A Tenuous Peace

I received the lines below through e-mail. They are said to be a letter from an Israeli citizen, sent through the president of an American University to one of his woman pro-terrorist law students who organized a pro-Palestinian conference, defended suicide bombers and called Israel an "Apartheid" state. Although I have no proof of the authentity of this letter, it tells so much truth, I think it should be read by as many people as possible. (I have deleted all names). So please see below. Shalom from Irene
Dear Ms. .......,
I think you are a remarkable woman. You are neither an Arab nor a Jew, you do not study the Middle East, or any associated subject and, correct me if I am wrong, you have never visited this region. Therefore I am somewhat astounded at your expertise and your comments on Israel being an "Apartheid" state.
I have lived in Israel for many years and I would be delighted to take you on a little virtual tour of our country. Let me first give you a couple of minor points. Israel occupies 0.1% of the landmass of the Middle East and it is the only Jewish state, not only in this region, surrounded as we are by 22 Arab states, but in the world.
Let us begin your virtual tour!!
You have already been through immigration at Tel Aviv Airport with your boyfriend, whom we shall call Ken. You will have filled out a visitors form. This form will not ask you, as it will in many of the
countries that surround us, what is your religion, and it will certainly not ask you, as they do in Saudi Arabia, for a "certificate of religion".
The day is Sunday! You will want to attend a church service. No problem in the Apartheid State of Israel. We tolerate and freely allow worship for all religions. This is more than can be said for nearly all of the surrounding 22 Arab nations. In fact many of them would not even have a single church, let alone a synagogue.
After a lovely service you and Ken would head for a leisurely lunch, maybe at one of the lovely beach front restaurants in Tel Aviv. You would most likely have returned to your hotel and put on a very casual outfit, as fitting the very hot Israeli summers. This could be a pair of shorts and a tight-fitting skimpy t-shirt. No problem in theApartheid state of Israel. In Israel we allow freedom of dress, especially for women, who are not made to wear bulky long robes, a veil to cover their face, and, wouldn't it be a pity if you had to cover that lovely coiffed hairdo, as you would probably have to in most of the surrounding 22 Arab states.
During lunch Ken could gaze lovingly into your heavily painted eyes, complete with a good application of black mascara. He would be free to lean across and kiss your lips, finely painted with lip liner, 2
shades of burgundy lipstick and gloss. People would probably think you were in love, especially as Ken has proudly displayed a good wine on the table. Public displays of affection and consuming alcohol in the
Apartheid state of Israel is nothing unusual and its not even scorned upon. That's more than can be said for most of the surrounding 22 Arab states, where your glossy lips would be considered whorish and alcohol
is forbidden. But Ken, being a little flirtatious, pinched one of the young waitresses while you went to reapply your lipstick. It was harmless and, luckily for the young girl in the Apartheid State of Israel, her father and 6 brothers will not take her to the family pool in the evening and drown her, as they would in some of the surrounding 22 Arab states.
After lunch you and Ken drive around. You are even allowed to drive. It is not forbidden in Israel. You stumble across a kindergarten. The children are running around and enjoying themselves. They are not made to sit for hours reciting by rote pages from religious books. Their games are in the sand pit or on the swings. They are not infested with hate or told the only honor to their lives will be in death.
In the Apartheid state of Israel we rejoice in life and living. We do not promote murder and violence by brainwashing our children with hatred, as they do in many of the surrounding 22 Arab states.
By the end of the day you and Ken come across a political rally. Many thousands have turned up. In the Apartheid State of Israel all the citizens, men, women, Jew, Arab and Christian are free to vote. We are
allowed to openly criticize the government and our media, including the TV and newspapers offer, without prejudice, a choice of opinions. Every person has the right to openly agree with or condemn the government. This can certainly not be said for most of the surrounding 22 Arab states, ruled as they are by oppressive dictators, where any dissent is met with dire consequences.
Of course, most of the 22 surrounding Arab countries can't offer you a good old-fashioned homicide bombing as a tourist attraction. This can only happen in the apartheid state of Israel, surrounded as we are, by so many hostile countries determined, as you are, to wipe us off the face of the earth.
Where else can you get on a crowded bus, often packed with children and come face to face with some poor, plighted Palestinian ghoul who thinks life isn't very jolly, having been fed and brainwashed by evil
organizations like Hamas, to believe that the only way forward is to murder innocent people? This dehumanized creature will have been fed on a 24/7 diet of lies and hate incitement, he will have been coaxed with the reward of 72 vestal virgins waiting for him in Paradise. His demonic mother will be dancing in the street waving her $10,000 check. While Israelis are scraping their dead children off the sidewalks, the
Palestinians will be lighting fireworks and dancing in the street, to honor this mass murderer as a hero, often to their children who are being systematically nurtured to be the next generation of mass murderers.
The Apartheid state of Israel??? Forgive me Ms. ..... but you seem somewhat confused as to the meaning of the word. It usually refers to segregation. It's funny isn't it that a large section of the Jews who live in this apartheid state had to flee for their lives from nearly all of the surrounding 22 Arab states. These countries not only have no tolerance for Jews, they refer to anyone who is not a Moslem as an Infidel and an enemy. I find it somewhat curious that you find nothing "apartheid" about these countries. Maybe you should do a project on how many churches there are in Saudi Arabia. Let me help you - there are none. It would not be tolerated.
I am proud to live in this Apartheid State. In 60 years we have become one of the most technologically advanced nations on this planet, with many innovations that have made Israel a true leader in many fields.
It is tragic that we have to live in a region that feels threatened by our achievements. Israel is not an apartheid state and it is appalling that a so-called intelligent and thinking person like you can go around finding feeble excuses for mass murder.
Ms. ..... there is no justification, in any society, for getting on a crowded bus, often packed with children, detonating an explosive belt, often packed with nails and shrapnel, and destroying innocent lives. This is not a freedom fighter, or a person seeking justice, but a chronically and irreversibly evil human being.
I can only assume that one day in the near future Ms. ....., you will chip off that heavy layer of make up and discover your conscience.

