Wow! It's Arlene Peck - Internationally syndicated coumnist and TV talk show hostess!

Commentary
on Jewish, Israeli, American, and international issues

by Arlene Peck

We are pleased to feature the insightful commentary of Arlene Peck, internationally syndicated columnist and television talk show hostess.

Israel? A Nervous Country

I remember how when I was living in Israel everyone smoked. Coming from Los Angeles, where they want to tar and feather you if you're smoking within a fifty-foot radius of anyone, it always bothered me. How could people in this day and age still smoke? The answer I always received was �We're a nervous country.� Back then I would laugh about this lame excuse. Today the tension the Israelis are living under has to be unbearable .

Just the fact of having to justify yourself to the biased world press would be enough to do it. The double standard under which Israel continues to function is enough.

Recently there was a column in the LA Times by Tracy Wilkinson, who I usually count on to be biased against Israel. It was titled How Mid-East Violence Moves to The Home Front. As usual, Ms. Wilkinson didn't disappoint me, as she once again found an absurd equivalence between how the Israeli and Palestinian [Arab] societies vent their hatred.

It drives me up the wall when the Times refers to 30,000 Hamas supporters -- packing a sports stadium in Gaza to cheer a parade that consisted of gunmen and twenty would-be suicide bombers wearing white shrouds that read �Martyrs-in-waiting� -- as �militants."

They are NOT militants, nor are they activists. They are terrorists!

So, while Ms. Wilkerson talks about how the Palestinian [Arab] children are learning Hate, she omits how the Arabs teach their children Hate from the womb to the tomb. Their youth are educated to revere suicide bombers as part of the daily curriculum.

Hey, it's one thing for individual Israelis to harbor hatred and violent thoughts, or even put them into actions. That is still vastly different than the Arab-controlled press or self-appointed political or religious figures spewing hatred on a daily basis. Yet it is logical that after two years of constant terror attacks the abnormal becomes the norm.

They were right. Israel is a nervous country, and two years of living on the edge have done their damage. And the world pointing its finger of blame in the Middle East has only exacerbated the situation.

When the LA Times reports as it does, it ignores the fact that Israel offered the Palestinians 98% of the West Bank and part of Jerusalem, plus an additional two percent from land in Israel proper. The Times, however, doesn't say that. Instead The Times reports: �Because of Sharon's West Bank folly, permanent peace between Israel and the Palestinians was interrupted nearly two years ago by a failure to agree on how to exchange land for peace.� It's obvious they just don't get it.

Those living in Israel, I believe, finally understand that the "final solution" for the Arabs is the complete and utter destruction of the Jewish State. They will settle for nothing else. Did you ever notice that the map of "Palestine" worn on Yasser Arafat's military uniform is the map of greater Israel? Do you honestly believe that they want or will settle for the land west of the Jordan in the �West Bank� and the Gaza Strip?

Living in a state of constant defense is difficult at best. Word is coming out that the daily military confrontations between both the Israelis and the Palestinians have affected domestic violence. The Arabs have always treated their women like farm animals. The situation for the Israeli Arabs has always been one that segregates the sexes and keeps the women vulnerable. The women are accustomed to being beaten. And incest among Arabs has tripled within the past couple of years.

It's no surprise that these barbaric people behave this way when religious fundamentalism reinforces the belief that a husband has the right to beat his wife if her behavior infringes on his "manhood."

While Wilkinson refers enthusiastically to the "often bellicose media," she does not discuss the daily widespread phenomenon of official Palestinian [Arab] incitement, which is a fundamental factor in the violence. And although she neglects to attribute Palestinian [Arab] violence to Palestinian [Arab] incitement, she frequently cites Israeli actions -- "occupation," closures, checkpoints, demolitions, the killing of a child -- as contributing to Palestinian [Arab] violence.

Recently I had a leftist Israeli friend email me a column about the poor plight of the Palestinians and the depression they are experiencing. Are these Israelis of the left crazy? Or are they merely self-hating Jews? Conveniently they have forgotten that the situation in which the Palestinians now find themselves is one of choice. Because of their rabid desire to obliterate the Jewish state, they have lined the pockets of Yasser Arafat and his gang of thugs instead of using funds given to them for their own development.

Their obsession with Israel has retarded the development of the Arab societies. The Palestinians had an income higher than any of the surrounding Arab States. Now their factories, which once produced economic growth and development, have become mortar and bomb factories. Universities which could be used to train construction engineers have now become centers for teaching demolition engineers. Foolishly, Israel -- through its various joint economic projects and direct transfers of funds -- added to the military coffers of Arafat by a billion dollars.

I remember when I was last there how the Israelis would run into Gaza to visit the gambling casinos, which were built for their tourist shekels . What has happened to them now? All of it -- their industry, their higher education (and those universities were built and funded by Israel), their hospitals, and their jobs in Israel were consciously discarded in their fever to destroy Israel.

So forgive me if I don't worry about the plight of the Arabs. I worry about the trauma that their terrorism is causing on the psyche of the Jewish state. I fear that the Israeli youth cannot not avoid the repercussions of violence as a way of life. When that happens, the value of life becomes cheaper.

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Transfer Isn't The Forbidden Word It Used To Be

Funny how not so long ago, when I would mention the word �transfer,� editors would write disclaimers about my radical writing. Readers would deplore my views and prevail upon publishers not to carry my columns. Aw, but that was before the bitter realization set in that �No, we can't just all get along together.�

It upsets me, as a member of the press, how easily people are manipulated, and how after a while "buzz words" become fact. Terrorists are "suicide bombers." More terrorists are "militants,� or better yet �freedom fighters� or �guerrillas.� The "West Bank" and Gaza are no longer "disputed" as opposed to "occupied" territory -- although the latter term suggests that it was "free" before and "conquered" later by Israel.

Arafat has spent the past twenty-five years promoting the Big Lie of the occupied "Palestinian [Arab]" land and, apparently, gotten away with it. What in the h-ll is "Palestinian [Arab]" anyway? If any of you are familiar with when it was founded and by whom, by all means contact me.

Although Arafat is claiming Jerusalem as its capital, before he put dibs on Jerusalem, what was the "Palestinian" capital and what were its major cities? In fact, what constituted the basis of its economy?

I think I'm on a roll. Did they have a special language for this country of �Palestinian,� or a prevalent religion? Are all those artifacts that are riddled throughout Israel with Hebrew writing really "Palestinian" artifacts? Wow, then if so, then someone out there must know of a library where I could find works of "Palestinian" literature which were written before that magical year of 1967 -- when Arafat began his Big Lie of the "lost homeland" for the Palestinians? (Interesting how there has been no leader since Arafat. Were there any Palestinian presidents or prime ministers before him?)

Do any of my journalist colleagues who lament the demise of this once-proud "nation" have any idea of what it was so proud of? Surely since there are only eight Noble Prize winners in the entire Arab nations (including Arafat and Sadat), compared with the hundreds of Jewish recipients, then some of them must have originated in the proud nation of "Palestinian?" I think that my educated journalist colleagues have somehow mistaken these illusive people with the Biblical Philistines.

I have been writing for a long time about the needed "transfer" in the region. The present situation of constant bombings of Israel's citizens is intolerable.

The only thing that those who are trained in the fine art of death and destruction understand is power. First you must defeat them, and then you can negotiate. Every time a resort or school bus or pizza parlor is bombed, Israel should announce that they are taking back 10% of the cities that they mistakenly gave them and then ... do it! If they do it again, then another ten percent of land reverts back into Jewish hands. Enough of bombing empty hovels with plenty of notice so the European Union can rebuild them back better than ever with their twenty-six million dollar grants!

It's not that impossible. Housing could be implemented in Jordan to remove the terrorist threat from Israel. To be more specific, the southern half of Jordan is not only under-populated, but also poor. Think what a windfall it would be to that country if a consortium of nations -- the same ones who regularly fill the corrupt coffers of Arafat and his thugs to the tune of billions of dollars -- sent that money to Jordan? This money could be used to get those wretched people out of the hovels in the "refugee camps" that their Arab brothers have happily kept them in for the past fifty years.

These nations and bankers could phase in the building of two viable, designed cities to accommodate two million people into each city. Use some of that capitalistic know-how and give them no money down and thirty year financing for new homes, business locations, and investment property. Israelis will buy and pay in cash for the properties and businesses the "Palestinians" leave behind. The Israelis could recoup their money by reselling to developers, investors, and individuals. The Arabs would then have money in the bank and a better home and environment than what they now have. Jordan and the world would benefit because with development comes peace, and business would boom in the area by such a massive building project.

After the earthquakes here, the local developers, builders, electrical companies, etc., were busy for years because of the misfortune caused by the quake. Think of how the companies who make the materials and products necessary for building would grow, and how the economies of the participating countries would benefit. How long would it be before travel and industry become available? Jordan would probably be thrilled, as money could pour into that country for the first time, and the King could set the standard for democracy which has never been tried before.

Whenever people are making money they tend to be a happier crowd. The work force in Israel among the Arabs has dried up, and it will be many years, if ever, before it returns again. Workers from Philippines and Romania have now replaced the Palestinians who used to travel into Israel proper to do the work that the Israelis didn't want to do.

Something other than what is being done has to be tried. These fictitious "Palestinians" have only one motivation: that being the complete and utter destruction of Israel. Presently these people are nothing more than a terrorist organization that must be destroyed.

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Better They Should be Jews for Moses

I first met Moshe Rosen, who later became the founder of the infamous organization Jews for Jesus, several years ago. He had come to Atlanta for a fund-raiser, and I somehow got wind of it and was determined to go to their dinner as a "spy." We met that night, and I subsequently wrote a scathing column about his organization and their goals. As best I remember, he was just a nice guy from a good Jewish family in Denver who couldn't make a living and came up with a gimmick: �Jews for Jesus.� It wasn't until he managed to book a revival of sorts in Madison Square Garden, and the mainstream Jewish press got wind of his organization and made a big deal of his event, that he managed to gain a foothold. Once the protest from the Jewish newspapers hit the local New York papers he was made!

It was a few years later -- sometime in the early eighties -- that our paths crossed again. I was in San Francisco for a speaking engagement, and one of his disciples attempted to hand me Jews for Jesus literature at the airport. I looked at the kid and told him, �Tell your boss that the Star reporter from Atlanta is in town and she still thinks that it would be better if you were Jews for Moses.� Within a few hours, he called the Sheraton where I was staying and we made plans for dinner. I was appalled at the weight he had gained. We went for dinner, where Moshe ordered what seemed everything on the menu, and then he and his wife took me to their home. It was lovely -- and paid for by the organization.

