[Peace-discuss] Fwd: "They have decided upon cold-blooded murder"

Fri Sep 12 11:12:18 CDT 2003

>From: otherisr at actcom.co.il
>Subject: "They have decided upon cold-blooded murder"
>Reply-To: Adam & Beate <otherisr at actcom.co.il>
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>Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2003 18:41:46 +0200
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>GUSH SHALOM  pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 www.gush-shalom.org
>
>Press Release
>Sept. 6, 2003
>
>Ú·¯È™ ·ý™¯
>www.gush-shalom.org
>
>=   == =   =  == = =   == =   =  == = =   == =   =  == = =
>"They have decided upon cold-blooded murder"
>=   == =   =  == = =   == =   =  == = =   == =   =  == = =
>
>Gush Shalom press release, 12/9/2003
>
>
>"The government of Israel has tonight resolved to committ a cold-
>blooded murder, with the implementation deferred - the cold blooded
>murder of the elected president of the Palestinians. Let there be no
>mistake about it. Let no one be fooled by the talk of 'deportation'. There
>is no intention that Arafat will susrvive the enecounter with Sharon's
>soldiers. I know Sharon, I have followed his career for decades, ever
>since he was a young commando officer carrying out brutal cross-
>border raids. He has not changed in any essential, only in the amount
>of power held in his hands. He means to do it, he means to kill Arafat.
>He will watch for his chance, wait for a moment when the Amercians
>look elsewhere - and then he will pounce." That was the immediate
>response by Uri Avnery, former member of the Israeli Parliament and
>est Member and veteran activist of Gush Shalom (The Israeli Peace
>Bloc).  "The cabinet ministers of the Government of Israel have tonight
>adopted an ominous, criminal decision, whose implementation would
>entail rivers of shed blood - far beyond all the horrors we have already
>seen in the past three years. The effects will spread far beyoond the
>confies of this country - throughout the region and the world. The
>ministers who raised their hands for this infamous resolution will never
>be able to sheke of responsibily for what they have done".
>
>Avnery - spry and energetic, two days after his eightieth birthday had
>been marked at hundreds of political and personal friends packing the
>Tzavta Hall in Tel-Aviv - said these ominous words at the peak of an
>hours-long vigil opposite the gates of the defence minstry in Tel-Aviv,
>the place Sharon had chosen to gather the members of his Inner
>Cabinet. For hours we have been tensely waiting - more than a hundred
>Tel-Avivian activists of Gush Shalom, Ta'ayush and smaller groups,
>among them also the former KM Tamar Gozansli, as well as a similar
>number of Jerusalemites at a simultaneous vigil outside the Prime
>Minster's office - until we heard the cabinet's ominous decision on a
>squeking small transistor radio.
>
>Israeli peace activists seem doomed to spend a disportionate portion of
>their lives on that dismal small parking lot, coming again and again to
>manifest protest at ever more outrageous acts of the government and
>army - but this time was different. This time we had the knowlege that
>in one of the official buildings behind the fence on the other side of the
>street, a small group of men was at that very moment gathered to take
>life-and-death decisions - and we, whose own lives might be directly
>affeted, had no confidence whatsoever in their motives or their
>judgement. This lent an extra eletric quality to the atmosphere, the
>feeling of being actors in in vast tragedy - an extra poignancy to the
>ongoing chanting from young and not-so-young throats: "Sharon, 
>Mofaz and Ya'alon -terrorists in power!" / "All the minsters - are war
>criminals!" / "Down with the occupation!" / "Sharon, Sharon, the Hague
>is waiting for you!" / " Jewish - Arab Brotherhood!" /  "Peace Yes -
>Occuption NO, NO, NO!".
>
>Oveall fluttered a big banner bering a long series of words:
>Liquidation>Suicide Bombing>Liquidation>Suicide
>Bombing>Liquidation>Suicide Bombing>Liquidation>Suicide
>Bombing>Liquidation>Suicide Bombing>Liquidation>Suicide
>Bombing>.....
>
>And now what? The Americans blocked Sharon from sending his
>troops into the Palestinian presidential compound ialready last night -
>as according to some press accounts he planned to do. But how much
>reliance can be placed on the Bush Administaration - which itself
>engaged more than once in adventurous, ill-considered and ill-fated
>decisions? For us, at least, the immediate idea is to organise a visit of
>our own to Arafat's compound - not a visitation  of death and
>destruction such as Sharon is planning, but a visit of solidarity, of belief
>in the peace between this land's two peoples, a peace which is still
>possible and which is more then ever a vital need.
>
>Stay tuned for further developments (for further info call Uri Avnery
>+972-50-306440).
