occurred. I would sincerely like an answer and, from what you have written above, I know your answer will come from your heart. Voiding the Palestinians: An Allegory By M. Shahid Alam “Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French.” - Gandhi [1] “Palestine will be as Jewish as England is English.” - Chaim Weizman [2] On October 29, 2003, a leading Israeli daily, Ha’aretz, reported a rape-murder that occurred more than fifty years ago at Nirim, an Israeli military outpost in the Negev. The victim was a Palestinian girl, in her early or mid-teens, or younger; the perpetrators of this crime were members of the Israeli Defense Force.[3] Six days later, The Guardian also reported this crime, but US papers did not think this was news that is fit for print.[4] In the United States, the media prefers to shield Israel from adverse notice. What is the significance of a single rape-murder in the long and tortuous history of the dispossession of one people by another? No dispossession ever makes a pretty picture. Moreover, the dispossession of Palestinians is no ordinary dispossession. It is not ordinary because it involved the complete voiding of one people by another: Palestine had to be emptied of its ancient Palestinian population to make room for Jews. It is not ordinary because much of this emptying was telescoped within a few short months (in 1948) rather than over centuries or decades. It was not ordinary because the people doing the voiding had themselves been voided from their spaces in Europe, a people with brilliant accomplishments, voided from the spaces they had helped to enrich. It is not ordinary because the voiding, the violence it demanded, had been carefully planned, orchestrated, justified, explained, excused, and, after it’s success, celebrated and glorified in Israeli and Western media. What is the significance of a single rape-murder – I ask again – in the midst of the voiding of Palestine implemented through the deceit of declarations and the farce of international laws; through repeated wars and grinding repressions; through the backing of great powers and support of the world’s organized Jewry; through ethnic cleansings, orchestrated massacres and obliterated villages; through bombings of cinder block apartments, hospitals, schools and workshops; through armed settlements built on hilltops; through house demolitions, curfews, sieges, trenches, and bypass roads dividing communities; through a million daily humiliations at a thousand checkpoints; and now through a gargantuan wall, coiling, advancing, ominous, that dreams of squeezing the last drop of blood from beleaguered Palestinian communities in the West Bank? Perhaps this single rape-murder is significant. The voiding of a people necessarily involves suffering on a monumental scale. The Zionists built their Jewish state by destroying the lives of millions of Palestinians over three generations. The scale of this suffering has been documented in reports, in statistics of villages destroyed, houses demolished, and men, women and children evicted from their homes, robbed, incarcerated, bombed, shot at, tortured, killed. However, statistics do not tell stories; they will not grip the reader with the pain of the victims. As the Holocaust reveals its hellish intent in images and artifacts, so the narrative of Palestinian voiding must be conveyed in images, metaphors and allegories, each of which contains in miniature, in essence, the great pain that the Palestinians have endured for more than eighty years. We must read the Ha’aretz disclosure of the rape-murder in the Negev as an allegory of the fate decreed by the god-like Zionists for an inferior Arab population. Read with understanding, the report reveals the darkness at the heart of the Zionist project, its racism, its moral obtuseness, its blindness to the irony of the grave injustice the Zionists intended to do to the Palestinians. The rape-murder of a nameless Palestinian girl – most likely a minor – by IDF soldiers graphically conveys the unequal contest between the Zionists and Palestinians, as the Zionists sought to void the Palestinians so that they could resurrect a Jewish state that had been dead for some eighteen hundred years. The only written record of the rape-murder, before the Ha’aretz report, is to be found in the diary of David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel. He made a terse but telling entry about this episode. “It was decided and carried out: they washed her, cut her hair, raped her and killed her.”