The following day he took me into the Hyatt Asbury area, where his office and various pieces of valuable real estate were located. I remember looking at one room that was delegated to be the "money room." That was where the checks and donations came in and were counted. I remember thinking how the entire office staff were of the "good Christian" mold. I took another look at the letters and checks and realized they seemed to be filled with Christians who were chomping at the bit to show the infidel Jews the "way of the Lord.�

This was around 1982, and I remember the figure of six million dollars coming in to promote their property and "message." All that he needed was a "gimmick� presentation. It reminded me of a televangelist preacher who actually boasted how he rebuked a man for questioning why he (the preacher) had a private jet. "Why not use the money to feed people and take a bus?" "Son, I am not answerable to you. I am answerable to God. This is HIS jet and I'll use it until he says otherwise." Bible thumping is big business.

We talk about the attacks upon Jews, the constant terrorism and all the terrible things that have been done to the people of Israel. Yet, somehow, we'll get through this and become even stronger. The Israeli youth that I remember from a few years ago -- when things were soft -- are tougher now. They grow into men far earlier than their American counterparts.

The tragedy of 9/11 somehow made our country more united in our goals. Yet Christianity has posed the greatest threat to the Jewish people, both physically and spiritually, in the last two thousand years. Like anything else, there are good and bad. There are Christians who seek to convert Jews. Yet there are others who strive to help the Jewish State. It's their goal in life. Sometimes it's difficult to know the difference.

A cousin of mine in Atlanta, Rick Halpern, authored a book, Choose Life , a counter-missionary study guide. In it he spoke about how many missionaries are quick to apologize for atrocities committed by Christians over the centuries against the Jews, but are equally quick to tell you that their murderers were not "real Christians." They say, �Real Christians wouldn't do that because they are so loving.� Yeah, right. I hate to think how many of us have been killed under the guise of �good Christians." The belief that Jewish souls cannot go to heaven and that Jews will have to be converted before the end of days is one of anti-Semitism. Those Christians who think like this are both insulting and dangerous. And it takes advantage of the susceptible youth they try and convert.

Unfortunately, too many of the Jewish kids today are going through life oblivious to the fact that they are Jewish. Too many of them associate their "Jewishness" with material success or supporting secular causes. The case in point is demonstrated by how so many of the Hollywood crowd have distanced themselves from anything Jewish, support every battered child or women's center, but ignore their brothers in Israel and the victims of that terrorism. [See Arlene's article Hollywood! for more on this topic - Ed.]

So when their children go away to college they are fair game for these missionaries. Too many Jewish parents have done nothing to pass on their beliefs to their children. Nor are these children able to discuss the Jewish side of the many questions that life poses with Christians and others who have studied hard to do just that. This inexperience makes them perfect fodder for the various cults and religions seeking converts.

So too are the transplants that move to a new city -- leaving their Jewish connections behind -- who are looking for new friends. I remember how many Russian immigrants I met in Israel who came there for a new life, but, in reality, had no Jewish ties. The same is true for the ones who came to the United States consumed with "making it," and the Jewish community -- busy with other causes -- ignored them. The Christians, however, had plenty of time for them.

Apathy is a real danger to the Jews.

Yet in contrast, there is a group of well-meaning Christians, such as Christians for Israel, who are operating a project called Exodus, whose purpose is to assist Jews from the former Soviet Union to come to Israel. Their goal is to assist the Jewish people in their physical return and restoration of the land of Israel. Other groups, such as the Christian Chamber of Commerce, are active in promoting Israeli businesses. And there are the truly good Christians who travel to Israel to support that country by traveling there and showing the world they have no fear traveling the buses and walking the streets. These are a different breed. They don't come to Israel to convert, but to support the Jews living in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, and those living on Israel's Mediterranean coast.

Today, when many of the Jewish groups are selling "I Stand With Israel" t-shirts, more of these Christians who support Israel are traveling there to show that support. There is a fine line, but a very clear line, between those who come to convert and those who are believers but don't try and coerce others; between those who come to convert and those who realize that they have a theological difference of opinion.

I remember one of the most successful lines these people have: �A Jew can believe in Jesus and still be Jewish.� Hey, I believe in him. I believe that Jesus was right up there with Moses and Abraham in the Great Prophet category.

When I lived in Israel, I constantly saw groups coming into our country. I'm sure many of them had convinced themselves that they were well intentioned, but they sure packed their own agendas. Their bags wouldn't even be unpacked before they would be in the lobby making their pitch for me to "find Jesus." I would be furious. They were guests in a Jewish country, but had the audacity to push their religion because they thought it better than their host's. That's like being invited into someone's home for dinner and asking for paper plates because you don't trust their dishes to be clean. That behavior is both rude and despicable, and we don't need it!

For more about messianics and missionaries, see the Messiah Truth website. (Opens in a new window.)

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College Used To Be For Learning

L-rd, have times changed. I remember when the word �mother' was a word of endearment, and not a half a word. College was � in no particular order � for learning, finding a husband, and partying. When I began my college career at the University of Alabama (before I worked my way to Columbia in New York), it was because it was a famous party school. We didn't give a diddly-squat about world politics or current events. Life revolved around the fraternity and sorority parties and who was dating what football player. Life was exactly like the television show Happy Days . If a guy had to walk upstairs in the girl's dorm to carry up a trunk, they would shout up and down the halls �Man in the hall! Man in the hall!� This so no girls would unwittingly walk down and possibly be seen by a male visitor while she was in a state of undress.

Then, before I turned around, it was the eighties and I was driving my baby girl, Dana, to the University of Georgia. I was shocked! I couldn't believe that in its infinite wisdom the administration had thrown scads of girls and boys (hormones a-bubbling in both genders) into the same dorms. They even had their showers next to each other. Times were definitely changing. The dress codes were gone and, apparently, so were the curfews. Still, life on campus in the eighties was similar to what I had experienced.

Not so in the university of today. The universities of the �new� millennium have turned into hotbeds of anti-Semitic propaganda. Each and every day they churn out some new tidbit of hatred against the Jewish State of Israel. I was shocked to see that even my old university � Columbia � is leading this offensive drive by divesting itself of all Israeli products and businesses.

How dare the universities be used in such an offensive manner! The anti-Semitic leaders of the movement don't even try to hide their academic dishonesty. Their cause is totally one-sided. There is no mention of the daily violence coming from the Arab-Palestinian homicide bombings. Where is their compassion for the horrors heaped daily against the children of Israel? Columbia isn't the only one. The University of Michigan recently sponsored a hate fest against Israel, which drew a nice crowd. Lovely huh?

We in this country are so "politically correct" that these planned political forums to disseminate anti-Semitic propaganda under the guise of free speech are making inroads where never before might they have been allowed to happen. Previously these institutions stood for political freedom and diversity. There were even standards of decency in our universities.

The people and organizations (many of them Moslem) who are pushing this sickness at our kids today are the first to accuse anyone opposing them of �hate speech.� Their main tactic at the moment seems to be focusing on urging the academic institutions in the United States, and now Canada, and other countries to stop investing in corporations in the U.S. that do business with Israel.

The foundation of this disgusting campaign was introduced at a pro-Palestinian [Arab] conference at that hotbed of freakish behavior � the University of California at Berkeley � a few months ago. The leaders patterned it after the successful drive against South African apartheid that was done in the 1980s.

Their ability to equate Arabs living in Israel with blacks living under white rule in South Africa is ludicrous! Israel is one of the world's most open societies. The people there have rights and freedoms still not enjoyed by many of its European critics. The million Arabs living in Israel have the right to vote, and some are and have been elected to serve in the Israeli parliament � the Knesset.

Someone should tell these intellectuals who are so vocal about the plight of the poor Palestinians that, for the past 30 years of Israeli "rule,� the [Israeli] Arabs' standard of living is the highest of all their Arab brethren throughout the Middle East. Their life expectancy has risen by 50%. As they and their children's standard of living rose dramatically, the number of Arab children attending school rose by more than 100%.

While they are holding press conferences about the "illegal" settlers in the West Bank, let them note that there are now seven Arab universities there, where there were none before. Oh yes, and their per capita income has increased tenfold. They also receive welfare and excellent medical care under the dreaded "Jewish infidels" which was never available to them under Jordanian rule. It wouldn't hurt to remind them that, until they started the destructive policy of terrorist bombings, their death rate was far lower than their neighboring Arab states.

My alma mater, Columbia, has loudly and with much self-congratulatory fanfare passed a petition that calls for Columbia to do all in its power to withhold from Israel that which is the most fundamental right of every sovereign nation. They seek to deny Israel the right to defend itself. They assert that �Israel is pursuing a military solution� and single out the use of Israeli military force on a civilian population.

If they have so much time on their hands, why don't they write papers which condemn the Palestinian [Arab] leadership and their totally corrupt handling of the �Palestinians" for the past fifty years? How can these universities of once-sterling integrity completely overlook the decades of damage the Arab governments have done to the civilian �Palestinians� in order to feed the conflict? Rich, self-serving Arab nations have kept their poorer cousins living in squalor, and used every regional, historical, and political device imaginable to keep the fires of terrorism stoked. Are these learned anti-Semites so blind that they single out Israel as a solitary target?

Recently someone emailed me a joke. It's not very funny, but it underscores the mood of the universities:

It seems that Osama Bin-Laden called Yasser Arafat on the phone. " Listen, Yassi, there is something I don't understand. We are both terrorists. We have both killed thousands of innocent people. But the entire world is hunting only me. And at the same time you are the honorable Nobel Prize for Peace winner! What is your secret?" Arafat answers, �Oh it is very simple, Osama. I kill only Jews.�

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Red Cross Double Crosses Jews

Several years ago, I wrote a column in which I outlined various facts showing the International Red Cross [IRC] to be a clearly anti-Semitic organization. I wrote about their discriminatory policies against Israel. At the time, few people took me seriously. My eyes were opened when I traveled to Prague and visited the nearby concentration camp. It was then and there that I realized only someone that hated Jews could look at that slice of Hell and report back to the world at large that �the Jews really aren't being treated so badly.�

The Nazis used one of their camps near Prague as a "show" camp. A movie was even made about it several year ago. I traveled to it. Thereisenstadt was its name. During World War II, it had Jewish prisoners who were musicians, painters, actors, etc. Whenever the IRC announced that they were coming to visit, the prisoners were forced to spruce up the camp. By the time the pre-announced inspectors arrived all torture instruments would be hidden, the pool would be open and nice meals were being served. The Jews were then forced to perform concerts, put on plays and have displays of art for the geniuses from the IRC. Allegedly, no one knew about most of the killing camps located in Poland. The �inspectors� were too busy being entertained to bother looking for them.

