Silence

Ari Bussel

“Our people will continue their popular peaceful resistance to the Israeli occupation and its settlement and apartheid policies and its construction of the racist annexation Wall, and they receive support for their resistance, which is consistent with international humanitarian law and international conventions and has the support of peace activists from Israel and around the world, reflecting an impressive, inspiring and courageous example of the strength of this defenseless people, armed only with their dreams, courage, hope and slogans in the face of bullets, tanks, tear gas and bulldozers.” Palestinian President Abbas before the UN, September 23, 2011 Resounding silence. Astonishment. Bewilderment. We are frozen in a very bad dream that becomes worse with every passing image. Trapped.



What does one do? Send the Miracle Man to give a speech of course. Have him confuse everyone with rhetoric as he appears on all the major networks. Sidetrack the opposition. After he has worked his magic, life can revert to normal. Let us forget the bad episode-that-did-not-materialize from last week. Let us return to what Abu Mazen will later describe as “the support of peace activists from Israel.”



Back to ignoring the threats around us, back to covering our heads in the sand.



What Israel does not seem to fathom at all is the application by the Palestinian Authority to become a member of the family of nations has started an irreversible process. President Obama will view his momentary support as a lapse in judgment into which he was forced by the upcoming election. It was necessary to divert the attention of the all-powerful Jewish / pro-Israeli lobby.



Obama is shrewdly aware that the process will continue, and he (thus the USA) will be ignored once the final goal is crafted and accomplished. Thus, he had to give in, pretend he believes in something he does not, and he will extract a very painful price from the Israelis for forcing the issue. For making the most powerful man in the world submit to the miserable Jews. Palestine will come into being, and those bastards will be taught a lesson. But, imagine, the humiliation they inflicted on the President!



Israelis feel victorious. None of the doomsday scenarios have materialized, their inroads to the USA highest echelon seems secure once again. As a matter of personal comfort, it is best to ignore the hardships of the last two and a half years and look forward with positive anticipation.


Are they crazy, these Israelis? Their position has not been more difficult or in jeopardy in Israel’s 64 years as a modern country.



Why do they refuse to act? More importantly, why do they not see?



For those swimming in the warm, fuzzy waters of illusion, the Palestinians are expecting action, they want blood and require tangible results on the ground. Anything short of this in the very near future, the “Palestinian Spring” will turn ugly, real ugly. They have already shown their resolve when they executed the First and Second Intifadas. Nothing was sacred and human lives least of all.



Crush a skull, slit a throat. Mutilate. Beat to death. Celebrate. Rejoice.



Palestinians are a pressure cooker about to explode. The failure to achieve success (i.e. hurt, harm and eradicate the Israelis from holy Muslim land) will precipitate the inferno that is about to erupt. Who will be at fault? Clearly those damn Israelis and the larger Satan hovering behind them to protect their evil maneuvers.



Prof. Alan Dershowitz once publically expressed that he ignores terrorist acts against Jews in Judea and Samaria. Even “converted liberals” have their limits. Apparently, he is not the only one.



A 25-year-old father and his one-year-old son were murdered in Judea and Samaria. Palestinians (those who crave a country of their own) wanted to show who is the sovereign, so they threw rocks from their car into the vehicle in which Asher and his son Jonathan were driving.



Israeli police purportedly delayed calling the action a terrorist attack. Fearing it would create noise as Netanyahu delicately attempted to finesse the world into supporting Israel’s opposition to a unilateral recognition of “free and independent Palestine.”



The image was too unsightly for the delicate and refined tastes of the Western world. Why distract this wonderful race for statehood if it was not even proven the event was a terrorist attack? Why rush the investigation? Besides, what is terrorism to one is a freedom fight to another.



Confused? You should not be. A 25-year-old father and baby son were murdered simply because they are Jews in the Land of Israel. A land the Palestinians claim does not belong to the Israelis, and thus they have permission to do whatever necessary to reclaim it.



In the Middle East the worst kind of barbarism rules the day. The Palestinians enjoy nothing more than celebrating with their hands dripping the blood of innocent Jews. For those who wonder how blood libels sprout, it is easy: Describe what you do, but ascribe the main actors to be Jews or Israelis. Thus, it is not the Palestinians who butcher parents and children in cold blood; it must be those damned, evil Israelis.



