Excerpt from Ruth Matar's program of November 7

     Sunday night I attended the funeral of Shoshana Ben-Yishai, 16 year old girl who was killed by a Palestinian gunman. The terrorist opened up fire on a bus waiting for the light to turn green at a Jerusalem intersection. He also killed 14 year old boy Menashe Regev, and wounded many others, two of these critically. Most of the passengers on the bus were children who were returning home from school. Hamas and Islamic Jihad both proudly took "credit" for the attack.

"My G-d," I kept thinking as I was surrounded by the classmates of Shoshana, weeping and clinging to each other. "This girl is exactly the age of my granddaughter. It could have been her!"

Yasser Arafat, the PA Chairman, has made no effort whatsoever to arrest or disarm members of terrorist groups, nor has he in any other way tried to impede almost daily attacks on Israeli citizens--even though he has pledged to do so in no fewer than 5 signed agreements with Israel. After eight years of talks, Arafat has failed to end his support for terror.

In spite of all this, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and the State Department, enthusiastically endorse the establishment of a Palestinian State on Israel's heartland, Judea and Samaria.

I saw two news items in the press recently, which literally gave me chills. Why did they upset me so? Because these news items reveal the depths of the enmity that successive Secretaries of State, and the State Department, bear to the Jewish State of Israel. The following is a paragraph from an article in the November 6 issue of the International Herald Tribune, which quotes Bill Clinton's Secretary of State, Madelaine Albright. -Listen to this! I am quoting verbatim.

"This is hard to say and I haven't found a way to say it that doesn't sound crass. But it is the truth that those attacks before September 11th were happening overseas, and while there were Americans who died, there were not thousands, and it did not happen on US soil."

You can bet your bottom dollar, Madelaine, that there is no way for you to say that this doesn't sound crass. -After all, Shoshana Ben-Yishai was only the 22nd American murdered by Arafat's terrorists in Israel. Also, as Madelaine Albright would say, it did not happen on US soil!

But, even more shocking is a statement by the current US Secretary of State, Colin Powell. He said last week that some groups, sometimes described as terrorist--and he clearly refers to the Palestinian Arabs--might be seeking to redress grievances, gain rights, or achieve freedom from oppressors.

Powell told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Bin Laden's al-Quaeda organization is a clear case of a terrorist group, as "probably" are the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the Real Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland. "But then you start to run into areas where one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, and that's where you have to apply judgement."

Shoshanna Ben-Yishai's murder perfectly illustrates the hypocrisy and immorality of Colin Powell's statement. You see, Shoshana Ben-Yishai was in New-York on September 11, visiting her sick grandfather. Of course, her parents were very worried about her. She returned to her family safely, only to be killed by a Palestinian terrorist in Jerusalem only seven weeks later.

Do you see the irony here? According to US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, if she had been killed by Arabs on September 11 in New York, she would have been killed by terrorists. But when she was killed on November 4 in Jerusalem, she was, according to Mr. Powell's reasoning, killed by Palestinian freedom fighters.

That is why we must not follow the opinions or dictates of others in the matter of permitting the establishment of a Palestinian State on our Holy soil. We must say loud and clear--without worrying about whom we might offend--NO, to a Palestinian State! It is a matter of life or death for us, and we choose life! WiG, POB 7352, JERUSALEM, 91072 Israel, Tel. 02-624.9887, Fax: 02-624.5380, http://www.womeningreen.org  

From EISH-L, "Eretz Israel SHelanu" ( = "Our Eretz Israel") EmaiList Prof. Arieh Zaritsky, 74/27, Mivtza Nach'shon Str., Be'er-Sheva, Israel 84450 tel: 972-8-6499.238, -6461.712, fax: -6278.951, mobile (NEW!): 055-955.670

EISH-L Archive http://techunix.technion.ac.il/archives/eish-l.html

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