It was a shock to realize that this international �humanitarian organization� had intentionally reported erroneously about the true conditions. Rather than alerting the world about the serious plight of a brave and desperate people during the Holocaust, they lied. The result? It's hard to give an exact number, but it's safe to say many thousands of Jews (and other undesirables) died at the hands of the Nazi butchers that might have otherwise been saved, if only the world had known and the Red Cross had reported the truth. Think they were duped? I don't think so.

Given the number of people out there in the media apologizing for this or that centuries-old grievance against virtually every ethnic group in existence, you'd think that the Red Cross would jump on the bandwagon and try to make amends. Think again. It was no surprise to me when I discovered additional evidence showing how this �humanitarian organization� has always been and continues to be overtly hostile to Israel.

Since 1948, the IRC has quietly, but firmly, refused to accept Israel's equivalent of the Red Cross -- which is called �Magen David Adom� (Red Star of David) -- into its membership. I've already heard the arguments: �You shouldn't expect a group using a Christian symbol to accept a non-Christian symbol like the Star of David. They aren't picking on the Jews. They only want to use their own symbol.�

Really? Guess again.

This conspiracy of silence welcomes the Arab nations' symbol. While the Jewish star is forbidden, the Red Cross is happy to bend over backwards to accommodate and include the Arab nations into its organization. They have officially pandered to the Arabs and accepted the Red Crescent. The crescent, of course, is a symbol derived from Islam. When the American Red Cross is confronted about this shameful practice, they repeat, �Well, that's not our fault. It's the fault of the International Red Cross.� Tell me. Does this sound a lot like when the Nazis on trial kept saying, �We didn't do anything wrong. We were just following orders.� Orders to do what? To make certain the Star of David is the only humanitarian emblem that has ever been formally rejected by the Red Cross?

For more decades than the public wants to accept, the International Red Cross has deliberately discriminated against Jews. From lying about the conditions in the concentration camps to refusing to accept the symbol of the Jewish state (and thus its membership in the international organization), they have been blatantly discriminatory; And from the very beginning, nothing has been done to stop them. So, why expect anything different from them today?

Recently, the International Committee of the Red Cross allocated only $300,000 for MDA's lifesaving efforts, but gave $30 million for the Palestinian [Arab] Red Crescent Society. To add insult to injury, they lied to the world by making it appear as though the funds were divided equally. As usual, Israel came out on the short end of that stick.

Even Canada, which until recently I've always considered one of the more friendly and rational nations, has behaved with a decidedly anti-U.S. and anti-Semitic slant. I was shocked to find that they have made every effort to close down the Magen David Adom office and strip it of it's non-profit status. Why all this deception and discrimination?

The American Jewish Committee answered some of my questions a few years ago by saying, �The American Red Cross, to its credit, has pledged to right this wrong.� From all I can gather, nothing has changed. It is my belief that the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Federation of Red Cross and the Red Crescent Society have no plans to ever change their disgusting policy. If the time ever comes when the Magen David Adom is allowed into this world-wide organization, it will only be because they have been absolutely forced to so.

The one thing that still amazes me is how - after fifty years - this policy is still allowed to continue unchallenged. If some ritzy American country club receiving the public benefits enjoyed by the Red Cross refused to allow a particular group to get a membership, the networks would cover their fairways with camera crews. Civil rights groups screaming �discrimination� would parachute lawyers onto the greens. But in this same America, the general public is not even made aware of the true character of this unrepentant anti-Semitic organization. Instead the general public is pressured to give and give and give.

I have done a few things to balance the scales a tiny bit. My daughter (Dana) used to donate her platelets to the Red Cross every month. I think it's wonderful that they are used to save lives. But I felt that if the Jewish symbol was not good enough for the Red Cross, then my child's Jewish platelets were best used by another organization. I laid a bit of grief on her about it. She indulged her mother and now donates her AB negative platelets to a terrific Jewish hospital. At Cedars Sinai they also use platelets to save lives every day; And � unlike the Red Cross � they've found a way to do this without discriminating against anyone. Amazing.

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Plain Old Anti-Semitism

I'm changing my thinking. For years I've been bemoaning the lack of fair coverage in the press when it comes to Israel. I've let myself get aggravated by the double standard. But, I've come to a conclusion. It's just plain old anti-Semitism. Nothing more � nothing less.

Actually, it's a little strange in its form. Almost everywhere you turn, the non-Jews are adopting our food, our expressions, and our entertainers are considered the hippest. Even the likes of Madonna, Roseanne, and Courtney Love swear by their lessons in Kabala. So how did Jew hatred become directed in the form of rejection of the idea of a state for the Jewish people?

I grew up in the South in the days before Civil Rights. To put it in perspective, I had to dig deep in my psyche during those tumultuous times. I would have had to be blind not to notice how the black race as a group was deprived social and economic rights during those times. Yet, every black person that I knew during those days worked for a white family. They worked in the stores or homes of my friends. They became trusted parts of the families and even today, the housekeepers of various members of my family have been employed by them for the past thirty or forty years. In other words, the race as a whole was ignored, yet, the individuals were �taken care' of. The blacks of the north were used as a symbol of oppression and collectively referred to as a group. Yet, I don't think that there was the individual loyalty that was found in the south. We've all seen �Driving Miss Daisy' and the relationship that developed over the years between her driver and the mistress of the house. That is the south that I remember. In fact, if I remember correctly, it was Dr. Martin Luther King who wrote something profound where he stated, �Anti Zionism is just plain old anti-Semitism.�

So, taking it into that context I have been able to see how the Jews as individuals, (our stars, fashion and movie mavens, etc.) are sought after, but the Jews as a nation are something else-something that the world fears. More so, they are jealous and the hatred is so deep. Yet, it's just not cool to show it by the burning of crosses in front yards. It's ever so much better to meet in the United Nations and pass another resolution deploring the plight of the "poor downtrodden Palestinians" which is naturally caused by the Jewish state of Israel. Frankly, I don't think most people give a diddly-squat about the Palestinians, the same way that they don't care about the Somalia civilians or the Panamanian civilians who were killed by U.S. forces, but it is a convenient way to hide the real reason. That is accomplished by painting Israel as being the villain in the Arab-Israeli scenario. It doesn't matter one iota to them that the land of Israel belongs to the Jews and the Arab population was interested in settling there only after the Jews bought and paid for said land and turned it into something other than barren desert. To the international community the problem is always going to be solved by more concessions from Israel.

It is ludicrous that the world turns a blind eye to the human rights violations of China or the entire Arab world: a place where women, are treated with less dignity than farm animals. Somehow the dictatorships and terrorism of these countries doesn't seem to cause conflict in the minds and hearts of the world. The European leaders would love to continue the massacre of the Jews that they sought in the 1930s. It's not fashionable, however, to do so in today's politically correct society. I think most of the countries in Europe are whores who would gladly sell their soul for oil. We've saved them so many times and how fast they've forgotten.

In fact, how can the rationality of the Arab countries even be explained? Saddam Hussein was poised to destroy first Kuwait and then Saudi Arabia. Now, everyone has conveniently forgotten what started the Gulf War, Saddam now is the good guy being mistreated by the big, bad United States.

I would like to say that it's only the Arabs who have tried for years to push Israel to make more and more concessions, until there is nothing left to concede. Actually though, it's most of the world. They've hoped that would be the end of the Jewish State and then France and Italy and the rest of the Nazi countries that are burning the synagogues and desecrating the cemeteries would be pleased. So the answer must be in passing more UN resolutions against Israel. Remember when they had the absolute gall to pass the one that declared �Zionism is racism�? Where was the outrage from rational people even then? Hey, I've just about given up understanding any of the undercurrents of hatred directed toward the Jews. The worst, of course, are the self-haters themselves who amazingly are Jewish and more concerned with the treatment of the terrorist than their Jewish brothers in Israel. They do everything in their power to uphold these illogical ideas of Palestinian [Arab] suffering and Israel victimization of the Palestinians. No wonder that I got to the point that I can't stomach Shimon Peres.

Of course, they would profess to be sorry at the plight of the poor Jews. But they much prefer passivity and victimhood of the Jews. It reminds them of better days. Then they can feel better about having second thoughts about the creation of Israel. Maybe they can give Arafat a second Peace Prize for solving the final solution -- that being giving the Palestinians their own country, which was formerly called Israel. We must not let that happen by chopping the country up like a salami to appease "world opinion.�

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United Nations Hatred

Tell me something: Isn't Israel the legitimate heir of Abraham and Israelis the chosen ones to be G-d's children? So? If that's the case, how come they continue and have always been chosen as the bastard child when it comes to the rest of the world? Unfortunately, we as Jews have always had to stand alone. That's why I don't worry about the public image or the acceptance from the anti-Semites, beginning with those in the United Nations. Jaded as it sounds, I feel that we can count on no one but ourselves. "They" are going to hate us anyway, so do what's best for us. They don't even like each other. The Vatican won't even speak up for their abused Christians when they know they are denied their basic rights under Islamic rule. They sit and watch the Arabs build mosques over their churches every chance they get. Hey, as I write this, the French and many others in Eastern Europe are gleefully burning down Jewish synagogues. So, why should we expect them to speak up for Israel and the Jewish people? Yeah, right. These are the ones who would line up with the Nazis in the United Nations to cater and pander to the terrorist and murderers who condemn Israel.

I don't know how many of you are aware of the blatant and shameful treatment that the Jewish State has always experienced: indignities that are still endured, at the hands of this world body that my taxes continue to support? If not, let me fill you in a little. Until today, the United Nations will spend over half a billion dollars to promote the Palestinian [Arab] cause. Why should we have any part of an organization that produces anti-Israel pamphlets for distribution to schoolchildren around the world? The last I heard, the way the Palestinians teach math is "If Abdul kills two Israelis on Tuesday and if Mohammed kills another three on Wednesday how many does that make?"

Of the 189 member nations of the United Nations, 188 may be elected to serve a term on the powerful Security Council. All of the terrorist countries such as North Korea, Iran, Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and even Syria, which has repeatedly been identified as a sponsor training state for terrorism, may serve on this prestigious body of world leaders. All accept one. That one being the State of Israel. If you don't believe me, check it out.

The reasoning is so outrageous that no matter how many times it's been explained to me, I'm not sure if I even understand it. In order to be eligible to serve on the Security Council a country must be a member of one of the UN's five regional groups. So, technically, in geographical terms, Israel is part of the Asian group; yet, the same way the Arab and Islamic countries have, to this day, denied Israel the right to be a member of the International Red Cross, they have disallowed Israel to become a member of this grouping. As a result, Israel is the only, the only, country that did not have the required affiliation. Wow, do you think that's where they got the idea of not putting Israel on any of the maps produced in the Middle East?