[5] Ben-Gurion could be describing a military operation, efficiently completed, according to plan, without hesitation, and without any loss of time. His verbs are active verbs: they speak of strong men, determined men, confident of their power to decide, to execute, to wash, to cut, rape and kill. The decisiveness, the finality of their actions is awe-inspiring. On the morning of August 12, 1949, the Platoon Commander at the Nirim outpost in the Negev, Second Lieutenant Moshe, organized a patrol with six soldiers. During their patrol, they shot and killed a Palestinian after he threw down his rifle and was running away. Later, they captured two unarmed Arab men with a girl. The men were driven away with shots fired over their heads, but the girl was taken back to the outpost at Nirim. The patrol had decided that she was “fuckable.” On their way back to the outpost, the patrol shot and killed six camels, leaving them to rot. At the outpost, while Moshe was away on another patrol, the Platoon Sergeant, Michael prepared the girl for rape. He removed her traditional garments, forced her to stand under a water pipe, and washed her with his own hands, while everyone watched. The washing done, he dressed her in a jersey and shorts, and took her back to a hut where he raped her. When the girl complained to Moshe about the rape, he ordered his men to wash her – again – “so that she would be clean for fucking.” The soldiers cut the girl’s hair, washed her head with kerosene, placed her under the water pipe, and sent her back to the hut in jersey and shorts. She was now clean. Later the same day, the soldiers at the Nirim outpost gathered in a large tent for the festivities of Sabbath eve. The Platoon Commander, Moshe, inaugurated the Sabbath by blessing the wine, a soldier read from the Bible, after which there was singing, eating, drinking, jokes and fun. Before the party ended, Moshe asked his men to decide the Palestinian captive’s fate with a vote. They had two options: the captive could work in the kitchen; or they could have her. The girl’s fate was decided democratically. The soldiers chanted, “We want a fuck.” Commander Moshe carried out the will of the majority. He and his sergeant went in first, leaving the girl unconscious. The next morning, when the Palestinian girl protested, the Platoon Commander threatened to kill her. And, indeed, later, he ordered Sergeant Michael to execute the girl. They stripped her before execution; a soldier wanted his shorts back. The Sergeant, accompanied by a medic and two soldiers, took the girl out in the desert and shot her in the head as she ran. Overcome by pity, just in case she was alive and in pain, a soldier pumped a few more bullets into the girl’s body. Washed clean, her hair cut, raped repeatedly, the Palestinian captive now lay dead in a shallow grave. Second Lieutenant Moshe drove down to Be’er Sheva later that same evening to watch a movie. At the theatre, he met his Battalion Commander, Major Yehuda Drexler, who had ordered that the Palestinian captive be taken back to where she had been found. When the Major asked his subordinate if he had done so, Moshe replied: “They killed her, it was a shame to waste the gas.” A Palestinian’s life is not worth a gallon or half of gas. When Captain Uri, the Company Commander, asked Second Lieutenant Moshe to explain what had happened to the Palestinian girl, this is what he wrote in his report: “In my patrol on 12.8.49 I encountered Arabs in the territory under my command, one of them armed. I killed the armed Arab on the spot and took his weapon. I took the Arab female captive. On the first night the soldiers abused her and the next day I saw fit to remove her from the world (emphasis added).” That was all. It was dismissive in its terseness, as if to say it would be a waste of our time discussing the rape-murder of a Palestinian. However, if you insist on a report, here it is: We found an Arab girl, raped her, and “I saw fit to remove her from the world.” It is that last phrase that is so haunting, imperial, Biblical, even divine. It sums up the ethos of a whole age, an imperial age that took pride in its superior race and its civilizing mission. An age in which various Europeans nations “saw fit” to conquer, colonize, enslave, exterminate, displace, ‘liberate’ or ‘educate’ the rest of humanity, anyone different from them in color or religion. No matter what injury the Europeans inflicted on the natives, it had to be good for them. Nothing but goodness could flow from such superior beings. Zionism and its fruit, Israel, are but late flowerings of that Imperial age. At the trial for this rape-murder, which was held in secret the same year, Second Lieutenant Moshe denied raping the girl. “Morally speaking,” he argued, “it was impossible to sleep with such a dirty girl.” Most likely, he knew that this was an argument that would carry weight. It is a basic premise of the civilizing mission. “The native is always dirty, his clothes filthy, his manners crude.” There is an added twist here. “It isn’t raping an Arab girl that would have been immoral, but that she was dirty.” The Court acquitted Moshe of rape, though he received a sentence of 15 years for murder. Moshe offered a second defense. He told the Court repeatedly that Captain Uri, one of the Company Commanders in the battalion, had told him in private that when it came to the Arabs, he should engage in “killing, slaughter.” The Court rejected