The True Untouchable
May 11, 2004
It’s difficult to write – there’s too much to write about. There are three subjects in particular, which are, I believe, related.
As I write this, I’m watching Israel television news. Today’s news have dealt with only one subject: the murder of six Israeli soldiers by Arafat’s killers, this morning, in Gaza. The six, traveling in an Armored Personnel Carrier filled with ammunition, were on their way back to their base, following a night of activities in Zaytun. Together with other Israeli soldiers, they participated in searching for terror factories, producing Kassam missiles and other deadly weapons. Their vehicle passed over a 100 kilo bomb, buried in the street, operated by remote control. The resulting explosion caused a fire ball which could be seen from miles away.
Pieces of the APC, together with the soldiers, were splattered around the area. Within minutes, Arab barbarians began accumulating body parts of the Israeli soldiers, cannibalistically displaying them before cameras, demanding that other terrorists be released from prison in exchange for the ransomed body parts. A short film of the terrorists, pointing to a severed head and demanding the release of terrorists, was shown on Israeli television, Channel One news.
Israeli soldiers, attempting to salvage their comrade’s remains, were attacked by Arab terrorists, surrounding them and shooting at them. Hundreds of troops were brought to the scene to protect their friends-in-arms.
The Israeli Chief of Staff, Lt. General Moshe ‘Bugi’ Yaalon stated during a brief press conference that Israel will not participate in any negotiations with the Arafat-terrorists who perpetrated this war crime.
Radio commentators noted that the IDF chose to send soldiers into the Zaytun neighborhood rather than destroy the weapon’s factories from the air because of the large numbers of civilians who live in the area. In other words, the Arab’s lives are worth more than Israeli lives.
That’s subject number one.
Subject number two:
A few days ago, seven Hebron residents were notified that arms, granted them by the IDF, were to be confiscated. Central Command General Moshe Kalpinsky, signed orders ordering that their weapons be taken from them. This, due to police recommendations that these people might be ‘dangerous.’ One of the men whose weapon is to be taken from him, Tel Rumeida resident Shalom Alkobi, is a member of the Hebron emergency security squad. He carries a weapon wherever he goes, for clear reasons of self-defense. He has a letter from the Prime Minister’s office stating that the Shabak, the Israeli intelligence services, had nothing to do with this decision. In other words, our good friends, the police, are at it again.
In reaction to these military orders, the resident’s attorney, Naftali Wertzberger, sent a furiously-worded letter to Kaplinsky, writing that the orders are blatantly illegal. A person legally holding a weapon must be granted a special hearing, with the reasons for the confiscation clarified, allowing the person a chance to defend or explain himself. A hearing such as this was never held. In addition, the orders give absolutely no reason for the confiscation.
The Hebron community sent an equally enraged reaction to the General, accusing him of abandoning Hebron’s Jews by ordering that their weapons be taken from them.
Interestingly enough, one of the people to receive a confiscation order was not male, rather a Hebron housewife. Her name is Elisheva Federman. Elisheva is the wife of administrative detainee Noam Federman. When her husband’s weapon was taken from him and he was jailed, the security forces suggested that she be licensed to carry a weapon in order to be able to protect her family, should the need arise. However, a few days ago, the Hebron police deemed Elisheva, mother of seven young children, living without her husband for eight months, too dangerous to have a gun, even at the cost of her life and her children’s lives.
Subject number three:
I’ve saved, perhaps, the best for last. Speaking of Elisheva and Noam Federman. This morning Elisheva had a rare opportunity to see her husband without having to look past the bars of a jail cell. Noam has been in prison for almost eight months, the only Jewish administrative detainee in Israel. He’s not been tried, or convicted. But he’s in jail.
This morning Elisheva met Noam at…. where else, at the Jerusalem Municipal court.
Almost two years ago Noam Federman was jailed, and then placed under house arrest, having been accused of masterminding the infamous “Bat-Ayin” Jewish terrorist ring. Subsequently three men were charged and convicted of trying to blow up an Arab girls school. Two other men were arrested and jailed, but later acquitted of all charges brought against them.
Noam’s accuser was one of those convicted. He named about 50 people who supposedly participated in the plot, but of them, only Noam was arrested. That was, again, almost two years ago, just as the investigation was beginning. (See: Noam Federman presenting the Twilight Zone- http://www.hebron.com/news/noamtwilight.htm)
As a result, Noam was placed under strict house arrest. While trying to legally overturn the house-arrest orders, the Israeli intelligence services had Noam jailed as an administrative detainee, thereby, for all intensive purposes, circumventing the courts, who almost always uphold ‘Shabak’ arrests, ‘for security reasons.’
This morning, Noam and Elisheva met at the Jerusalem court for another hearing dealing with the Bat Ayin case. Suddenly the prosecutor asked for the judge’s attention and stated that the state was dropping all charges against Noam in the Bat Ayin case for lack of proof. Their one, star witness, started telling different stories, and his instability led them to reconsider their case against Federman.
The surprised judge then asked the next, logical question. “So now Federman can go home?.” The prosecutor quickly jumped up and exclaimed, ‘No, of course not, he’s still an administrative detainee.”
It should be noted, that, according to media accounts, this is Noam Federman’s forty first acquittal.
Speaking later with Elisheva, she told me that the Shabak claims that the Bat Ayin case was only one of the reasons Noam is being held in jail. The other reasons are, of course, secret
Bolshevism, at it’s best, in Israel, 2004.
What can I say? Things here are really mixed up.
Concerning subject number one: about the six soldiers massacred this morning in Gaza, only to have their remains stolen by their killers – if the news media had made as big a deal of the Tali Hatual family killings a week ago as they are today twith the soldiers, maybe the soldiers would still be alive. Maybe the government would have allowed the IDF to unleash it full fury, thereby preventing today’s bloodshed. But no, after all, Tali and her four murdered children were only civilians, residents of Gush Katif. They opposed Sharon’s disengagement plan, almost making them ‘enemies of the people.’
Concerning subjects two and three: the weapons and the Federmans: In reality, they are nothing more than a continuation of subject number one. The Arab’s lives are worth more than Jewish lives – it’s preferable to attend Israeli soldier’s funerals rather than wipe out terrorist nests from the air, even at the cost of ‘innocent’ Arab lives. So too, it makes no difference if Jews have weapons to protect themselves or not. We can be jailed without due process of law and abandoned to the will of the same barbarians who steal dead human remains.
Clearly, according to the lexicon of the current Prime Minister (and some of those who preceded him) settlers are distinctly lower class citizens, similar to the Hindu untouchables.
As untouchable as Ariel Sharon may think we are, in the end, it is he who will be remembered as a cast out, an historic relic, whose infamy will rival that of such villains as Josephus Flavious, and others of his caste. He will be remembered as the true untouchable.