Finally in May of 2000, after how many years, and after intense international campaigns led by the American Jewish Committee, Israel was invited by the Western European and "Others" Group to join their caucus on a ´temporary´ basis. Go explain that! Anyway, since this despicable invitation is only temporary, it was extended on the condition that Israel NOT seek membership on the Security Council. Oh yes, and because of the restrictive terms of this invitation, Israel is still not a member of any regional group in Rome, Vienna, or most importantly Geneva, which is the meeting place of this biased group called the UN Human Rights Commission. That is the place which seems to be the heart of all of those regular ´emergency session´ meetings to hold resolutions against Israel. Despite all the thousands of Israelis being killed and wounded on a regular basis by subhuman homicide bombers, have you noticed an upsurge of meetings against the terrorism against the Jewish State? Have you noticed even one? To date, I don't believe that the United Nations has taken any action to protect Israel from homicide bomb attacks planned and launched from the West Bank. Hey, they've even contributed to the situation by allowing terrorists to build their infrastructure in a United Nations camp in Jenin.

Can any of you understand, other than being a target of blatant anti-Semitism that it is, why Israel, the pillar of democracy in a region of tyrants and dictators, is treated as such a pariah? How is such a situation not only accepted by the world, but also seemingly ignored? Why should this decades-old situation of isolation and restriction of Israel be tolerated? Why should Israel not be extended the same rights that are given to every member state? Probably the same reason that our government continues to refuse to move the Embassy to Jerusalem; and, for that matter, the reason that the International Red Cross will allow the Arabs and their "Lion and Crescent" in this world body while refusing the same to Israel.

Is it any wonder that Israel refuses to have these same anti-Semites serve as peace keepers in the region? Hey, my memory goes back a long way. I still remember when those same folks gave us the "Zionism is Racism" resolution. So, while their buddies bomb out airports and the Los Angeles Times runs columns about how the "Palestinians in Gaza Have Roadblock Rage" and describe ad nausea the "endless waits at check points," I'll just concern myself with the feelings of the Jews. I know, it's not politically correct, but then again, I never gave much of a fiddly-squat about that anyway.

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Transfer! Get Used To It!

In 1929 the Arabs rampaged through Hebron on a killing spree that managed to almost wipe out the then-Jewish population. Now, their grandchildren and great-grandchildren have attempted a similar act with their recent massacre in Hebron. These vermin imbibe hatred, beginning with their mother's milk and then in the Palestinian [Arab] Authority-directed educational system -- a system which builds on their hatred of the "Zionist" dream, and glorifies the complete and utter destruction of The Jewish State.

I have no doubt that even before the victims' bodies have grown cold there will be righteous indignation in editorials in both the U.S. and Israel. Protesters will twist the facts into how the "settlers" are endangering the civilian population of Israel. I couldn't help but compare this "rationalistic labeling" technique with that of the California Coastal Commission. At a recent meeting with my neighborhood, they had a problem using the word "tree." Every time they had to refer to the fifty-year old palms they were cutting down, the code word was "encroachment."

The same technique is applied with the word "settlers." When they are spoken about it's like they are some endangered species whom the Israelis are trying to save from extermination. The 450 "settlers" who are living in that hallowed city of Hebron are, to the Jewish people, the same people, and people who speak the same language and practice the same religion and are the same nationality as their brothers in greater Israel. There is no special "settler land� or settlements. The Jews in Hebron are civilians who are living on property owned by Jews for centuries. It had been stolen by Arabs, and the fact that these people were not allowed to return to their homes earlier does not negate the legitimacy of their claims to the land.

Over twenty years ago I traveled to Hebron as a journalist. I went to report on the bravery of the few who had barricaded themselves in. They were to grow to almost five hundred people. I was impressed with their perseverance and the fortitude that they were exerting in their right to live in the homeland of their ancestors. How could there be more hallowed ground than the birthplace of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

Israel is a Jewish homeland. Right? Frankly, I don't give a diddly-squat about the plight of anyone living there other than the Jews. Nobody else seems to care about the rights and blood of the Jewish "settlers," or civilians who are living in Tel Aviv, Hertzelia, Jerusalem, or anywhere else either it seems.

Let there be another 9/11 and you'll see how fast this country's lack of patience with the Moslem community and their complaints of "political correctness" would be. Quite frankly, I would be in total agreement. If our visitors to the United States can't control their terrorist inclinations then we shouldn't let them stay in the country. Interestingly enough, now that we are on the verge of war with Iraq, our news media are relating how our government is "monitoring" the thousands of Iraqis in this country. Moves are underway to send the students back to their homeland. In other words, the U.S. is progressing along the road to "transfer" them back to Iraq. If there is another attack in this country, I'll bet my bippies that our response will be immediate and violent. That's as it should be. However, the same goes for Israel.

Every country has to have the right and responsibility to protect its citizens. Why should there always be a "special" code of ethics for Israel? They have a cancer within their country that unless removed will destroy them. It won't come from the bullets of the Arab police. Although I remember my columns of outrage after Oslo when Peres outfitted the enemy with a gun for every house. No, I believe it will come through the ballots that the Arabs enjoy in this oasis of democracy of the Middle East to decide the leaders of Israel. Their birthrate is tremendous and they will take over the political system. The Trojan horse of Oslo was never the Road to Peace. It was the Road to Hell from its inception. It's time to cut the losses and take back the country!

Little is said about the Jews who fled the Arab countries. Anyone who is familiar with their history knows that there were great Jewish communities in Arab countries. Today there are a minimal number of Jews in those countries. They were driven out and their communities lost forever. They can't go back and claim their property. They have no right of return. Roughly 850,000 Jews were stripped of their property and forced to flee Arab and Moslem lands because of hostility triggered by the formation of the State of Israel.

The idea of being forced by democratic values to house, educate, and give medical care to the Arabs in Israel -- whose one goal is the destruction of their host -- is intolerable! If they hate the Jews as much as they obviously do, then let them leave. Encourage them to leave. Pay them to leave. Maybe even the Arab countries that confiscated the property of their Jewish citizens could move their Palestinian [Arab] brothers into that Jewish property. After all, the Arabs talk about "financial restitution," so let the Jewish land in their countries that the Jews in Israel can never return to be it.

But the Arabs of Israel have a homeland to go to, a Palestinian [Arab] homeland: Jordan.

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Irv Rubin Is Dead

They said he killed himself. Then the news came out that he was brain dead. Today, I heard on the radio that Irv Rubin was in intensive care, but still holding on. They say a lot of things. Frankly, I don't believe a word of it. I knew Irv. He was a friend. I knew his mentality. There is no way in hell he would commit suicide. Nor would he do so in the violent manner with which he was credited. It makes no sense. None. Irv would not have waited until the day before his anticipated court date when there was a chance that he might be acquitted.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the case of Irv Rubin, he is the head of the Jewish Defense League. He took over the reign of the organization from Rabbi Meir Kahane who founded it in the 1960s. I've known both men and their styles were completely different. Kahane walked softly but carried a big stick. He spoke quietly and with passion. You had to strain sometimes to hear what Kahane was saying. Not so with Irv Rubin. Irv was most comfortable with a bullhorn and creating a disturbance. If there was a Nazi and/or skinhead demonstration somewhere, be it Idaho or Germany, Irv would be right in the middle having his own demonstration against it. I remember once when he returned from the city of Cicero, Illinois, where the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) had planned a demonstration. Irv had managed to coordinate both the black and Hispanic gangs who were generally at war with each other. Somehow Irv convinced them both to form a temporary truce in order to fight their common enemy, the KKK. The KKK ended up not doing the demonstration, and I did a television show with Irv about it. He was noisy and disruptive, yet articulate and bright. I like what he does, even thought I didn't always agree with his style.

For the past year, Irv had been incarcerated, and charged with the crime of conspiracy to bomb the King Fahd mosque after 9/11 and the office of a Lebanese American congressman, Rep. Darrell E. Issa. I never believed that Irv could do something so stupid. Nor does he have it in him to plan the blowing up of a building or an individual. I know that he and the FBI had a mutual dislike of each other. Irv's style was too vocal and abrasive for them. I spoke to him on more than one occasion about how he didn't have to go out of his way to make enemies because those in the government were after him anyway. I was right. The mood of the country at the time of his arrest was one of "political correctness." Who better than the JDL to show the "fairness� of the FBI and their methods? In one swoop, an annoyance such as the JDL could be eliminated, and at the same time the country could see how even-handed we are when it comes to the treatment of Arab terrorists.

So when the FBI informants were able to entrap both Irv Rubin and his sidekick, Earl Kruger, they arrested them for planning the bombing and had the tapes to prove it. However, according to Mr. Rubin's attorneys, Irv's voice was only on two of the eleven tapes, and they were vague. I even could see Irv going to the meeting at Jerry's Deli and going along with what the informants were promising to do -- just to see what they had in their minds. Yet I still do not believe that he had any intention of going through with what he was charged.

Most of all, the Irv Rubin I have had on my television show and argued politics with has a good heart and is a good man. There is no way, even, that I would believe that he was guilty of the charges that finally put him away in prison. More so, I cannot believe that the Irv I know would attempt suicide. Especially on the day he was due to appear in court. Someone wanted him dead! A lot of people wanted Irv dead. I'm not accusing an organization like the FBI of gaining from the Jewish Defense League's leader's headlong plunge from a balcony at a federal detention center earlier this week. However, at this point in time, there are too many questions that remain unanswered.

Irv's lawyers, Bryan Altman and Peter Morris, have called for an investigation into what happened at the federal detention center where he fell, or was pushed. They are asking for an independent investigation into the circumstances, and rightly so. To have the prison officials or the FBI looking into the matter is the same as having the Nazi Gestapo checking out the concentration camp and giving it a clean bill of health. They are not impartial, and what is needed now is an unbiased authority.

If, according to the prison, there were at least fifteen guards who gave testimony that Irv slashed his throat with a disposable razor and then dove over 18 feet over a railing, why are there no videos to back them up? Those places have videos running every ten feet. In fact, why are there no tapes available that might have captured anything that happened prior to his attempted "suicide?" Why is that?

I also know that Irv took his "Jewish-ness" seriously, and suicide is against the religion that he practiced. Also, he loved his family and wouldn't have considered doing anything without leaving a note at least. He was just too close to his boys to do something that would destroy them in such a manner.