Those who do not fight against stone throwing during Friday demonstrations will suffer greatly when stones are replaced by lighter, more accurate but not less deadly bullets. Israel allows anarchists to routinely demonstrate in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem and incite violence. They should be declaring the locations closed as military areas and dealing appropriately with this deadly force against Israelis.



Mistake not—this is not a discussion about free assembly or the right to demonstrate. Both are highly respected in Israel, but neither grants a person the right to become a rioter and apply deadly force against innocent bystanders and strangers.



Like Dershowitz, most Israelis ignore any deadly attack against the Israeli inhabitants in Judea and Samaria for a plethora of reasons: They are mostly religious Zionists; they are referred to as “settlers;” they are unwavering in their conviction that Israel has a right to exist in the Land of Israel, from the Jordan to the Sea; and they represent a value set, based on the Bible, from which most secular Israelis have distanced themselves.



Israelis apparently have not internalized an ancient lesson: stand idle when you should act, and the same behavior will come back to bite you. It is, after all, quite effective. So plan to have stone throwing and bullets targeting cars within the 1967 borders. Will they then finally go out to protest and require decisive action?



History has taught us not to stand still and remain quiet in the face of adversity. If we do not speak up when others are involved, affected or targeted, who will be there to speak when we are the only ones left, or even when we are next?



Abu Mazen, the Palestinian “President” (I am using double quotes as Hamas and its leadership, duly elected in Gaza, refuse to recognize his authority and the power bestowed in him), has explained the struggle to the world. It is not about peaceful co-existence for two people living side by side or co-habitation of the tiny Land of Israel. Rather, it is a war to annihilate the Jewish people.



He would not recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland. He went further than any and stripped the Jews of any connection to the holy land. The land, he told the United Nations and the world, is holy to the Muslims and the Christians.



Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesperson for Hamas said: “Abbas’s speech to the United Nations was an emotional speech … a step with no substance. Palestinians should not beg for a state. Liberation of Palestinian land should come first. What is happening at the United Nations harms the dignity of our Palestinian people.”



I wholeheartedly agree with Abu Mazen when he said:



“It is no longer possible to redress the issue of the blockage of the horizon of the peace talks with the same means and methods that have been repeatedly tried and proven unsuccessful over the past years. The crisis is far too deep to be neglected, and what is more dangerous are attempts to simply circumvent it or postpone its explosion.”



Except our conclusions are diametrically opposed. Abu Mazen claims:



“I say: The time has come for my courageous and proud people, after decades of displacement and colonial occupation and ceaseless suffering, to live like other peoples of the earth, free in a sovereign and independent homeland.”



While I conclude the necessary action is to wake up from the very dangerous illusion to which we have succumbed and say to ourselves, to the Palestinians and to the world: Peace is sought by Israel. Destruction, death and mayhem are the cornerstones of the Palestinian Barbarism.

They wish a Jew(=monkey)-free and Christian(=pig)-free society. Women will continue to be slaves without rights. There will be no democracy, no freedoms. There will be adherence to Islamic law with no wavering.



They want to destroy Israel. It is time for Israel to defend herself.



Thus, when Abu Mazen says:


“I would like to inform you that, before delivering this statement, I submitted, in my capacity as the President of the State of Palestine and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, an application for the admission of Palestine on the basis of the 4 June 1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital, as a full member of the United Nations.”



There should be only one reaction: Complete disassociation by any sane member of the Free World from this ailing body called the United Nations. A day will come when a new League of Nations springs from the ruins of the world. At the moment, the UN is so corrupt it is used as a podium for Satan, trying to confuse the world into a lasting, final submission.





The series “Postcards from America—Postcards from Israel” by Ari Bussel and Norma Zager is a compilation of articles capturing the essence of life in America and Israel during the first two decades of the 21st Century.



The writers invite readers to view and experience an Israel and her politics through their eyes, Israel visitors rarely discover and Israelis often ignore.



This point—and often—counter-point presentation is sprinkled with humor and sadness and attempts to tackle serious and relevant issues of the day. The series began in 2008, appears both in print in the USA and on numerous websites and is followed regularly by readership from around the world.



Zager and Bussel can be heard on live radio in conversation on the program “Conversations Eye to Eye between Norma and Ari.”



© “Postcards from America — Postcards from Israel,” September, 2011

Contact: bussel@me.com