________

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Today is a sad day for Israel! The prisoner exchange with Lebanon (or more correctly with the Hizbullah terrorist organization) has begun, and as so unhappily expected, we are receiving two coffins with the bodies of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. They left us in suspense till the last minute, so that we and especially their families lived in uncertain hope that they were still alive.
And what are we giving in return? Apart from some hundred or so dead bodies, also four living Lebanese prisoners, and what counts most, in addition to these four, they are getting the cold-blooded murderer Samir Kuntar, who will receive an official state welcome and be treated as a hero! A hero who in cold blood, murdered innocent civilians including children! That's how it is with them - no respect at all for human life. The war two years ago brought no good to either side, with loss of Lebanese lives and much property destroyed too, but the Hizbullah don't see it that way, the return of Kuntar is seen as the ultimate victory of that war.
But now we have to hope this prisoner exchange will not affect the return of our other kidnapped soldier, Gilad Shalit, who is being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and they will note how one can get live prisoners for one dead body. Yes, it's a sad world where such things can happen.
Can't write more today. Shalom from Irene

Last week I wrote about the supposed coming exchange of prisoners, but so far it looks to me mostly as "talk". True we've been digging up buried bodies of terrorists and preparing the living one for the exchange, but the information we thought we'd get concerning Ron Arad ( a pilot captured in Lebanon many years ago when his plane crashed) and the two kidnapped soldiers in Lebanon is not forthcoming. Although those in the government continue to speak optimistically, I personally don't feel that way. Even concerning the one being kept in the Gaza Strip, nothing seems to be moving ahead. And from that area, although there is a cease-fire agreement, the rockets and shells continue to land in Israel - true in lesser numbers than before, but nearly one or two daily.
Although it happened almost a week ago, I feel I must also mention the latest terrorist act inside Jerusalem, which was perpetrated by an Eastern Jerusalem Arab who held an Israeli Identity card, and drove a tractor-bulldozer through one of Jerusalem's most busy streets, intentionally overturning cars and buses, killing three and wounding over 80. There is even a very humane story of that event, when a mother of a baby boy driving in a car, managed to pass the child through the window out to a bystander, seconds before the bulldozer crashed into her car, crushing her to death. Now there is talk by the authorities of tearing down the terrorist's house, but I expect it will come to nothing. In my opinion and that of many others, his widow and children should now not get national insurance payments from our government. Maybe that will help stop further similar acts. Israeli Arabs enjoy the State's health and welfare services and freedom of expression unlike other areas here in the Middle East, yet they condemn and attack Israel at every opportunity and this should end. If they want to enjoy all the good Israel bestows on them, they should be loyal. What they are doing now is biting the hand that feeds them. More next time. Shalom from Irene

