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15 Teves 5761 - January 10, 2001 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Opinion & Comment
Opinion -- At the Mirror
They Don't Stop at Red Lights

by Chaim Walder

The fact that Ariel Sharon is running for prime minister has opened a new bone of contention between the Left and the Right, a game which, in essence, has never been locked.

Sharon is one of the main targets of Leftist incitement against Rightists and religious figures,lehavdil, which has been ongoing since the founding of the State. True, Menachem Begin was also a target for character assassination, but the Left crudely defames Ariel Sharon more than any one else in the state and, without any restraint whatsoever. He is the man about who books such as, He Doesn't Stop at Red Lights and songs such as "Clear the way; the murderer is coming; an uncontrollable mad bull," were written.

However, beyond this personal mudslinging against Sharon, once can discern a lack of restraint on the part of the Left on its way to seek power in the coming election. It seems as if this time the Leftists are the ones not bothering to stop at red lights. For those holding the reins of power can do whatever they please.

For those who may have forgotten, the Sabra and Shatilla affair began with a massacre of Moslems by Lebanese Christians. Israel had absolutely no connection to the affair, not even indirectly. No Israeli soldier was even in the area at the time. But the Leftists have had no qualms about presenting Israel as the guilty party and Sharon as the one who ordered the massacre.

Although there were claims about Leftist informants in the days of the pre-State underground, at a time when members of the Haganah never hesitated to hand over Jews from Etzel and Lechi to the British, these were cases involving mere individuals. The Sabra and Shatilla affair, however, entailed informing on no less than the entire Jewish Nation to the nations of the world.

Even people of minimal ethical standards know that there are times when exploitation is taboo. They, too, have ethical codes based on elementary decency, dubious as they may be. They don't tattle, they don't offend an opponent in the middle of a funeral. But it now seems as if the Leftists lack both common decency and fundamental self-restraint. As long as they get what they want they are not bothered by the fact that the Jews in Israel as well as those the world over will be exposed to persecution.

What do they want? To keep their avowed enemy, Sharon, from the Ministry of Defense. That's it. In order to achieve this minor aim they are were willing to institute a blood libel and to endanger the lives of Jews the world over. The Left's capacity to sacrifice so much in order to obtain so little attests to the lack of conscience characterizing the Left.

When I speak with youth about conscience, I often use the following example: "A person that craves a Picasso painting worth a million dollars and proceeds to steals it, still can't be labeled someone without a conscience. He is a thief. He was confronted by temptation and couldn't overcome it. But a person wanting to hold a wienie roast, runs to the nearest museum and takes a masterpiece along with its frame and uses it as firewood, is one lacking a conscience. It doesn't bother him to sacrifice something of great value for his petty desires. And if his will is enormous, he will sacrifice the entire world, no holds barred."

There is a concept of, "for a hundred shekel he will sell his parents, too." This concept describes a person without a conscience. (Pedagogues often examine the extent of a youngster's conscience by ascertaining if he sees his surroundings, or only himself and his wishes.)

When the Left wants to present something, all methods are considered kosher to achieve what it wants. When Yossele Shumacher disappeared and the affair became a matter of principle for the Left, it was no problem for them to stop the work of the Mossad and the intelligence agency and abandon whatever they were doing, if only the child is found and forced to become irreligious. That's how it was during the events of Wadi Salib. Of course, this reached new heights during the ugly affair of Sabra and Shatilla, only because they wanted to kick someone out of the Defense Ministry whom they didn't particularly like.

It is no wonder that rumors of conspiracy were spread about Rabin's murder. The writer of these lines doesn't believe in this theory in the case of Rabin, but he sincerely believes that the Left would have been capable of such a thing.

We all recall very well that political equality between the Right and the Left blocs stems from Arab support of the Left. Now, when the Arabs are unprepared to support either candidate, Barak receives only between twenty and thirty percent in voter surveys. That reflects the true strength of the Left. The Jewish sector is unprepared to forgive the Left for what it did in the past or for what it is capable of doing in the future. That is my humble opinion. The reason for this is that the person most responsible of all for the slander in the Sabra and Shatilla affair was never elected to public office.

I wouldn't suggest that anyone depend on the Arabs' abstention on election day. Let's get this straight: on election day they will vote for Barak, just as they voted in '96 for Peres, despite the Kfar Kana massacre. Then, too, everyone thought that the Arabs would abstain. Forget it. The Arabs like to vote for whomever can best destroy Israel.

Why do we recall the Sabra and Shatilla massacre now? Because this week, Labor party propagandists placed ads in Arabic newspapers with shocking pictures of the massacre: a huge picture of butchered bodies as well as an Arab mother wringing her hands and screaming. Underneath it was a large picture of Sharon; beneath it, smaller pictures of Yvette Lieberman (who at that time was still a high school student in Russia), Benny Alon, Rechav'om Zeevi, Gideon Sagi and Michael Kleiner (although it isn't clear how he merited that "honor").

If these pictures infuriated Jews because Jews don't do things like that, imagine how they infuriate the Arabs. If that is not labeled "incitement" against Jews, what is?

If someone were to publicize the pictures of those who were murdered in the Ramallah lynch after the treatment they received from the barbaric Arabs, and place pictures of Barak, Sarid, Beilin and Ben Ami under the pictures, it is needless to say what type of commotion would erupt. Administrative detentions, police inquests and who knows what else.

But the Left can do whatever it pleases, and unlike the image it seeks to portray, it is the Left that operates devoid of any trace of conscience, and doesn't even stop at red lights.


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