Posted on 07/13/2002 4:28:26 AM PDT by Clive
I have just returned from Israel. The quintessence of the Jewish state can be summed up in one sacred place in Jerusalem. Arguably the most moving part of the famous Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial, is the Children's Museum. Simple and terrifying, it is a death-dark room with pierced lights of life reflecting all around.
Names are read out in flat, unemotional tones. "Moshe, 4 years old"... "Susan, 7 years old" ... "Danny, 12 years old" ... and on and on. The mantra of the place is "Never Again." Fitting, but there is a more tangible response. For as visitors exit the museum, they look directly over a valley at Givat Shaul, an expanding neighbourhood of Jerusalem filled with young Jewish people from every corner of the Earth.
It is here that the greatest answer to anti-Semitism is to be found. In proud, beautiful, talented, vibrant and brave people. The evil ones tried, and still try, to wipe out God's chosen. But fail. The cry is pure and striking. Israel. Now and forever.
Two terrible acts. A mother of eight loses her husband to a terrorist murderer. At around the same time, a father of four loses his wife to another Palestinian attack. The following year, the two grieving people meet. They fall in love, and are now married. Their blended family of 12, the product of such agony, is about to grow still larger. She is pregnant. Israel. Now and forever.
The disco in Tel Aviv where 23 Israeli teenagers were killed by a suicide bomber has been cleared of the cruelty and the carnage. The slaughtered children were Russian immigrants, fleeing persecution and racism. Interestingly enough, just yards away from the disco is a splendid Mosque, given full protection by the Israeli government, as are all Muslim places.
Yet visitors do not give it a second glance. Instead, they stand by the memorial to the murdered Israelis and read the inscription that says, "We will never stop dancing." Indeed they will not. Israel. Now and forever.
An Israeli woman doctor is renowned for the work she has done for Palestinians. They receive better medical care in this hospital than they would in any Arab nation. One day there is a suicide bomb. The wounded are rushed to the hospital. The first patient is brought to the doctor, but it is too late. This 5- year-old little girl is dead. She is also the doctor's daughter.
But is it not the first time the Jewish people have been forced to face tragedy but still triumph. Israel. Now and forever.
An Egyptian-born professor at a British university fires two members on staff because they are Israeli. She explains she would have continued to employ the two people if they had renounced their Israeli citizenship. One of the Israelis was considered particularly pro-Palestinian, but the fact they were part of the Jewish state was sufficient.
Egypt has no free elections, it imprisons homosexuals, it persecutes Christians, it expelled its Jewish population at gunpoint. But there are no protests. Israel. Now and forever.
It has to be said that not every opponent of Israel is an anti-Semite. But it is equally true that every anti-Semite is an opponent of Israel. No Jewish person is unaware that Israel is singled out for criticism while other countries' wrongs are ignored or even praised. The Palestinians deserve justice, but many of their supporters seem motivated not by love of Arabs but hatred of Jews.
A brief litany. Haifa University is 40% Palestinian. The Arab countries frequently treat their Palestinian communities with contempt and violence. Contrary to myth, the combined Arab states receive far more American aid than does Israel. Yet they despise democracy and human rights. Israel withdrew from Lebanon, yet Syria still occupies it.
Dictators and their followers swagger around the world at United Nations conferences and are treated with respect by the fools of fashion in the European and North American media. Yet Zionism has become the new whipping boy. It does not matter. Israel. Now and forever.
The hypocrisy, the false reporting, the downright lies, the trendy appeal of Arab causes. All so ridiculous and so shameful. I proclaim again the new roar of purpose. Israel. Now and forever.
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
New Link: Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)
May the Lord bless and keep the little innocent lives snuffed out by mankind's continuing barbarity.
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