Last week at Erez Crossing a Palestinian laborer from Gaza
was crushed to death trying to pass through to work in Israel
for the day. 15,000 Palestinians were waiting to pass through
that gate at the time and the conditions were horrible. The
lines move very slowly and even those who arrive very early
are not assured of getting through in a reasonable amount of
time.
Until the middle of January, tens of thousands passed through
that main gateway between Israel and the Gaza strip every
day. One fine day, a 21-year-old mother of two who was a
member of Hamas blew herself up in that terminal, murdering
four Israelis. Stiff precautions were taken, but this
murderer came disguised as a cripple. Her crying and moaning
and her apparent suffering aroused the mercy of the Israelis
who were checking the masses passing through. One of them
could not stand to see her suffer, and he let her into one of
the areas where she came into contact with Israelis, without
properly checking her. His bending the rules cost him his
life.
But the terrorist and the Hamas terror organization behind
her are the ones responsible for his death and the death of
the laborer last week, and the daily suffering of tens of
thousands of their Palestinian brethren. Aside from directly
destroying some of the border facilities, the incident caused
the IDF to tighten up the procedures, unfortunately causing
things to move much more slowly. When these die-hard
terrorists exploit every minimal shred of humanity to
perpetrate their awful crimes, they are responsible for the
difficult conditions that result from the IDF response. It is
manifestly clear that if the IDF does not close up the holes,
the Palestinians will use them.
The fence that is at the focus of world attention is also
purely a response to unremitting, unmerciful, completely
unbridled Palestinian terror. The terror initiative is on the
Palestinian side, and they are the ones responsible for the
response.
It is rarely noted that much of the Palestinian talking is
not directed towards communication but is just a transferal
of terror to the verbal sphere. They are not seeking a
meeting of the minds; they are trying to bludgeon the minds
of the world into submission to their side.
They say whatever will draw attention and whatever will
advance their cause. Calling it "lies" is mild and
inaccurate. It is verbal violence: the use of language in
completely one-sided ways that shut off discussion rather
than initiate it. Just as Palestinian terrorists use any
means to murder, their politicians say whatever they can
think of to advance their cause.
They call the defensive fence an "apartheid wall." But there
is no similarity to the South African discrimination against
blacks. Palestinians are just trying to exploit the reservoir
of bad will built up about apartheid. Arafat speaks of the
Palestinians being forced into "ghettos." Again there is no
similarity to the small, crowded areas in which Jews were
forced to live in Europe deprived of civil rights. Arafat is
just trying to exploit the reservoir of bad will built up
about ghettos. Arafat and the other Palestinian spokesmen
constantly use images and terms associated with slavery, Nazi
crimes, genocide, imperialism, exploitation -- whatever comes
to mind -- in connection with Israel. Arafat did not abandon
these terms even at the height of the Oslo optimism.
There is no good defense against such speech -- any more than
there is a defense against a suicide bomber who has pressed
her button. It cannot be contained and cannot be met head
on.
We can only follow the advice of the Novi: "Come my people,
into your room. Hide for a moment, until the violence has
passed" (Yeshayohu 26:20).