There has been an official "cease-fire" between us and Hamas in the Gaza Strip since Friday and till yesterday everything seemed quiet on that front, but suddenly in gross violation of the truce, three Kassam rockets were shot by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, and fell in that unfortunate town Sderot again. Now we hear Hamas Prime Minister Haniyeh denying the fact that his organization had agreed to force other organizations in Gaza to abide by the truce, that they were incapable of such action and added that stopping the smuggling of weapons into this area was also not a part of the cease-fire deal with Israel. So what is the point of this agreement? After all, Hamas is the leading factor there. Prime Minister Olmert's spokesman said that the ceasefire agreement included a halt to weapon smuggling and to attacks by ALL Gaza-based terror groups. Now we'll have to wait and see what happens - it seems that agreements signed by Hamas aren't worth the paper they were written on.
On another completely different subject I want to add a few words here.
In yet another almost predictable slap in the face to Israel, a Chinese spy has been sentenced to a ridiculously light sentence relative to the seriousness of the crime of espionage he committed, and this particularly when compared to the life sentence that Jonathan Pollard is serving. Xiaodong Sheldon Meng , an engineer with Canadian citizenship, living in Cupertino, about 45 miles south of San Francisco who admitted that he sold fighter-pilot training software to the Chinese navy, whose crime hurt United States national security was given a 24 months sentence (and fined $10,000 because he benefited financially from his espionage activities), whilst Pollard, a Jew, was never formally accused, indicted or convicted of harming the United States when giving Israel information about a nuclear site in Iraq. Would someone like to tell me why Pollard is serving his 23rd year of an unlimited life sentence, while Meng gets 24 months? And he is not the only one who got such a light sentence for much more serious crimes of spying for foreign countries than that of Jonathan Pollard - there are many, many others too.
Shalom from Irene

Oil prices are rising all over the world, and naturally Israel is also affected by this. But lately the prices of other articles, mostly food have also gone up considerably. It began with rice and some flour products, some vegetables and now suddenly he price of meat has also risen greatly. Many people are going to have trouble buying enough food, as wages have stayed as they were. There are now some sales, mostly in clothes stores or supermarkets, where one can buy two articles for the price of one, or the second one at half price - but all these seem like a bluff to me because if I want to buy only one (and I usually do) the price is much higher than usual.
Maybe the new meat prices have encouraged smuggling of that product, as a couple of days ago, a huge transport of meat from behind the "Green Line" (Western Bank, not the Gaza Strip) was caught by police trying to get into Israel. The vehicle carrying it was completely without refrigeration or other elementary sanitary conditions, and its cargo was destroyed by the veterinary services. I have no idea whom this transport of beef was meant for, but surely not kosher butchers or businesses.
And whilst on the subject of smuggling, there is also a thriving business in the other direction, from Israel into the Arab areas of stolen cars. That is evidently the reason why many Israelis go there for car repairs which are much, much cheaper, as the different stolen car parts cost the garage owners so little. There is now a new ruling that Israelis are forbidden to have their cars repaired in the Western Bank areas, because it not only puts their lives in possible danger, but hopefully will reduce the number of car thefts by Arabs.
And now a few words about the planned "six month truce" between Hammas and Israel which is supposed to start tomorrow. Even if no shooting takes place, I (and many others) are afraid the Arabs will only use this period for smuggling in more arms and strengthening their fighting abilities for the future. I sure hope I am wrong.
That's all for today.Shalom from Irene