26 Days to Go – And the Rockets’ Red Glare!

By Sherwin Pomerantz

The clock continues to tick now with 26 days to the opening of the UN General Assembly in New York and the proposed vote on the Palestinian Arab’s planned unilateral declaration of statehood.

But here in Israel over the last few days we have buried eight of our citizens killed in the terrorist attack close to the Egyptian border, while another citizen was killed last night as a result of the barrage of 80 rockets from Gaza in the last 60 hours. The only good news is that there were not more casualties, but there probably will be if the rocket attack continues. And why? Because Israel responded to the terror attack which occurred on Thursday by taking out the leadership of the group responsible for the attack, a group that has its headquarters in Gaza.

But, of course, according to the New York Times the terrorists were not terrorists at all, but rather militants, or so the caption on the picture of the event calls them. And what is the difference? The dictionary defines terrorist as “A person who employs terror or terrorism, especially as a political weapon.” The US Department of Defense says “An individual who uses violence, terror and intimidation to achieve a result.” A militant, on the other hand, is defined as “Having a combative character, aggressive, especially in the service of a cause.”

It would seem to this writer, therefore, that while the people who perpetrated this action against non-combatant Israelis were both militants as the definition indicates as well as terrorists. What made them terrorists is that they carried their militancy one step further employing terrorism as a political weapon. Of course it is much more convenient for the western press to see the people who do these things as militants, because then op-ed writers can go to the next step and say that they have become militant because they are oppressed forgetting, of course, that some of the most effective protest movements of the last 100 years shaped by the concept of passive resistance and not the use of terror.

As if this shading of world reportage was not sufficient in light of the events of the last days, Roger Cohen who writes regularly for the New York Times and who is called by them a “globalist,” comes out with an op-ed on Saturday entitled “Jews in a Whisper” which examines why, in public places, when the word “Jew” is uttered it is usually done in a whisper. He supplies a number of personal examples and then includes this interesting paragraph:

"Jewish identity is an interesting subject and quest. In America, because I’ve criticized Israel and particularly its self-defeating expansion of settlements in the West Bank, I was, to self-styled “real Jews,” not Jewish enough, or even – join the club – a self-hating Jew. In Britain I find myself exasperated by the muted, muffled way of being a Jew. Get some pride, an inner voice says, speak up!"

So in a way, we can take heart from his desire to see an increase in Jewish pride until later in the article he gives himself away as someone who, indeed, does not put his lot in with the Jewish people when he says:

"The lesson is clear, Jews, with their history, cannot become the systematic oppressors of another people. They must be vociferous in their insistence that continued colonization of Palestinians in the West Bank will increase Israel’s isolation and ultimately its vulnerability."

The italics are mine and it is in those words that he, like many of our brethren, gives himself away. Instead of saying our history, he says their history; instead of saying We he says They, thus removing himself from the historical narrative and separating himself from the 3,500 year line of Jewish history. In a word, he confirms, whether intentionally or not, that he is not part of the people of whose history he is a modern day product. So perhaps, even as he seemingly objects to the term, he really is a self-hating Jew or, at the very least, certainly not a proud one.

In our continuing quest to get the world to recognize our legitimate right to live here in the national homeland of the Jewish people, we continue to do battle with those who use linguistics to demean us as well as brethren who would prefer to have had the act of birth bequeath unto them a different, less cumbersome identity. After 3,500 years the battle is not nearly over.