this charge with its own psychoanalysis. The Judges wrote: “The court believes that the words “killing, slaughter” originate in a psychosis that seems to have taken root in the officer’s blood, to the effect that Arabs were to be massacred indiscriminately.” The Court chose not to cross-examine Captain Uri on this point. Sergeant Michael pleaded that he was merely following orders when he executed the girl. The judges rejected his plea, but passed a “very light” sentence of five years in prison because of extenuating circumstances. “At the time there was a general feeling of contempt for the life of Arabs in general and infiltrators in particular, and sometimes wanton events occurred in this sphere. All this helped to create an atmosphere of ‘anything goes.’ We are convinced that this atmosphere existed at the Nirim outpost too (emphases added).” The judges at the Nuremberg trial too could have urged the same extenuating circumstance when passing sentences on Nazi criminals. After all, the Nazis too operated in a general climate of deep hatred against Jews, a hatred that had been bred for close to two thousand years. Thankfully, the judges at Nuremberg did not use this argument. In addition, when Moshe accused Captain Uri of urging “killing, slaughter” against Arabs, the judges dismissed this is as the invention of a psychotic mind. Yet, in arguing for a reduced sentence, they use the argument that there existed at the time “a general feeling of contempt for the life of Arabs in general.” Were the judges at the murder-rape trial of the Palestinian girl schizophrenic? Or, were they only protecting their own kind? Those who are familiar with the tragedy of Palestinian dispossession will have read – as I have – in the events of August 12 and 13, 1949, at the Nirim military outpost in the Negev, an allegory of that dispossession. In two days, this nameless girl, a minor, was made to suffer the degradation, shame, abuse, rape and, eventually, death, which has been the fate – figuratively, and, in many cases, concretely – of the Palestinians and their homeland for more than eighty years. We observe several striking parallels between the two gory narratives. We see it in the girl’s capture by a platoon of soldiers; in the Commander’s decision to decide her fate by a vote; in the question about the girl’s fate that is put to vote (use her as a slave worker or sex slave); in stripping the girl of her traditional garments, washing her, cutting her hair; raping her, the officers going in first; in the order for her execution when she protests; in the secret trial held; in the officer’s language (“I saw fit ”); in the acquittal from rape charges; in the light sentences; and in the judges’ use of extenuating circumstances. And now the parallels are being pushed towards a final convergence – in the final obliteration of the national existence of Palestinians – with the building of the strangulating wall; with levels of unemployment among Palestinians reaching 70 percent; with malnutrition among Palestinian children reaching famine levels; with the acceleration in the pace of ethnic cleansing; the unashamed American backing for the war-criminal, Ariel Sharon’s extreme right-wing policies; and growing demands for a final round of ethnic cleansing to rid historical Palestine of all Palestinians. At least, that is the intent of the Neoconservatives, Christian Zionists and Israel’s right-wing Likudniks. It is an intent that all right-thinking people – including right-thinking Americans and Israelis -- must oppose before the American-Israeli warmongers, with their fingers on nuclear buttons, push the world over the precipice. Footnotes: 1. Mohandas K. Gandhi, Harijan, 74, November 20, 239-242 :1938. 2. Chaim Weizmann, Trial and Error (Greenwood: 1921/1972). 3. Aviv Lavie and Moshe Gorali, “I saw fit to remove her from the world,” Ha’aretz, October 29, 2003: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/ 355227.html 4. Chris McGreal, “Israel learns of a hidden shame in its early years,” The Guardian, November 2003 ,4: http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1077148,00.html 5. Lavie and Gorali, “I saw fit to remove her from the world.” *********** - M. Shahid Alam is professor of economics at Northeastern University. His last book, Poverty from the Wealth of Nations, was published by Palgrave in 2000. He may be reached at m.alam@neu.edu. Visit his webpage at http://msalam.net/. © M. Shahid Alam Home Page | Headlines | Previous Story | Next Story Copyright (c) Scoop Media www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0311/S00122.htm add your comments

