|
|
||
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
Time to repossess! By Reuven Koret February 1, 2002 Earlier this week, a Palestinian ran over a soldier at an army checkpoint on the Green Line, then hightailed into Israel, toward Tel Aviv. At one point he rammed a car in front of him, pulled out the elderly man from behind the driver's seat, and drove off, with the man's wife screaming and banging on the window. He eventually let her out of the car, then drove further into town, where he made the mistake of running over another Israeli, right in front of a police station. Somebody - a cop or a concerned citizen - shot him dead. They thought he was a terrorist. It turns out that he probably was just a panicked car thief, though it remains unclear why he would drive a stolen car into Israel. Usually, Palestinian thieves have the sense to go the other way. This unusual car-theft-cum-terrorist attack, bizarre even by local standards, reminded me of the "good old days" just after the Oslo agreement was signed. Peace was in the air, the doves were singing, and large-scale Israeli-Palestinian cooperative projects were being planned. One of those projects turned out to be car theft. 1994 saw a huge surge in grand theft auto, as Palestinians flooded freely into Israel and, often working with Israeli accomplices (Jews and Arabs), brought back across the porous borders a steady stream of late-model vehicles, for personal use, for resale, for chop shops, and, for the luxury cars at least, shiny limos for VIPs. Those were the days. There weren't many shooting or suicide attacks, not by today's standards, anyway. But how our cars flew across the Green Line! People had their cars ripped off five or six times. They were resigned to it. They laughed about it. There were stories of Israeli negotiating via their hijacked car phones with car thieves to get their vehicles back. It seemed a relatively small price to pay for peace with the Palestinians. Our leaders told us: better cars stolen than people killed. The epidemic continued until the latest round of violence. Now the balance had shifted. Car thefts have been radically reduced since Palestinian attacks caused the army to clamp down on vehicles crossing to and from the West Bank. But the epidemic of car thefts should have taught us something. Stealing cars was done openly, brazenly. The stolen cars were gratefully accepted and, in full knowledge of their source, used proudly by the senior officials in the Palestinian regime. Then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had famously, and it turns out fatuously, bragged that Arafat's Palestinian Authority would take care of Hamas and Jihad because there were no human rights groups or legal constraints to stop him from crushing them. What Israelis should have known, but did not think through, was that a criminal regime, with leaders so corrupt and mendacious, could never be trusted to keep any of their commitments. We were dealing not with a democracy or even an autocracy but with an out-and-out kleptocracy. Arafat was not a freedom fighter or a reformed terrorist. He was a Mafia racketeer. The rest is history. The question now is how Israel should deal with a situation where contrary to signed agreements, there are wildly excessive numbers of Palestinian guns and "policeman," and totally forbidden weapons, missiles, and explosives in the hands of terrorists. Despite Israeli withdrawals from all Palestinian-inhabited cities, the PA has not kept its commitments to fight terror and ensure the safety of Israelis traveling through areas under its control. The Biblical believer knows that the Land of Israel, from the sea to the Jordan River, was given by the Almighty into the hands of the children of Israel to be an "everlasting possession." But even non-believers, who gave our Arab cousins the benefit of the doubt and the territorial high ground, recognize that the land handed over, contrary to all agreements, is being used as a staging ground and a killing ground to attack our cities and our people. The situation is intolerable. Oslo and subsequently agreements were always presented to the Israeli people as a kind of leasing agreement, where the goods were handed over on condition that the lessee makes his payments and adheres to the terms of the deal. If they didn't keep their side of the bargain, we were assured by our leaders, we would call of the deal and take back what was given. Well, the whole world can see that on the question of preventing terror, Arafat's Palestinian Authority is in flagrant breach of contract. Repeated warnings to this effect have gone unheeded. At last, the time has come for repossession. The believer would say that Israel is the divine "Repo Man," in charge of repossessing the land vouchsafed to his People. And even the skeptics now know that the original deal fell through and something must be done to replace it. Still, most Israelis believe that a massive invasion and a prolonged occupation of Palestinian cities would be too costly, in lives and in public opinion. In this regard, we can learn a lesson from the architects of Oslo. The first land handovers were determined to be Gaza and Jericho. The slogan "Gaza and Jericho First" initiated the process of withdrawal, on a small-scale and painlessly, to get Israelis accustomed to the idea of withdrawing. My modest proposal is to do something similar, starting the repossession process with something small and symbolic. Call the operation "Mazda and Subaru First." Next time the IDF sweeps a West Bank town, the troops should politely ask car-owners for their vehicle registration papers and, if none are forthcoming, for their keys. Imagine the convoy of stolen vehicles, driven by Israeli troops, returning home to their rightful owners. What a glorious parade that would be: our repossessed cars honking and Israeli flags flapping on the antennae. Return of the prodigal Peugeot! Homecoming of the hijacked Honda! The message to the Palestinian Authority, and the world, would be a powerful one. We would be taking back what is unquestionably and rightfully ours, stolen from us by deceiving thieves, whose corrupt leaders allow the criminals to operate freely against us. As Israel now begins to contemplate how to roll back the excesses of Oslo, and undo some of its damage, reclaiming our stolen vehicles is a logical first step in retrieving what we lost. Much of the damage can never be undone. Just as many of the cars were chopped to pieces for spare parts, we will never put back together the Humpty Dumpty of the pre-Oslo world, imperfect as it was. And the lives destroyed by reckless diplomatic driving can never be reclaimed. Of course, this proposal to retrieve our stolen cars is a fantasy that, however pleasurable to entertain, stands no chance of coming true. Still, the notion of Israel serving as divine "Repo Man" exerts a certain charm. Destiny seems to be driving us to repossess what we as a nation (depending on whom you ask) gave away, traded in, or had stolen from us. Originally possessing a sense of high purpose, whether the fulfillment of a Biblical imperative, the creation of a new kind of Jew, or simply a haven for survival in the post-Holocaust world, we have allowed our enemies into the driver's seat, in a position to determine our fate. "It all depends on Arafat" may be a fitting epitaph for a pitiful victim, not a proud nation. We can take some pride in the determined leadership of Ariel Sharon, who has against all odds driven home the message that Arafat is a terrorist and not a statesman, irrelevant to peacemaking, isolating him and cultivating alternative potential peace partners. Still, a clear and inspiring vision for a resolution of our conflict with the Arabs remains elusive. Perhaps it is we, the People of Israel, not our cars and not our land, who need first to be repossessed. Views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
|
|
 
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
© 2001-2002 Koret Communications Ltd. All rights reserved. Terms of Use. |