The verdict is still out. The truth is still not evident. And ... neither is Irv. He's been in a coma and I pray that he'll come out of it. I found it interesting how a year ago, when I opened the Los Angeles Times and read about his arrest, there was another article about him on the religion page. It seems his case concerning the separation of church and state when it came to prayer in the LA county schools had come to trial, and Irv Rubin won. Irv is a fighter. I hope the outcome of this tragedy will come out in his favor. We need fighters in our corner to keep the rest of us straight.

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The Deer in the Headlights

For G-d's sake, how much longer must the State of Israel appear like a deer in the headlights? How many more empty houses must be bombed, until the message comes through that more -- much more -- is needed? The only thing the barbarians responsible for terrorism need to understand is that they will be severely punished if they even think of causing the wanton damage that they continue to now. Like puppets, President George Bush and his sidekick, Colin Powell, speak repeatedly about the "peace process." Tell me, is that anything like making kosher sausage? Because, folks, there ain't no such thing as the "peace process." While the citizens of Israel are being slaughtered, Colin Powell urges President Bush to give the Palestinians a �light at the end of the tunnel� by giving them their own �interim� or �provisional� Palestinian [Arab] state. While they are busy glazing over this light, Bush somehow neglected to describe the tunnel itself. What does the roadmap in his vision look like? Does it involve understanding the mentality of the roach that sneaks into a college student union and plants a bomb?

There is no limit to Arab terrorist depravity. So, excuse me if I don't try to understand the depth of their anger. I'm still trying to deal with mine. After the horrific bombing at Hebrew University, suspicion arose that the bomb may have been planted with the help of someone from within the school. What I want to know is why those that could be terrorists are working inside a Jewish university. Hadassah hospital has always prided itself on treating Arabs from the Palestinian [Arab] Authority within its walls. Well, it's time to change. Let them work and live amongst their own.

While the Palestinians, most of Europe, and much of the press accuse Israel of being part of a �cycle of violence,� there are some who know that terrorism and cold-blooded murder of civilians cannot be mentioned in the same breath as defense. Arab terrorist murderers are not prosecuted or pursued by their own, ever. No one from the United Nations or the surrounding Arab states offer condemnation. Tell me: Who would be the group with which the Europeans suggest Israel make this elusive peace? Who in the PLO shall share in the "family of nations?" The PLO and its satellites have made clear that the goal of the Arab world is the complete and utter destruction of the State of Israel. Hamas leader Abdulaziz Rantisi said in an interview, �We are sorry for the non-Zionist victims � but they were in a place where they should not have been. Everybody knows there is a war going on here and they should not be in a war zone.�

Does President Bush have any idea of the Middle Eastern mentality when he goes on television talking about his fury, while in the same breath talking about how there are a few fanatics who don't want to see the peace process succeed? No, there is an entire Moslem culture that wants to see the demise of the Jewish State. Peace or the strip of land isn't really the issue. It's that the state they want to build is to be from the ruins of the Jewish state. With that in mind, I suggest that for every bombing the PLO succeeds in carrying out, Israel should recapture and immediately annex ten percent of the land that they have given to the PA. Give the residents a certain deadline and then move them out. Bombing terrorist homes isn't enough, unless the terrorist's family is inside them. That will get their attention. Then, they might come to accept that unless the terror stops, they will be collectively dead. Ariel Sharon has to know that the solution is �it's either them or us� that will have to suffer defeat. The answer damn well better be �them.�

Well, folks, for once I agree with the enemy. Israel is in a war, the same as we in the United States are in a war. The enemies' goals couldn't be clearer. In war, bad things happen. Hopefully, to bad people. The time for restraint has long gone. This is not the time for political correctness either. This is the time for defeating the enemy. This is the time for transfer.

All that seems to be happening now is the regular murder of civilians, both Israelis and Americans, and their defenses. Personally, I've always thought that the best defense is a good offense. There is no such thing as a political situation, just like the U.S. didn't go in to Afghanistan and negotiate with bin Laden. The Palestinian [Arab] murderers in Israel couldn't even comprehend that anyway. They have to be neutralized and moved out. Period. Until those barbarians know that the response to their terror is quick and overwhelming, Israel will be forced to remain the deer in the headlights. I'm tired of hearing about peace. You can't have peace with the barbarians of Hamas. These monsters have a terror mentality that unfortunately represents the bulk of the people living in the region. I don't want to hear commentators speak the line: �Of course the Israelis have a right to defend themselves, but��

For years, I've been writing about the psychology behind land for peace. There is no such thing as land for peace; there is maybe piece for pieces, if they continue to chop the Jewish State like salami. Nor does it help when Bush is filmed saying, �The Israeli occupation that began in 1967 will be ended with Israeli withdrawal to secure and recognized borders.� Which makes me wonder: Does that mean that the hundreds of thousands of Jews that are living there, will have to pack up and move out of their ancestral land? So, if no one sees a problem with moving out all the Jews that are living there, then is it okay to move all the Arabs from Israel proper into these new Arab lands, which would be devoid of Jews? While the world becomes hysterical over the "illegal settlements," there are over 244 Moslem settlements, which are 100 more than the publicized Israeli ones. They are on Jewish land which has been taken over by Arabs, some of whom have been trucked in from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other third world countries. Meanwhile, they give interviews on CNN about �Palestinian heritage.�

Yeah right. Tell us more lies.

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Transfer? It's Time!

I'm too young to be a political pundit, but the fact is that for more years than I care to remember, the thought of transfer -- the forced movement of the Arab population of Israel, Judea, and Samaria to Arab countries -- has been criticized as irrational, immoral, and impossible to implement. However, after the past two years of living through the horror of sometimes-daily terror attacks, almost fifty percent of the Israeli public supports transfer.

Despite that fact, the only party advocating it in the Knesset is Moledet, and with only one representative in the Knesset, they are continuously held back by the political system. Since transfer has gained so much support among the Israeli public it is unconscionable that the politicians do not reflect that position. Unfortunately, the people's voice is drowned out by the Israeli political system, which so far refuses to accept the idea, though it would eliminate the Arab demographic threat to Israel.

I remember having long dialogues with Rabbi Meir Kahane twenty-five years ago. At that time he prophesied to me, �At the rate that the Arabs are populating the Jewish state, they won't beat us with bullets. No, they'll beat us with ballots. Who but the Jews would put the enemy in power to vote them out? The average Israeli will have two children while the Arabs have a dozen.�

Today it is easier to see that the transfer Kahane advocated would solve that problem immediately, and the Jewish state would no longer have to concern itself with the Arab population doubling itself every sixteen years. At this point in time, the 22 Arab states have 289 million people and their numbers are soaring worldwide daily. By the year 2020 they will be 410 to 459 million strong. Even now, they are growing up violent and illiterate and taking over much of Europe. Today, many European countries are finding their cultures changing with churches disappearing and mosques being built in their places.

Do you really think that the Arabs who walked away from 97% of everything on their "wish list," in the misplaced leadership of Ehud Barak, would be satisfied with the land they've received from Gaza, Judea and Samaria? Puh-lease. The present day Arab considers the entire state of Israel as "historically Palestinian [Arab].�

It's interesting that the world sees nothing wrong, though, with uprooting over a quarter of a million people from lands that they have been residing in for over thirty years. Where do they think the Jews living in the "settlements" come from? Did they drop out of a pineapple tree? What about making it possible to have all the Jewish residents of Israel who were chased out of the Arab world "return" to claim their property, or at the very least, be compensated? If the despots in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, or any of the surrounding Arabs states had not wanted to create and exacerbate the Palestinian [Arab] refugee problem in their attempts to destroy the Jewish state, they would have been resettled with their Arab brothers fifty years ago.

Knowing the Jewish mentality as I do, I am confident that Israel would be the first one to assist in building a Palestinian [Arab] state on Arab land, helping their neighbors in terms of agriculture, finance, industry, and trade, and all the other trappings of statehood. If the situation were reversed, the Arabs wouldn't be happy until every Jew was dead and all of their historical sites renamed after Mohammed.

Despite claims to the contrary by virtually all of the Arab states, the religious and historical tie of the Jews to their land is basic to their history. Unfortunately, too many have lost their roots and are uncaring or unaware of the actual "rights" to the land. Arafat and his ilk have been spouting the Big Lie for so long that there has to be an educational campaign to remind the world, and even the Israelis, of their ownership and birthright.

Hey, I don't blame the "Palestinian" Arabs for wanting to leave the oppression they suffer by their own people and move to a place that offers a life they have never had nor could ever have. A recent UN report cited that out of the seven major regions of the world, it's the Arab region that has the lowest freedom score. They are at the bottom of the barrel in political rights, civil liberties, and press and religious freedom. There is no government accountability. Most of the women and a large chunk of the male population are totally illiterate. Good L-rd, the whole Arab world translates only about three hundred books annually, and their Internet connectivity is just about nil. Maybe a couple of generations of learning about freedom and democracy, a few generations learning to give up the anti-Jewish hate that they've spent the past fifty-four years acquiring and ten years perfecting, will help them dig out of the hole in which they now find themselves.

That could make a difference. Meanwhile, the answer isn't in opening the floodgates and setting up statehood for the enemy within the confines of the Jewish state. Sure, the logistics of transfer are difficult. However, it's been done within their own communities many times. That's the way the Palestinians got there in the first place, when their brothers in Jordan expelled them. I believe that Israel is in a fight for its life, a battle it can't afford to lose.

Transfer can be done gradually. Each time Hamas or any other of the state sponsored terrorist groups attack, announcing they will �Kill all of the Jews,� each time a terrorist bombs a restaurant, disco, or school, Israel should announce they will annex ten percent of the land they have previously handed over ... and then do it!

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Hollywood!

So much talent! So many causes! Seldom does a day go by that I'm not invited as a press member to some benefit raising money for abused children, battered women, and even some to save the whales�or ferrets.

So it got me thinking when PR maven Edward Lozzi, called me recently about an upcoming project that he's working on; the victims of Arab terrorism in Israel. I told him he was dreaming when he said, �They hope to get the names like Spielberg and Streisand to head the committee to bring the children in from Israel who have been blinded, maimed and orphaned by the Palestinian [Arab] intifada .� Yeah, right. Have you noticed how deafening the sounds are from the �movers and shakers' in Hollywood when it comes to helping Israel. Their silence is shameful.