Dave, and Shahid Alam: response by kenny freeman 6:25am Tue Nov 18 '03 print comment We all agree this was despicable piece of history. There is no excuse. But there is context. In 1948, forty-percent of the Jewish people had just been exterminated. Holocaust survivors were still in ‘camps’ in Europe because the US wouldn’t let them in, England wouldn’t let them into Palestine because of Arab resistance… They had nowhere to go. In 1948, everything was different. ‘Life’ had been cheapened by the Holocaust. Sixty years later it is impossible to comprehend, to live-with. How much more so in 1948, when people were still waiting to see if a letters would come from fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, who might, possibly, still be alive… All Jews were probably having nightmares. Begin, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, blew up the King David Hotel, the British Military HQ. Jewish civilians died. They weren’t victims of terrorism. They were martyrs. There was a cult of Jewish martyrs back then, Dov Gruner, people hung by the British, and the ultimate, Avraham Stern. Founder of Lehi, inventor of the ‘trap-bomb,’ when Hitler was killing Jews, “Yair” was fighting and killing to liberate the Jewish People. Assassinated by the British, killed unarmed in a Tel-Aviv apartment. As a ‘spiritual Jew’ I can have photos of Gandhi, and Dorothy Day, on my wall; and also one of Avraham Stern. 1948 was a terrible, confusing, mind-warping time. Ben-Gurion, very short on arms, nevertheless sunk the Altalena, and killed Jews (the paradigm for what the PA is being asked to do now), being more afraid of Begin (who was a true democratic, and patriot) than of ‘Arab Armies.’ So in this context, there is a reported incident of a rape/murder. What if the soldiers hadn’t killed the girl, just raped her and released her? Would her brothers have thrown her down a well because of the ‘disgrace’ to the family? I don’t know, and neither do you… Further back in history is Hebron, 1929, if you want ‘atrocity.’ The Jews living there then were good neighbors, as evidenced by the fact that many were sheltered when the murdering started. But many were slaughtered, and Jews couldn’t return to Hebron till 1967. Back in 1929, what was the context for that atrocity? Or go forward, to a time of peace, 1982 before the War in Lebanon. The ‘Green Line’ was only on a map. Anyone could get on an Egged Bus in Ramallah and ride to the Jerusalem Central Bus Station, no questions asked. A young Jew had gone to Shilo, then a small outpost. He worked for the ‘forest service.’ He befriended Arab teenagers, taught them about nature, camping, the things he loved. After several months of this ‘outreach,’ the boys suddenly stabbed him to death. The Jerusalem Post reported ‘ninety times.’ When they were caught, they said it was an initiation into a terror-cell. If they’d attacked someone like Levinger, or Kahane, it would be one thing. To kill this Jew, trying to ‘seek peace and pursue it’ was an atrocity. He was a martyr, but back then, we didn’t know for what? If you use the incident from 1948 as a parable, then Hebron in 1929 is also a ‘parable.’ I was in Nazareth in 1983 when my friend’s children came home from school, saying that Israelis had ‘gassed’ a girls’ school in Jenin. And the Mabat News was confirming that something had happened. His daughter, Elianoor, suddenly burning with a fierceness I’d never seen in her, usually so quiet, so cheerful, so sweet: “So. Tell me. Who’s better? Jews or Arabs?” What could I say? Could Jews possibly have poisoned Arab schoolgirls? I hoped not, but who knew what was possible, Jews had already tried to kill Bassam Sha’ka and Karim Khalaf, there was an ‘underground...’ Her mother, Nada: “Don’t be ridiculous.” (To Elianoor,) “None are good. Look what Arabs have been doing to one another in Lebanon all this time. And (looking at me), Jews aren’t more better…” We’ve all got our atrocities. Do you think assigning blame to either side is going to change anything? We’re lost in the woods. Some say it’s his fault. Some say it’s mine. We need someone to come forward to say ‘here is a new path, never tried.’ We don’t know where it goes, but we do know where all the other paths have gone. They ended in atrocities, blame, hate, terror, death. We are all lost together. Knowing how we got here hasn’t helped. It’s time to focus on where we need to go, and the ‘way’ of going There. We have no time to waste… add your comments

Thank you for that Kenny... by Dave 10:37am Tue Nov 18 '03 print comment I appreciate what you say, but I must point out that the purpose of my posting that article was to ask and illustrate the question: is it not conceivable that Palestinians have some legitimate grievances? I truly know that there are few, if any, 'perfect' human beings on the planet; I was simply drawing attention to that truth. Again, Kenny, thanks. add your comments

