My Story 33

The night that Yitzchak Rabin's election victory was announced, my heart sank. He was shown on television doing a happy dance, and stomping up and down. I felt that he was stomping on my heart and on my dreams. Suprisingly, my neighbors in Beit El mostly did not share my pessimism. On the contrary, they were euphoric. "Now the Likkud will be a powerful opposition! They will wake up and save the country!" I'm still waiting. Sure, they made some comments in the Knesset, but nothing more. One delusional rabbi, cum false prophet, Rabbi Tzvi Tau (whom I always call Shabbetai Tzvi Tau),who had been a top student of Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah Kook, boldly announced that "Rabin will be the Prime Minister to expel the Arabs from Israel". Momentarily, it seemed like he might be right. Intifada activists who were arrested, instead of just paying a fine, which was in any case paid by the PLO, were banished across the Lebanese border. Despite admonitions from the U.S. government, and indeed, the world, Rabin refused to allow them to return...ever. That soon changed to one year. Return they did, now trained by Lebanese militias in the "art" of suicide bombing. Before I get into Rabin's actions and statements, I would like to relate an incident that was a turning point in my thinking. The community of Beit El where I lived, had only a single small road connecting it with the main road going to Jerusalem. People felt that all the Arabs had to do was to block that entrance, and we would all be sitting ducks. It was decided to build a second exit. The government and army said "no". The community built and paved the road anyway. It was about one hundred feet long. The army notified the local government that they were coming to destroy the road. The public address system of the community blared out that we should all come to the new road. When I got there, I saw something terrible. All the boys from our local school, from first to eighth grade, were sitting on the road. The adults were standing alongside the road. Army vehicles soon showed up, and soldiers jumped out. The younger children didn't understand what was happening. They thought that the Arabs were coming, and that they were protecting the road until the army could intervene. When the soldiers arrived, they cheered! The officer in charge parleyed for fifteen minutes with the community leaders, asking them to clear the road, and allow them to destroy it. The leaders refused. The order was given, and the soldiers savagely attacked our kids. They were beaten with rifle butts, and tossed like sacks of potatoes. I saw all four of my sons beaten, together with their classmates. It was a pogrom! And the adults? They stood and shouted halfheartedly "Bushah! Bushah!" (Shame! Shame!). I approached the officer in charge, and asked how he could justify these actions. He said "just following orders". I said "I though that went out at Nuremberg" (where Hitler's top men had excused their killing of Jews by saying that. They were hanged anyway). He responded "say that again, and you are under arrest". It was at that point that I became aware that it was not MY army, but rather that of a regim, that did not see me or my neighbors as full citizens.. I had, until then, volunteered every year to perform the Passover seder for an army base. I never did that again. I vowed to do everything possible not to have my kids drafted. Since that day, I see the "IDF" as a symbol of oppression. I freeze when I see a Facebook friend post "Love the IDF <3". A half hour later, a "compromise" was reached, in which the road would not be destroyed, but instead have a huge boulder placed on it, so as to make it unusable. Both sides declared a victory. But for me, I was perplexed. Having been graduated from college in 1970, I had been to my share of demonstrations. Our motto had been "put your body on the line". It had never been "put your children's bodies on the line". The use of schoolchildren as a front line weapon in our struggle, seemed like something that Jews do not do. Yes, the IDF was no longer my army, but my community was also no longer my community. I was not ready to throw in the towel on Israel, but my ideology began to shift in the direction of "extremists", who sought to delegitimize the government, rather than the Kooknick's goal of "strengthening it and redirecting". Neither political party offered hope. Opposition leaders found themselves in prison (administrative detention; no charges, no lawyers, no trial). Later, when Yigal Amir assassinated Rabin, and a 400 year sentence was imposed, the head of the tribunal said to him "you are a bright young man. You could have written and spoken. You didn't need to take to the gun". Amir said "but everyone who spoke out was immediately arrested and put in prison". The judge knew that was true. He gave a nervous laugh and said "Bechol zot" (nevertheless). Rabin's first years in office saw the "settlers" portrayed as the problem, much as Arab leaders tell their people that the reason they suffer is Israel, rather than their own government's corruption. After the Oslo agreements were signed, things went from bad to worse. Until the signing, Israeli soldiers lined the road to Jerusalem. Suddenly, they were replaced by Palestinian soldiers, armed by Israel. (The rabbi who had said that Rabin would expel the Arabs, now said that we must honor these soldiers, as they exist by virtue of a treaty with Israel, and are therefore part of the process of redemption.) Statements by Arafat that the agreement's goal was to weaken Israel, until it could be destroyed, were dismissed by Rabin's government. The showdown was soon to come. Shortly after Oslo, Shalvah Ouzana, who had been my daughter Feigie's young kindergarten teacher, was shot dead on her way to Beit El from Jerusalem. A huge, spontaneous demonstration ensued. Rabin addressed the people. "This is not terrorism. These are the Sacrifices for Peace (this oxymoron became standard). You can spin like propellers (which he famously mispronounced as "plopellors"), you don't move me. You knew where you were going. (We certainly did, as every government, since Rabin's first term in office, had provided incentives for people to move to the "territories".) 97% of Israelis are safer now, 3% are less safe. DIE QUIETLY!" (To the best of my knowledge, these words were never reported outside of Israel). In the Oslo agreements, only terrorist actions inside pre-1967 Israel were banned. The attack on Ms. Ouzana was, in fact, quite legal under the agreement. The reign of terror had begun.