I don't know why they think the pain and suffering of their fellow Jews in Israel is any less compelling than the homeless in Watts or the soup kitchens in the Latino neighborhoods. Maybe the gilded and guarded lives of the celebrities in Hollywood keep them blissfully unaware of the need for them to be vocal in the matters of the Jewish issues. Quite possibly, they are so intermarried and assimilated that they've lost their Jewish identity and relate more to vegetarianism and anti-smoking. I doubt if many of the Power Brokers in Belle Air or Hollywood's Jewish households are even aware of their heritage. Has anyone ever told them that Israel is presently fighting for it's very existence? Maybe they would care if they thought that Israel was the underdog. For some reason, that's whom they feel they always have to promote regardless whether it's deserved or not. I don't know. Has anyone told them that while the victims of the horror of 9/11 have been compensated to the tune of many millions of dollars, those in Israel received nothing? Would they care?

I know I've probably been guilty of not pushing more. I've had Ed Asner on my celebrity television show and was so in awe of the man that, even knowing his influence and intellect, I didn't call him on leftist attitudes that I knew he espouses. Instead, I played it safe, and kept the conversation general, and we spoke about show business. I should have asked him why the power people like him weren't leading the Pro Israel demonstrations the same way that they constantly do for groups such as the NRA, ACLU, or various unions.

So many of them defend the leftist tyrannies. Barbara Streisand recently headed a massive �A� list bash in Hollywood for the Democratic party. Yet, I've never seen any of the same names, of which many are Jewish, on events supporting Israeli causes. Is it too �politically incorrect' to carry a banner for Israel? Truly, I've attended many rallies for Israel both in the Los Angeles area and NYC and don't remember any stars participating in any of them. Why not? Are maimed Jewish children from Israel not as important as deprived black children in Watts?

There seems to be no lack of non-Jewish causes with which they choose to be come involved. The wings of Los Angeles hospitals are certainly covered with their famous names. What dismays me even more than their lack of involvement is how easily some of these prominent "stars" such as Richard Dreyfuss and Woody Allen join the ranks of the "self-haters," and go all out to "punish" Israel for any successes they have defending their country.

Recently I received email from a man of the caliber of Theo Bikel, whom I had long considered a dear friend, telling me (regarding a column I wrote advocating transfer): "Your views are abhorrent to me as I know they are to most Israelis. Also, regardless of what you state in your pseudo-journalistic ratings, what you write are not articles, they are rabble-rousing pamphlets." He continued, "You may want to sink to the level of our enemies, to become as low, as cruel, and hate-filled as they, but don't subject me to your political analyses." This thinking, in my opinion, goes out of its way to defend the enemy. Yet where are they when it's time to pick up the pieces?

Columnist Dennis Prager made a good point when he said in a recent piece: �Moreover, the silence on Israel of Hollywood's most prominent Jews enables the non-Jewish stars to remain silent. If the Jews don't care about Israel, why should they?�

Hey, most of them don't even care about staying Jewish. The 1990 study found that the intermarriage rate between Jews and non-Jews was 52 percent. It's probably even more so on the West Coast. Along with the shrinking Jewish population, so goes the religious, social, and political strength. The Arabs know that and have made thorough use of their enormous numbers in Europe to create a climate of hate. Where are the organized protests against that? I would love to see Barbra out there shouting, �No More Evian!�

It was interesting to note that several months ago, when the first group of survivors from the Arab terrorist bombs were flown over to Los Angeles for two weeks of R&R, the response was terrific from the community. Yet the biggest supporter of them was none other than a non-Jew, John Voight. So sad. So typically Hollywood.

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White trash ... with money

I'm too young to be a political pundit, but then again, I'm too young for a lot of things. One thing that's still pretty good is my memory. I should have been born Italian, because I don't forget. I may forgive, but I don't forget. That's why, folks, I want to share with you my longtime thoughts on CNN's pride of anti-Semitism, Ted Turner.

Our paths had crossed a few times earlier when he was dating a friend of mine in our hometown of Atlanta. That experience I'll save for my upcoming book, "Secrets," about my celebrity talk show (WOW! It's Arlene Peck). But let me tell you about his purchase of the original CNN headquarters.

The year was about 1980. Turner was buying CNN and looking for a location. He ended up buying some property belonging to a club that my father was a charter member of. This was in the days when there was a Jewish country club in Atlanta. Actually there were three. They were established because the Southern WASPs didn't allow Jewish membership into their clubs. So, the Atlanta Jewish community (including my father) said, "To h-ll with them."

My father, like many of the others who built those country clubs, had returned from the Second World War. For lack of a place where they could go to socialize, they decided to build their own bigger and better-scale club. My dad became one of the charter members. The predominant style was antebellum, with big chandeliers, ballrooms, swimming pools, and tennis courts. It was glorious. There were even gambling and card rooms downstairs which the women were prohibited from. They were, however, allowed to use the slot machine room.

The custodian who answered the phone and brought the drinks and food to the men made a fortune. When the wives would call up and ask if their husbands were there, he'd loudly exclaim, "Lawd no, Ma'am. Your husband don't come down here." Then the husband would tip him $50 bucks. Rumor had it that he invested all of those $50 into real estate, and ended up owning more than many of the members.

They called it the Progressive Club, which later became the first location for CNN -- the same headquarters that Ted Turner bought and picked out. I even received a bit of cash out of the deal, as I held original stock that was sold to Turner. I remember going over there once after he had taken control. It was very sad. The rooms with their palatial ceilings and crystal chandeliers were now his offices. The large, gorgeous ballrooms now had desks, and didn't look elegant anymore. Neither did the three large swimming pools, which were now used to house the satellite dishes.

What was ironic was the fact that clubs like that had to be built because the Ted Turners of the time wouldn't let us into theirs. I know the mentality of men like him. Having grown up in the South, I recognize the good ol' boys who grow up to be the David Dukes or Ted Turners. They partied at their WASP-y fraternity houses, and went on later to play golf at their restricted country clubs. Their "quota" systems -- which I grew up under in the South during that time -- let over-indulged "C" students like Turner to take the place of an "A" Jewish student because they were over their 3% of Jewish students -- which is all that Atlanta allowed at that time.

So it's come to no surprise to me that Turner's been revealed as the racist moron that I've long thought him to be. Albeit a very, very rich one. But with a lack of morality that is without equal. I've always known that he and his ilk have encouraged and promoted anti-Semitism. How is it possible that people were so surprised?

This paragon of pseudo-wisdom has been vocal in his admiration of Fidel Castro. And he's even spoken at universities relating how "brave" he thought the terrorists of 9/11 were. He announced to the world that there were a lot of people living in abject poverty in "those countries" who didn't have any hope for a better life. As though that somehow justified the Twin Tower attack.

Hey, Ted Turner is on record for a lot of things. He's even on record as saying how he thinks that the Israeli government is involved in terrorism. Furthermore, he makes sure that his journalists covering the Middle East not only share his thoughts but also, when in doubt, create the news.

So folks, you wonder what makes a man like Turner give the perception that he's promoting terrorism. Frankly I wasn't even surprised when the news revealed that he owes his soul to some sheik, and that ten percent of CNN is Saudi controlled. The obvious bias of CNN, and all those times I saw them overlook the obvious in their reporting, makes a lot more sense now.

Turner's still the same good ol' boy that I remember. Or was that "white trash" with money. Lots and lots of it!

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I love New York

Let me say that again: I love New York. What a difference a few years make. When and if Rudy Giuliani runs for president, he has my vote.

Recently I traveled to the Big Apple for the first time in years, and what a difference. I scoured the city and thoroughly enjoyed my time spent there. Living in Los Angeles is great. However, everyone's in showbiz and it's an early town. The streets fold up at 9pm. I New York City. I felt the same energy that I used to in Tel Aviv (pre-intifada), where people don't even go out until after midnight.

I even caught a bus to Ground Zero, and it's everything that I had been told. You really have to be there to experience the magnitude of what those terrorists did to us on 9/11. Now most of the rubble is gone, yet the remnants of the terror of that day will never go away. While standing along the wall of names and memorabilia, a hush came over the crowd. Suddenly the effect of the constant drone of the jackhammers and construction seemed muted. There is the feeling that one has entered a place of reverence, like Yad Vashem. Whatever else is happening outside is ignored.

Every day I walked miles to and from my hotel, the Warwick. It is a lovely, smaller hotel, that brought back a flood of memories. I remembered my mother and m staying there when I was a child. It is located in the heart of the West Side. I not only walked all over the area, but felt totally safe � which for a woman traveling alone is important. Gone was the trash I remembered; the streets were spotless. Most importantly, the edge of danger is gone. Even the New Yorkers seemed nice. Maybe the trauma they've experienced has mellowed them. Whatever the case, people couldn't have been more helpful.

The press coverage in New York when it comes to Israel hasn't changed. While in New York, I walked in the Israel Parade, where a million people came to support the state of Israel. I wasn't surprised, however, to see that The New York Times reported it as several hundred thousand. They also managed to place a picture on their front page showing one of the few Arabs who was there protesting, holding a sign that read "Stop Israeli Occupation!" I was in the middle of this love-fest for Israel, and had to watch the hate spewing from the couple hundred Arabs and anti-Semites shouting to anyone who would listen to their anti-Israel slogans. It took every bit of dignity I had not to shout back, "You scum! Where were you on 9/11? Dancing in the streets?"

W hile staying more recently in New York at the Barclay Hotel, I went back to the Warwick and checked the amenities in the bathroom. Once again, all the products were French-made. The same goes for the refrigerator in the room: it was filled with Evian water, French wine, and so on. I immediately contacted Raymond Slavin, who is the head of PR for the Warwick. I brought it to his attention that since the French are rampaging against the Jews in that country, burning synagogues, desecrating Jewish cemeteries, and beating up school children, then why is the hotel buying their products?

Mr. Slavin was very responsive and promised to bring my request personally to the higher management of the Warwick. Think of how effective it would be if all of us who travel would bring it to the attention of the hotel we are staying at. Why does it have to be Evian? There are plenty of American bottled waters they could buy. As far as toiletries, I much prefer Dead Sea products anyway.

It is frustrating to be so far away from Israel during this crisis. Voicing our opinion is one thing we can do to help.

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The Priest, the Journalist, and the Outrageous Redhead

Did you ever hear the one about the priest, the journalist, and the outrageous redhead? If not, let me tell you about the recent episodes that I was lucky enough to tape for my Los Angeles television show (WOW! It's Arlene Peck, which has been airing for the past eleven years on Monday nights on all of the cable stations). Father Keith Roderick and fellow Jewsweek journalist and author, Avi Davis, were guests on two of my shows. Avi and I contribute to many of the same newspapers, and he is a frequent guest on FOX, CNN, and many national radio shows. The focus of my show, however, was to be different.