A couple more things, Kenny... by Dave 11:24am Tue Nov 18 '03 print comment Even though the event I posted happened half a century ago, have attitudes really changed since then, or are they even more severe? And, although you mention the girl's possible fate if she had not been murdered, the point of the story was that she was raped multiple times... no amount of justification for how confused people were then can excuse the multiple rape and murder of anyone - regardless of what was happening; especially when the rapists were surely well-schooled in Gds Laws. I do have to say this, Kenny: justifying a 'fault' magnifies it. The only way Ican see for the wounds that both sides carry to have any chance of healing, is for no fresh wounds to be inflicted. Tit-for-tat violence is the road to the escalation of violence. It may be difficult for either side to 'turn the other cheek', but apart from the eventual anhialation of either one or the other side (or worse, both sides), 'turning the other cheek' is the only way to eventual peace. add your comments

Maybe I didn't express myself well by RC 4:35pm Tue Nov 18 '03 print comment I thought i had offered a new 'way' of viewing this reality..I even quoted Einstein, "No problem can be solved by the consciousness that created it"....I agree with the spirit of what Kenny is trying to express, and it is honorable. Dave is alluding to my point as well..Tit for tat and arguing over who is better or worse is not going to get anyone anywhere, no how no way, jose'...Actually, Kenny is saying this as well..But one way or another, it is time to move on from trauma, and be open to positive thinking, or its all over, quite soon, in fact..Or so i do feel... add your comments

And another thing.... by RC 4:55pm Tue Nov 18 '03 print comment Warriors are not going to be able to negotiate peace..this is obvious...peace would make them irrelevant..so, we need to be realistic and get leaders that even BELIEVE in peace..Which most people really do not believe is possible in the world, because they don't have peace within themselves..After all, everything that is happening in the physical world, is a reflection of the inner world.. Also, I believe that Jewish people need to somehow process and get beyond the belief that everyone is against them, because they are proving it is true, more and more, so they get more and more hostile and defensive and militaristic..i really think it is time to see ourselves as human beings...I think evolution of religion itself is part of the scheme of things..This is why i spoke about the story of Job.. Religion , or at least the spiritual part, is not supposed to keep us living as though it were thousands of years ago..For goodness sake..We need to see some progress. We are part of something infinite, and so we should not imprison ourselves...The sabbath was made for man, man was not made for the sabbath...Enough with the splitting of hairs..I care just as much for a palestinian baby, as an Israeli baby..Isn't that the point, for heaven's sake??? Shalom add your comments

Dave, and RC, by kenny freeman 8:23pm Tue Nov 18 '03 print comment Dave, RC, The grievances of the Palestinians were painfully obvious before the First Intafada. For example, the Israeli denial that Arabs were forcibly removed form Israel. “They left to create a ‘free-fire zone’ so the Arab Armies could drive the Jews into the Sea.” Then I met an Israeli security guard outside the U.S. Embassy. He told me that as a member of Hagannah, in 1948, he’d participated in the transport of Arab civilians from Lydda and Ramle to the West Bank. I didn’t believe him. The next day he brought the photographs he’d taken of that operation… I guess I was trying to say that the newspaper article about the rape/murder, which was all over other internet sites also, was ‘emotional,’ and that kind of incident just releases negative feelings, just like the Hebron massacres of 1929 gave Levinger the opportunity to return to Hebron with maximum hostility. I wasn’t excusing the rapists at all. The article took the guilt all the way up IDF command, and into the Government, all the way to Ben-Gurion himself. That’s where I think the ‘moral confusion’ was relevant. The soldiers who participated were acting like animals. They were convicted and imprisoned, yes? I don’t think there’s any justification for anyone to act contrary to Torah, Jewish Tradition, etc. I do believe in turning the other cheek, have done so for a lifetime. And I couldn’t agree more with RC: move on from trauma, searching for ‘positive thinking,’ find the Path, or it’s all over. Is this an individual effort, or group? How do we find the Path? Who will “stand upon my watch, And set me upon the tower, And will look out to see what He will speak by me, And what I shall answer when I am reproved…” (Habakkuk 2:1) We’re all waiting…. add your comments

