A. B. Yehoshua has always been one of the most obsessive and closed minded leftists among Israel’s Literary Left. Perhaps the country’s leading literary figure, the example in Israel of those who believe that if someone can express himself well with words, he must have some special insights into resolving the real problems of the world. The belief that someone who is good with words or who can find a word that
rhymes with “refrigerator” must be more sensitive than the rest of us and so
has an obligation to tell us each morning how Israel should respond to Arab
nazism and terror, not to mention welfare reform.
Anyway, it seems that A. B. suddenly has had a skeleton of his dragged
out, and by the Rightish Moledet Party no less, the party that had been
headed up by Rahavam Zeevi before he was murdered by friends of Shimon
Peres. (A. B. is also a close personal friend of Shimon Peres.)
‘Twas back in the days of Oslo euphoria in 1993, when the entire world
and nearly all of Israel were swept up in the grand delusion that the Middle
East conflict had been ended by the magnanimous gestures of Yitzhak Rabin.
All of Israel was on a Tikkun-style LSD trip. Israel’s stock market was
booming. Israeli pols were spinning out plans for Trans-Levant highways and
pipelines, where Israel would join and lead the Arab League in its drive for
modernity, where Israelis would lunch on hummous in Damascus. Where the
Mediterranean would turn to lemonade. And where any person simply stating
that the whole pipedream would fail was likely to be demonized and denied
promotions.
It was smack in the middle of that Oslo Mardi Gras in 1993 when A. B.
Yehoshua gave an interview. He was asked what would happen if the
Palestinians would respond with war and terror to Israel’s agreeing to let
them have their own state and to return to its 1949 borders more or less.
SO certain was the deep analytic sensitive national writer that no such
development was possible that A. B. Yehoshua answered: if that SHOULD
happen, if the Palestinians SHOULD use their new powers and authority in the
West Bank and Gaza to pursue war, then Israel should respond by
re-conquering them and expelling them, seizing their territories to be held
on behalf of future generations of Jews. Let us note that should someone
advocate such an idea today, he would be arrested under Israel’s anti-racism
laws and charged with criminal incitement.
The Moledet Party is distributing Yehoshua’s statement with more than a
delicious feeling of mischief. A. B. though is having conniptions. He
seems to have suddenly lost his gifts of sublime literary expression in
denouncing the Moledet people. Moledet has also spoken about programs to
expel some Palestinians and to use inducements to get others to emigrate, an
idea universally denounced by Israel’s pro-terror beautiful Oslo people.
Including Bro A.B.
The question that keeps coming up in Israel is how is it possible that
Israel has done nothing at all to prevent PLO suicide bombers and other
murderers from entering Jewish areas at will, including inside the Green
Line, and carrying out their Oslo commitments. After 600 murders of
Israelis by these friends of Shimon Peres, why does Israel not put the PLO
towns under effective siege? Why are the roads not blocked and the fields
mined? Why are there no effective barriers? After all, we are not exactly
talking about an area the size of Texas that needs to be closed off and
patrolled effectively.
Our own theory has always been that the Israeli government does not WANT
to close off and barricade the Palestinians, that it is happy to have them
entering Israel at will. It fears taking serious steps to blockade the
terrorists and fascists.
The government of course denies that. It claims it is doing everything
it can. It just cannot effectively close out the murderers.
Oh really?
Well, here is a good way to test how serious government claims are. If
the Israeli government and army were seriously making efforts to isolate and
blockade the Palestinian enclaves, one should see a sharp decrease in the
numbers of Israeli cars stolen by Palestinians. Sure, a murderer here and a
murderer there might break through and enter Jewish areas. But tens of
thousands of stolen cars would not be making their hajj to the enclaves of
Arafat. It would be nearly impossible to pass through. Cops and soldiers
should be recovered them at the checkpoints in the thousands.
This morning I had a chat with someone who has a senior position in the
Israeli insurance industry, working specifically on car insurance and theft.
I asked him if the numbers of car thefts by Palestinians had really
dropped during the past months of Sharonic war and blockade against the
terrorists.
He just laughed. He claims that Palestinian thefts of Israeli cars and
their transfer into the PLO Reichdom have been at an all-time HIGH these
past months. There are NO barricades nor patrols nor attempts to control
Palestinian movements at all. It is all a hoax.
Ariel Sharon is determined that Israel continue to host the Palestinian
friends of Shimon Peres on its buses and in its cafes.