Hamas War

Monday, March 10, 2014

"Enclave" Insanity, ZACHOR!

Arutz 7 has a frightening article based on a Chanel 2 (Israel) news report that in a search for a way to facilitate the establishment of a Palestinian sic state, Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is investigating the "enclaves" Belgium has in Holland.
Netanyahu is basing his idea on the Belgian municipality of Baarle-Hertog, which has some territory made up of exclaves in the Dutch province of North Brabant. The total area of the region is 7.48 square kilometers (2.89 square miles) which gives a population density of 308 inhabitants per km² (798 inhabitants/sq mi).
Baarle-Hertog consists of 24 separate parcels of land. There are twenty Belgian exclaves in the Netherlands and three other sections on the Dutch-Belgian border. There are also seven Dutch exclaves within the Belgian exclaves.
According to Channel 2 News, Netanyahu wishes to find out whether it is legally and practically possible to reach a similar solution with the PA. Doing so would leave any Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria in enclaves within the Palestinian state. Under the Dutch-Belgian model, Belgian citizens who reside in the Netherlands are also considered local citizens who maintain their rights.
Duhh?!? Does he really think that the Arabs here are as amenable and civilized as the Dutch? Neither the Dutch nor Belgian people are out to destroy the other.  That's how they can live in harmony. It just won't work.  Even today, when Israel is supposedly the only military allowed between the Mediterranean and the Jordan, Israelis are warned by the authorities not to enter areas supervised by the P.A. Palestinian Authority. So how do they expect that same P.A. to guarantee safety for Jewish-Israeli enclaves?

We're now days before Purim.  On the Shabbat before Purim we are all commanded to read and listen to "Zachor," which tells of how Amalek attacked the Jewish People as we trekked on our way to the Land of Israel.
The Amalekites mentioned in the Torah portion read on this Shabbat are traditionally taken to be the ancestors of Haman, the villain in the Purim tale. In Jewish tradition, the Amalekites are symbol of the evil that arises and must be fought in every generation.
Arab terrorism, which targets the weak and non-military, proves that they are the modern descendants of Amalek.

This is also the season of my own personal terrorist attack, when I was injured eighteen years ago. It was just before Shabbat Zachor.  It was a time of frequent Arab terrorist suicide bus bombings. I was waiting with dozens of people at what was then the bus stop to Shiloh, Mateh Binyamin and the Shomron.  It was before the building of the lightrail and the present  road to Pisgat Ze'ev. This is the road the lightrail takes as it winds its way through Shuafat and Beit Chanina before getting to Pisgat Ze'ev.

I pass the spot every time I take the lightrail from Pisgat Ze'ev to French Hill and beyond.

French Hill, Givat Hamivtar, Jerusalem
location of Arab terror attack 18 years ago
I was injured along with about twenty others, and a woman was murdered.

I had just been in Jerusalem.  My last stop was visiting a widowed friend and had gotten the booklet the family had put out about Leah, ZaTza"L, who had passed away suddenly just under a year before. I was showing it to a neighbor keeping an eye on the road, hoping there'd be a tremp before the bus.

I noticed a car approaching "badly" and turned around to tell my friend:
"Even if he's going to Shiloh, I don't want to get in."
According to her, I never got the words out. I let out a scream as the car hit me and knocked me down as it made another sharp turn into the waiting people, innocent Jews of all ages. Then the driver/terrorist exited the car and was promptly executed by a couple of bystanders, while security forces literally dropped in jumping from behind the stone barriers calling out to us:
"Run, the car is probably going to explode!"
I managed to run.  My foot only swelled up a bit later.

One of the worst things about this Arab terror attack was that the government and police tried to excuse it as an "unintentional accident." They decided to blind themselves to the obvious; we were doubly victimized.

  • first by the Arab terrorist
  • then by the Israeli Government
The late David Bar-Illan was then Editor in Chief of the Jerusalem Post. I went to his office after getting first aid. He not only had me interviewed, but he used my information for a double-sized editorial blasting the government for trying to excuse the attack as an accident and also had me write and op-ed of my experience. 

Bibi's attempt to pretend that we can have peace with the Arabs is the same dangerous mindset that pretended that the Arab terrorist accidentally mowed down dozens of Jews that day. I can't sit silently.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Batya,

Thank God for you writing the truth

I wish there were more voices in the media like yours that would not cow tow the status quo .

I am sorry to hear about your experience with terrorism and my heart goes out to you and all those affected by it

The best I would say people can do is to keep being very vocal about the truly dangerous and deadly policies the leadership lets happen

I always believe that heaven knows what is truly occurring .

When Israelis start to remind themselves that they are a family and start to care for your fellow neighbor as themselves , maybe then there would be the righteous response to the amlekites

As like in the times of Joshua and Calev as with David

Unless there is a complete change of heart between both sides ,
spare the righteous like Rahav and Ruth and rid yourselves of your enemies .

only the best to you and yours

bless my people
Israel

David Shimshon
(Edward F. Villa)

Anonymous said...

Insanity, indeed!

I know that Netanyahu is in a bad position where he "must" consider international opinion with respect to the "peace process," but how much more can he do before saying ...as Benji Lovitt might say, "Eich omrim [how do you say], 'The hell with it'?". (I can find out how to say this in Yiddish, but after all this is Israel.). In all seriousness, the "peace process" is now a farce and Netanyahu may now have nothing to lose by telling the world off...

Batya said...

Thank you Edward/David

sheldan, Netanyahu is only in this "bad position," because he stepped into it and accepted it. He can just step out and free himself. It's as easy as saying "no."

sheldan said...

Batya,

Exactly! I'm just frustrated that he hasn't gotten to that point yet.

sheldan said...

Batya,

One of my favorite novels is "Exodus." If you have read it, you may recall the scene between Barak Ben Canaan and Akiva in which they are debating their approaches to the problems that the Jewish people are facing in Israel. One of the lines that Akiva says is the most important:

"So let us be wrong in the eyes of the whole damned world."

That is what I wish more of us would say!

Batya said...

Sheldan, exactly
When I reread the book a few years ago, I was disapointed that it showed so much Leftist thinking.