>
>Meanwhile, following is a chilling and inspiring message which we got
>from Yithchak Frankenthal, coordiantor of the Parents' Crircle - a group
>of Israelis and Palestinians who all lost loved ones in the ongoing
>violence, and are dedicated to try and put an end to it.
>
>Date sent:         Wed, 10 Sep 2003 18:07:55 +0200
>From:              Anat <anatl at theparentscircle.com>
>Subject:       	Hillel Cafe
>
>
>It is now 11:59 PM, half an hour after the suicide bombing
>at Hillel Cafe.
>Just the night before, my wife and I and two of our
>friends were sitting at the Cafe until
>around 11:40 PM. The place was packed. I can now hear the
>sirens of the ambulances racing
>through the streets of Jerusalem. I cannot get the images
>out of my head; images of
>severed arms, decapitated heads, people with nails and
>pieces or iron stuck in their
>bodies, broken tables, the cake and sandwich bar shattered
>into thousands of pieces. What
>happened to the sweet waitress who was serving us? What
>happened to the young bus boy? We
>were sitting in the middle of the room; all those people
>came there for a good time and
>were carried out in coffins. Is the high ceiling still in
>place? The glass wall shattered
>into millions of shards, covering body parts and swimming
>in the blood that spilled on the
>floor like water. Shema Israel, hear O Israel, we pray -
>but Israel is not listening. And
>I feel empty inside, asking myself which of my friends and
>neighbors were at the Caf?
>today? I am thinking about the people holding their coffee
>cups when the bomb went off,
>and how they were lucky if the shatters only got in their
>eyes and did not kill them. I
>think of the man biting into his sandwich not knowing that
>this would be his last bite
>ever; about the piles of human bodies flying in the air
>into one another; about the
>severed arm thrust into the young woman still seated at
>her table, but she feels nothing -
>she is either in shock or simply dead. I see how tables
>are blown by the blast, hitting
>the guests, and how in the fireball human flesh mixes with
>freshly-served cheese; and the
>smell, the smell of explosives and burnt human flesh
>blending into one; and the quiet
>after the blast, and the cries of pain and shock, the
>shock that comes after the quiet. I
>think of the victory that the Chief of Staff has announced
>two months ago, saying we have
>beaten the Palestinians, and I my heart weep: how could my
>army chief of staff be such a fool?
>I think of the folly of the politicians who are leading us
>from one catastrophe to the
>next, and I think about how the people keep silent. Has
>everyone forgotten? Adonai
>eloheinu - the Lord is our G-od, not Greater Israel. I
>know the painful truth. The body
>count will continue, because our political leaders are
>petty little people. So full of
>themselves, they are clueless about conflict resolution;
>they slay Palestinians and expect
>them to exercise restraint. These wise men believe that
>the occupation can continue; these
>glorious generals have for there years now been "letting
>the IDF win," as the slogan goes;
>they may be seasoned soldiers, but they are absolutely
>ignorant in conflict resolution.
>They believe that by using terror to counter terror they
>can give us security. They
>believe that they can devastate the infrastructure of
>Palestinian leadership and
>government and at the same time stop militias from
>wreaking chaos. They have for two years
>now been pronouncing Arafat "irrelevant", but what does
>that make of former defense
>minister Binyamin (Fuad) Ben-Eliezer, of former prime
>minister Ehud Barak and of the
>incumbent, Ariel Sharon? Are they any more relevant than
>he? How long will it take us to
>wake up from this ongoing folly? How many more body bags
>will it take? Adonai ehad - G-od
>is the only unshakeable truth, not any political creed.
>The beauty of Israel is slain upon
>the Messianic pipedream - how long shall the petty leaders
>of this nation triumph? It is
>now the morning after, and I have just learned that Dr.
>Appelboim was killed, along with
>his daughter who was to get married tonight. I knew this
>wonderful, special man. My heart
>bleeds for him; it was only two months ago that we had a
>chat and even argued over my
>political views. How painful and despairing it is to see
>more blood being shed in vain.
>The young bride, excited to start a family with her
>betrothed, is forever married in a
>blood wedding to her father. They will lie side by side,
>as the silence of all eternity
>quashes the joyful sounds of the wedding that will never
>be. Shema Israel, yitgadal,
>veyitkadash shem? raba - hear O Israel, exalted and
>sanctified be the name of the great
>Sovereign - these are the words of the Kaddish, the Jewish
>prayer recited over every
>freshly-dug grave. Shame on you, leaders of the nations.
>
>Yitzhak Frankenthal, father of
>Arik, who was killed because there is no peace.
>     
>
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Al Kagan
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