Father Roderick represents a large coalition of Christian and many other organizations. He has been traveling the country getting the word out that jihad isn't only against the Jews. Father Roderick's web site is Dhimmi . The organization Stand With Us is sponsoring him, and working full speed to get the information out wherever they can that the danger of the Moslems' takeover and desecration of Jewish sites and towns is only part of the big plan.

Father Roderick lectures around the world, admonishing listeners about how these radical Islamists have been moving at an alarming rate to desecrate all non-Islamic holy sites, and removing Christianity from everything with which they come in contact. Out of the thirty conflicts that are going on in the world right now, twenty-eight of them involve Moslems. The loss of Christians wherever they have converged has been both swift and brutal, and, unfortunately, successful. The list of virtually empty towns which once held large Christian populations continues to grow. Large blocks of these people have fled, having been bullied out of their cities by Arab terrorism. The terrorist actions have turned the world upside down.

Folks, it's not only the good Christians who should be supporting Israel in their fight against terrorism by the "Palestinians" (Arabs), but the entire world. Israel is the canary in the coalmine of rationality and modern living. If these monsters are not stopped at the pass, then they will be well on their way. When jihad mentality is allowed to run its course, it usually runs over everybody. How long before they achieve their goals of global domination and worldwide forced Islamic conversion? Time is on their side, and the goal of the jihadist is to wear us down. War is exhausting, yet their mentality is so primitive that the needed change in their ideology will take generations. In the meantime, according to Father Keith Broderick, "We need to form coalitions, realizing that we have a common need to protect ourselves, and to protect tolerance and a sense of equality."

Thank G-d the good Father has the sense to realize that democracy -- not the sliver of land that is Israel -- is the real issue. He also feels strongly, as all of us should, that the Saudis have somehow been given a free pass, when they are in fact a large part of the problem. They must be made to shut off the faucet of hate.

Avi Davis, author of the soon-to-be-released book Israel, Arabs, and the West Bank Dilemma, spoke on my show about how these radical Islamists strive to undermine the Judeo-Christian values upon which our nations were founded. Jihadists impress upon their members the mentality of falsehood that minority groups like Christian and Jews -- who are every bit as indigenous to the area (if not more so) than the Moslems -- are intruders. As a result, Moslems are culturally annihilating these minorities and tearing down their holy places at an alarming rate. Since 1990, the Christian population has decreased in the Middle East from 20% to less than 7%. Have Christians noticed that in the Sudan two million of their own have been killed since the 1980s, as part of the National Islamic Front regime's campaign to "Islamicize" black southern African Christians and Animists? And the list goes on.

I find it amazing how the Saudi leader, who has been welcomed and chauffeured around on a golf cart on our President's Texas ranch, is praised as a moderate. Folks, the Saudis are the bankrollers of the terrorists and should be held accountable. It couldn't be more obvious that the jihadists get their orders from the Saudis, and have kept the "Palestinians" (Arabs) in those wretched camps for the sole purpose of using them as human bombs against Israel. Meanwhile our tax dollars pay the bulk of the expenses supporting these camps. I won't even mention the billions that the "Palestinian" (Arab) leaders are pulling out of the banks, or the five million dollars that Arafat recently sent to his wife as mad money in France. Who paid for that on his "chairman" salary?

I totally agree with my fellow journalists and talk show guests. The stakes are much higher in the world today. We must make it clear to our representatives in Washington that this is an ideological war and should be treated as such. I know who the enemy is. Do you?

They channel all of their resources into hate and violence. We have the power to stop them. The Christians who are supporting Israel have read their Bible well. I wonder if enough of them know that 77% of Arabic-speaking Americans are Christian, while only 23% are Moslem. Why are the Christians letting these radical Islamic terrorists speak for them? Are they so blind that they refuse to notice that their leaders have yet to condemn the horrific actions taken on 9/11? They know what will happen to them, to all of us, if Israel is left to stand alone.

Like I said, Israel is the canary in the coalmine.

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Beyond Grief: The Attack on Hebrew University

It's beyond grief, or even rationality. I'm beginning to sound like a nut when I attack well-meaning strangers about the murders carried out by sub-human terrorist monsters. How does one even comprehend the lack of soul in a person who can dance in the street and pass out candies to celebrate the murder of students at Hebrew University?

Unless one is totally dense -- blinded by anti-Semitism -- the real goal of the "Palestinians" (Arabs) couldn't be more obvious. Watching those murderous people dancing in the streets and laughing about the deaths of the students has got to dispel any lingering doubts that any Leftist might have had. The Arabs don't want anything that resembles peace. They want their Palestinian state to be built on the ruins of The Jewish State.

Truly, it's beyond comprehension that Hamas gives press conferences after the carnage at Hebrew University to say that the Jews should leave Israel and �return to where they came from.� These people are so primitive and brainwashed that they are never told that Jews not only have the deed to the land, but also have been living in Israel for thousands of years. It wouldn't matter anyway. Their minds are not only poisoned with evil, but their culture is still in the ninth century.

The only thing that they understand is power. America wouldn't sit down with bin Laden and negotiate with him; the U.S. would destroy him. These homicidal murderers have to know that their killing machines will, inevitably, not be able to operate. Political solutions are out of the question, as the Arabs have never kept their word in any agreement that they've signed. For them it's give an inch and demand a mile.

Recently I had the chance to discuss this situation with Dr. Daniel Pipes , who not only agreed with this line of thought but said that a framework for any peace could come only after the "Palestinians" (Arabs) had been defeated militarily. I'll go even further: the Arabs have gone on record stating that their only goal is to eliminate Israel. If they did so, and perchance any of the Jews remained in the region, then they could survive only under the authority of the Islamic empire.

In fact, folks, the Arab empire strives for the same goal for the entire world.

Israel is a thorn in their side, because they can't allow a democracy to thrive in their midst. Negotiation is not the answer. Transfer is a solution that has got to be given more thought than it has ever been given before. The Arab "Palestinians" are a cancer within the country; their sole purpose is the death of the Jews. This is unacceptable. Cancers must be cut out.

The people of Israel cannot be forced to live every day waiting for the other shoe to drop. Nor can they live playing Russian roulette every day to see where the next bomb will fall. The PLO had their chance for a Palestinian state two years ago, but walked away from it because it wasn't enough. They wanted Israel. They want world domination. We in the United States are fighting this, and Israel can do no less.

The Palestinians' Arab brothers have one hundred times the land that the PLO is fighting for. The Land of Israel is not nor has it ever been their country, as they have claimed.

As I have written before, Israel is a test case. If each new scene of atrocity is allowed to pass, then the murderers will become more extreme in their evil madness. Their Arab brothers have trained the PLO Arabs in barbarism, and now they are reaping the fruit of their efforts. These robots who parade and dance in the streets at each new bombing do not, cannot, live in harmony with the twenty-first century.

Transfers have been done in the region before. A large chunk of the Jewish population who reside in Israel today have their roots in one of the surrounding twenty-two Arab countries. They were pushed out of those Arab countries and, thank G-d, these Jews had Israel to flee to, usually with just the clothes on their backs. Today, very few Jews reside in the surrounding Arab countries. In Saudi Arabia, Jews are simply not allowed to exist. That precedent is what should be the guide to moving the Arabs out of the Jewish state.

The Arab states have trained the "Palestinians," armed them, and brainwashed them. Now it's time to take them. Time is of the essence. Enough blowing up empty houses.

With the mindset the PLO Arabs have, I doubt if they use their universities for anything other than bomb making. I wonder how they would react if a military plane or two bombed their institutes of higher learning?

How about Israel making the announcement that for every bomb that is detonated against our citizens, we intend to take back ten percent of our country. And then, do it! Annex the place and move the PLO Arabs out!

I knew Rabbi Meir Kahane years ago, and he was considered a radical nut when he spoke of buying Arab villages and moving the Arabs out. Still feel that way?

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Like Father, Like Son

I don't really care anymore what "world opinion" says.

Restraint? Sure. Israel should show the same restraint towards the "poor Palestinians" as the United States is showing each day when United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld goes on CNN and announces how many terrorists American forces have killed in Afghanistan while we were safe in our homes.

When Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was busy bombing something other than empty buildings, the Security Council of the United Nations immediately rushed to endorse a Palestinian state for the first time, supporting a U.S. measure. Oh yes, and that fair-minded head of this biased organization, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, called on the Jewish state to end its "illegal occupation" of "Palestinian" land, and halt "the bombing of civilian areas, the assassinations, the unnecessary use of lethal force, the demolitions, and the daily humiliation of ordinary Palestinians." Golly gee, that very same description could be applied to Afghanistan, and the United States might be facing the same condemnation. And let's not forget that this other bastion of peaceful coexistence who naturally deserves a place on the Security Council, Syria, was the sole veto to the resolution. Why? Because it just didn't go far enough.

Isn't it lovely how the states on the Security Council have all decided that Israel has a right to exist? Should we all be grateful at this point?

The pro-PLO Los Angeles Times reporter Tracy Wilkerson made her usual plea for the Palestinians, while filling half a page with a description of how the poor "residents of this camp that has produced suicide bombers and shooters were seething at the destruction wrought by the Israeli incursion." Funny how in all of her anti-Semitic columns she regularly deplores how "soldiers order families who live in apartments above the factories (terrorist bomb plants) to evacuate before the explosions, but give them no time to collect any belongings or clothing." Well, my goodness. Did anyone ever tell those families that if you choose to live among and within a bomb factory you just might be inconvenienced? I wonder how much time the soulless Arab terrorists gave to the Israeli babies in their strollers before killing them?

The grief and depression of my Israeli friends and family is beyond comprehension. One of them recently told me, "I am terrified even to go to the cleaners and pick up my clothes, because I'm afraid of being bombed. I fear for my child to come home from school. Afraid a sniper might shoot out the windows of their school bus." Yet because of the tendency of the world to cave into Arab oil-backed demands, Israel is once again put into the position of "showing restraint" so that U.S. Vice President Cheney can put together his coalition of terrorists. Has anyone besides me noticed that over the last eighteen months, after Arafat walked away from everything on his "wish list," there have been almost twelve thousand (yes, 12,000) terror attacks against the Jewish State. Look how the United States reacted after only one. (Granted, it was a biggie.)

War is not to be taken casually, but Israel has avoided it for far to long. When the war is won, as were the previous five that have been forced against Israel, then the conquered lands should be annexed. Why not? Would it be a good idea for Mexico to decide to go to the fair-minded group of world leaders at the U.N. and tell them how much they need Texas back? After all, it used to belong to them. Then President George Bush could move out of his hometown in Texas with all the rest of those Texan "invaders and occupiers" and go peaceably to a nearby state, so that he could live side by side in harmony with his good Mexican neighbors. Of course we would all recognize the right of the United States to exist.