Adding some comments by ct 12:13am Wed Nov 19 '03 print comment To RC: Well spoken, Rita. Couldn't have said it better myself... :) Your posts here directly reflect my own deepest feelings and thoughts; in some way, you seem to be my twin sister in mind. Let me add some comments of my own. "I thought i had offered a new 'way' of viewing this reality..." You sure have. But, as you correctly said, it's an offer, so everyone is free to take it or leave it. Every adult person is free to hold the views he wishes, even destructive and criminal ones. Every such person also is free to do harm to himself, if he so desires. Yet no one is free to do harm to others. Here is the undebatable limit. Anyone crossing THAT border has to be opposed. "People like you are like football fans who beat up the fans of the opposing team." That's exactly how it is. If these people were born to Muslim parents, they may have joined one of the groups they now call "terrorists". And had they been born some 60 years ago to Aryan parents, they sure would have made some of the most ardent Nazis. "It is not 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth'..That is not justice. That is 'getting even', in a very primitive way." Couldn't agree more. If everybody lived up to "an eye for an eye", the world would get blind pretty soon... "Start with doing unto others as you would have them do unto you..No special privileges..No one is exempt from Universal Law. No loopholes for anyone." Exactly. And as with human laws too, refusing to recognize them will not protect you from facing the consequences. To AMR: "Here are the true differences between Jews and the others and here is the main reason for the others’ hatred to Jews. All those qualities are too heavy to carry and absorb by many in the world at all times." There are no such differences in reality, though you might wish there were. In fact, Jews' personalities are made of the very same "ingredients" than personalities of non-Jews. From really great Jewish people to Jewish war criminals everything on the scale exists, just like with non-Jews. So the distinction between Jews and non-Jews is an utterly artificial one, and I do not see any constructive purpose it would serve. The only thing I do see, though, are people who seem to feel a strong need to constantly PRETEND they were oh so different while demonstrating by their every-day behavior that they in fact aren't the least. Sure THIS "quality" is very unlikely to earn them sympathy... Someone once posted on this board: "First of all, I'm a human being, and just then I'm Jewish". That's the way. add your comments

Turning the other cheek by ct 12:37am Wed Nov 19 '03 print comment Seems to me that many people only see two options: either "turning the other cheek" or becoming victimizers themselves. Yet there is (at least) a third option: saying in a loud and firm voice: "What you do is wrong. Stop doing it!" That's my preferred option. "Turning the other cheek" means not setting a limit to the other person, thereby inviting him to intensify his wrongdoing. That's exactly what Israel is suffering from and why its government and a big number of its citizens morally deteriorated so much: because - for various reasons - the international community refused and still refuses to tell them the magic words: "What you are doing is wrong. Stop it!" add your comments

Yes, indeed, it is like sisters.....ct by RC 3:50pm Wed Nov 19 '03 print comment in conciousness....Thank you for appreciating my insights, as i do yours. I am asbsolutely fascinated by the way our beliefs create our reality..I actually do feel very strongly, that the belief in 'original sin', is the cornerstone of the problem in western civilization..And it is most highlighted in religious fundamentalism.. As long as people believe they are innately flawed, they will look to authorities to think for them, cause they don't trust themselves. And they will never own their shadows, cause it is too scary. And they will keep killing and being destructive, cause even if they 'know' better, they don't feel they can do any better, cause they are sinners..So then we also get into that 'victim/victimizer' world view..As we see with all the assumptions that holocausts are inevitable. Because everyone assumes the 'nefarious' nature of human beings...Because they believe this, and i feel it is a deep part of the psyche, then this is how they see human history..So they keep playing it out.. Indeed , i feel that our very assumptions about the nature of human nature, need to shift. Paradigm shift..That will be our Noah's Ark..Also, because of the original sin belief, people, deep within, are waiting for a saviour..someone to come from 'beyond' to rescue us from ourselves...And it isn't gonna happen..But i think that many people believe this... Well, what is so scary now, i mean sometimes the terror moves through my body, is that the u.s. has a gov't that actually wants armegeddon, so that they can be 'taken up' in the rapture....Global annihilation is now a credible option..That is why it is so irrational..And Bush, being an evangilical fundamentalist, (whose cornerstone is terror of their shadow, due to the original sin belief), sees their own demons in every living thing..So they try to destroy all that is organic and real...And this includes the very planet itself, as we see happening..I think it goes beyond power and money. Their is an absolute contempt for life itself..(except fetuses)..O.k., i shall stop my little rave here...regards, rita add your comments