Like Lambs to the Slaughter, Silently

Like Lambs to the Slaughter, Silently

by Arlene Peck
February 08, 2007

A local station is advertising a re-run of the classic movie The Silence of the Lambs. Something in the title made me think of the Israeli situation and the news, or lack of it, coming out of Israel. In the thinking world, it's a given that Israel is suffering from a horrendous lack of effective leadership. Worse, Israelis are also giving every appearance of performing "The Silence of the Jews," complacently and blindly walking to the slaughter.

Surely, if the lack of genuine leadership in the Jewish State is obvious to the rest of the world, and if what leadership there is, is either mired in corruption, scandal or is self-serving and ineffectual, then someone there should be noticing, too. No?

Perhaps, having the benefit of a little distance, I'm able to see a little more clearly than my fellow Jews mired in the chaos that is Israel, 2007.

With that benefit, it seems plain to me that, as bad as the threat is posed by the many and various terrorist groups surrounding Israel and by the unfriendly and anti-Semitic neighboring governments she lives with, the threat from within is far worse.

I never thought that the old expression, "We have met the enemy, and it is us" would hold true when it came to Israel.

Frankly, I think Ehud Olmert, rather than Ariel Sharon, is the one in a coma. If Sharon did wake up and saw how Olmert has governed, who would be surprised if he had a stroke all over again?

This awful impotence has been a long time coming. I believe this is what happens when a country doesn't bring in new blood or fresh ideas. For decades, Israel has been recycling the same old corrupt, self-serving politicians, while waiting for a 'statesman' to emerge. My momma, Queen Mollie, used to get on my case about the "Yankees" that I brought into the house. She always ended with the refrain, "You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear."

I think she had a point. In this case, you can't make a 'peace partner' when all you have to work with is a savage mob, adhering to an uncompromising agenda of destruction - your destruction.

But that still doesn't absolve Israel from dealing with what is happening before their very eyes. The so-called 'Palestinians' don't have much in the way of leadership, but they are shrewd and extremely clever at manipulating world opinion, via the media, into believing that a state of Israel and a state of Palestine are going to live happily ever after, side by side, in mutual bliss, if only.... If only Israel and everyone else ignores the fact that Palestinian Arabs don't honor their agreements. An agreement for them, judging by far too many past experiences, simply means that they will agree to disagree at some later time.

Hell, they don't even honor their own promises to each other. Now, because Sharon (before his health failed), had the good sense to ignore threats and recommendations from around the world and pushed ahead with the security fence, these savages can't so easily cross over the border to kill Israelis; so, Hamas and Fatah are kidnapping and killing each other at a very rapid pace.

Frankly, folks, I couldn't be more delighted.

It is difficult for President George Bush, who incidentally has his own popularity problems, with a mere 22% happy with his misguided policies. Our pro-Arab State Department is giving press conferences expounding the glories of "two independent states" living side-by-side with each other in peace and harmony, going off into the sunset. Why on earth would anyone be listening to orders or ideas coming out of Washington with the briar patch we've become mired in?

The answer, in my opinion, isn't living together. Instead of sitting on the sidelines while the rest of the world decides the fate of the Jews living in what is supposed to be the Jewish State, they should be getting serious about plans for transfer.

I look at it like cooking a stew from a wonderful old recipe I used to have. I would add an extra piece of meat, carrot or potato into the pot each day and cook it more and more to add to the flavor. Eventually, though, the meat could become tainted. The answer wouldn't be to add more meat. I would have to throw out the whole concoction and get rid of the poison.

Gaza is a tainted pot simmering in the land of Israel. It is a cancer. You don't negotiate or give cancer a hug; you kill it before it destroys you.

Let's get real. Rose-coloured glasses - off! Taking the "sound" out of "sound-byte," all anyone with eyes in their head ever sees of "Palestinians" are murderous barbarians who kidnap and kill each other with disgusting regularity; who mutilate the unfortunate; who make appalling publicity stunts out of funerals; who shoot their ever-present, Israeli-gifted rifles aimlessly and dangerously into the air, all the while disguised in those KKK-like hoods; whose "leaders" smile for the Western camera and go on urging more of the same from their mobs. Is this the people that Israel should be negotiating with? "Good Gawd."

How many times can you watch hundreds of thousands of "refugees" marching for the cameras, gloating over their atrocities, shouting, "Death to Israel," "Death to the United States," before you get the picture?

Why is it we believe the worst about our allies, but cannot believe that the Palestinians actually know what they are saying, and are not being "taken out of context"? This is the worst sort of ideological patronizing. Are they children?

They mean it, folks. Why is it so hard to accept that? Why would anyone think that they could be viable partners in any discussions about peace? And, for G-d's sake, why in the world does the US continue to support them with money, weapons and sympathy?

More urgently: Why does Israel? Maybe we should begin to follow the money trail?

Where is the spirit that is needed to spur the Israelis to action?

No, no, no! In Israel, they have taken up the challenges, the important issues. They are marching in protest over gay parades. When are the people going to take to the streets, marching in protest at their government and its idiotic policies? Where is their resentment at having missiles and rockets sent into their midst on a daily basis by their Arab neighbors? Where is the fire in the belly? Where is the will to survive and where is the will to win?


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