Just as America cannot "make nice" to Mexico and give back Texas, so be it for Israel. The land of Israel, furthermore, never belonged to the Arabs, as Texas did once belong to Mexico.

I don't notice any one of those U.N. leaders having a problem with moving a quarter of a million Jews who are living in the Judea, Samaria, and Gaza out of their homes. By the same token, I don't have a problem with moving out those who commit terror and violence against Israel.

The Arabs settlers in the Land of Israel have their own country -- it's called Jordan. That, among other Arab regions, is where they originated. Let them go back. Let them also take their "brothers" who refuse to serve in the Israeli army because they don't want to be involved in "humiliating" the Arabs. Of course, we know that our Arab enemies don't humiliate; they may mutilate and decapitate, but they don't humiliate.

People are Really, Really Nice

By Arlene Peck

I am going change my attitude and adopt a kinder, gentler one. I have concluded that it will take less stress and hostility to view the world in the same way as the benevolent media and all those good kind people who really, really do not like being politically incorrect. Thinking that most of the world just �didn't get it' and were too stupid or corrupt beyond belief was taking its toll on me. I do not handle stress well. I'm a giver.

Why do I say this? Well, for instance, I remember a time not so long ago, when old people could count on getting their Social Security, and the Constitution wasn't under siege by the ACLU and their ilk against anyone with the audacity to mention the name of a higher power. Hell, I even remember when people were not afraid to leave their houses and not lock their doors. You'd send your kids out to play and the rule was, �Be home before dark!�

So, when I thumb through the newspaper and see every page filled with the daily horrors , world-wide ,of daily bombings, beheadings or whatever this �peaceful Muslim culture' has done to destroy our world as we know it, I ponder. I shake my head in absolute wonderment that there are still people "out there" who from now on, I am going to think, are very, very nice and not morons because they can really negotiate with these cretins and make them behave. Yeah, right.

I watched ex-president Jimmy Carter , who never met a terrorist that he did not bond with or an Israeli who he did not think needed his destructive guidance. I reminisce how nice it was during Carter's inauguration when he had the audacity to walk down the main drag in Washington holding his wife's hand while waving to the crowd. Nobody even thought of blowing up the in-coming President of the United State as he strolled down the street. In fact, I do not even recall the word 'terrorism' being a mainstay in our vocabulary at that time.

Has that ever changed! When George W. was being inaugurated, there was more security surrounding him and the entire city of Washington , D.C. than probably the combined forces we now have stationed in Iraq . Does that provoke unfavorable world opinion? Naw, it is just another fact of life that we have all learned to live with since that fateful day on September 11. Folks, that was our wake-up call! Yet, there are too many who have already forgotten the message.

Much of Europe is no more. Paris ? Forget it. The same can be said for Holland , Austria , and Spain, - they are all well on their way to being obsolete as viable nations. Even here, the Arab culture leaves no doubt about the fact that the goal of the Islam is not to live in harmony and join the melting pot of the world or United States . Instead, it has to multiply and terrorize the citizens into submission. The entire Muslim culture is based on submission. Starting with their women who are not treated even as well as their farm animals.

But, hey, with my new attitude, such mundane things like how every waking hour of every day in our culture is being consumed with fighting the hate the Arab world has brought into our lives isn't going to concern me. I am going to be sweet , and instead of thinking evil thoughts about savage barbarians who live to die and drag everyone in their wake along with them, I am going to change my un-PC attitude.

In days past, I did not think that terrorists who shoot babies in their beds and chase them around the schools with rifles deserved nice treatment. Now? I might just go down and rally about how terrorists should be given the protections of the Geneva conventions and other niceties , despite their preponderance for targeting civilians and beheading captives. When my President gives speeches that we are going to open our purses and hearts, I think I felt as the many other taxpayers who are more concerned about 'No child left behind in American schools : I didn't give a diddly-squat whether these cretins were thinking kindly about us. However now, that is all over. From now on, I am going to be happy for the Iraqis who now have such a democratic society even when they blow up the schools that we are building for their children.

Maybe the Leaders could be tested For Dementia ?

Posted by Senior Editor on 2005/2/20 0:34:31

By Arlene Peck

Recently, I wrote a column that I was going to be nice, and more subdued. I lied. I have tried. It is not nice to shout at the television station when I see Nazis like Pat Buchanan ‘debate’ men like Natan Sharansky on Meet the Press and listen to him rant on about the “Settlers” who have caused, by his accounts, everything that is wrong with the Middle East. In addition, as soon as they do the ‘right thing’ and leave the country preferably, there will be peace and tranquility in the world. When does the thought of there being a transfer of the so-called Palestinian Arabs into one of their twenty-two nations instead of the Jews out become a viable issue?

Actually, it looks as though that those that are leading Israel down the Road to Hell, are taking the Ann Frank philosophy of believing that people are really, really nice. Why else would they be announcing to the world that they no longer plan to be mean to the Palestinians and will no longer demolish the family homes of suicide bombers...? (Gee, is that terrorists killer bombers?) Nor, will they harm a hair or piece of property of any other ‘attackers’. How nice! I wonder how soon Sharon is going to set up a fund to rebuild the homes of the terrorists. Unfortunately, according to the L.A Times, gloating in a recent article about Omri Sharon, the son, of the Israeli premier, (who invalidates my theory that Israeli men are the best looking in the world), shattered that theory.  Omri (who obviously never had a date for the prom) is as corrupt as his father. According to the Times he is guity of fraud, perjury and breach of trust in connection with campaign financing. Gee, where did he learn that? When his dad was still a member of the Likud?

After all, the “blood on their hands” theory is getting vague and, lately it seems, anything goes . I even heard a ludicrous rumor that this 'peace-keeper' Abu Mazen, released frozen funds to terror organizations with Hamas at the head of the list. And, could the rumor be true that he's now killing any Palestinian found 'guilty' of fighting terrorism within the Palestinian society?  And, 350 more of these released terrorists are now being trained (take out: to fight) in his  "security" forces to 'fight terrorism." Hey, maybe you believe that I've got some land here in LA I"d like to sell you!

It is not easy staying calm and benevolent when I watch the jails being opened and the streets once again flooded with yet more terrorists. Whose idea was that? I remember when Peres armed 40,000 of these “Palestinians” who were inducted into the PLO “army” and I wrote about they would be used against the Jews before the year was out. I was right, but, hey, it was enough for “Noble Peace Prizes” to be passed out.

The way it’s looking from here, it seems, after the last massive release as though it would be safer for the people in Israel to just lock themselves up in those same prisons to keep themselves away from the cretins who have been released from the Israeli jails.

Hey, but living across the world, what do I know although I did spend five weeks in Beirut in June of 82 and again in 93 and many visits to Israel. I now waste most of my energy complaining about the stupid decisions of my own President. Moreover, probably, had Kerry gotten in, I would have been deploring his lack of leadership just as loudly. So, what can I say about men who from this distance, look as thought they are either lost it, or are being ‘ blackmailed’ by someone to give into their demands?

I am just an American. Actually, I am not even a very religious one. Now, that is something that could probably be seen in the eye of the beholder. Yet, I remember when I was living in Israel and the Israelis would tell me “I’m not religious.” Moreover, I even think that they thought they meant it. Yet, they would always know when the Sabbath was. Most times, the streets would be empty by two o’clock in Friday so everyone would be preparing to travel to their mom’s house for dinner. The flower stores would be doing a brisk business and the challahs in the bakeries were sold out if you did not pick one up early enough. It was unheard of not to light the candles at sundown. Anyway, you get the idea.

What is not very religious to a Jew living in Israel is a lot more than what I see here in Los Angeles. When they say it here, the Jews of Beverly Hills really mean it. Most of the men have already left with blond Barbie Dolls named Whitney or lusting after an Asian girl from Thailand.

Yet, despite all of that, I learned valuable lessons during my twenty-six trips and spans of time when I lived there. No matter what our varied backgrounds, when we spoke of “them’ vs. us” we would be talking about the Muslims who were out to kill everyone in their wake. I remember being on the beach in Tel Aviv during an Independence Day demonstration. A half million of us were watching in awe (take out: at) the planes flying above. That in itself could have been enough, but, it was the unity of standing there, on the beach, along, with the religious, the young soldiers, girls in bikinis, tourists, a Hodge podge of people. However, we all had one thing in common, our Jewishness. And, the pride that we felt in that.

Today, I am confused. When did the word “settler’” become a negative entity? Then, they were the heroes. And, folks, that was not so long ago. What changed everything? I was not religious but, I liked the fact that there was an independent national radio, Arutz-7. I even went on as a guest of a few of the ‘religious stations.” This, in retrospect, even though I am not too religious myself, was a nice experience.

I am pretty much of a novice but what is wrong with Zionism in a Jewish state being high on the agenda? Truly, as someone living in a far away land, fifteen minutes from Beverly Hills , I don’t understand the mentality of not only opening the jails, but, then training 350 of them to become ‘more of those same kind of ‘policemen’ that Peres did, who killed so many thousands of Jews under his misguided and dangerous leadership. Tonight’s news brought the revelation that Israel has now agreed to no longer destroy the homes of the terrorists in their efforts to “make nice” with the new Abbas 'aka what’s his name' leadership.

From this distance, and I’m sure there will be many of you to correct me if I’m wrong, it looks like Sharon has not only lost it but is determined to destroy even the illusion of Israel being a democracy. As a ‘tourist’, I’m just asking, "How is it possible for him to split the country in two with the Jews in ‘my’ Israel being on the verge of a ‘civil war’?"
As inconceivable as it sounds to me, living all the way across the ocean, I’m at a loss why Sharon desires to transfer all the ‘settlers’ property to Arab Muslim Palestinians in addition to supplying them with water, electricity, etc., without getting ANYTHING in return. Am I missing something?

On the other hand, maybe the stupid men who are leading Israel now who are so old that they have forgotten. They no longer remember the chaos that was caused by the Arab Muslim Palestinian ‘workers’ who used their ‘worker’ status to come in and rampage through the cities and murder every innocent Israeli civilian in their wake. As foolish as it sounds, I have even heard rumor that this is next on the agenda. Gawd, why bother to catch them?

Of course, being a columnist myself, I know how little of the real news is actually read by the masses. So, maybe I am mistaken in my perception that Sharon is working as a puppet for Bush, Rice and Blair. Maybe he is just getting himself in line for the Noble Prize. After Suha?

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