Empty Threats

Published in The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

As an Israeli, I wanted to feel thrilled and happy when Rabin and King Hussein shook hands in Washington and agreed to end the state of war between Jordan and Israel, but I couldn’t. Instead I felt dread and apprehension since I only saw pictures of destruction and death result from bombing of Jewish targets in Argentina, Panama and London. Sadly, I only foresee a never ending cycle of death and terror for Jewish people all over the world.

The Israeli government responded by promising that Israel will hunt down the terrorists responsible . I hope it is true, but I doubt the effectiveness of the threat. I wonder how many terrorist groups still take any threat of retaliation by the Israeli government seriously.

From the time of recognizing the PLO, the most notorious terrorist group in recent times, the Israeli government has bankrupted itself of any deterrence power. The PLO and its leader, Arafat, has systematically murdered thousands of Jewish children, women and innocent people for 25 years. Yet Israel shook Arafat’s hand, let him step on Israeli soil and allowed him to bring thousands of trained terrorists with him. Israel did not hunt Arafat down and put him on trial for his atrocities against humanity.

Two weeks ago Arafat brought with him to Gaza the two masterminds of the “ Maalot Massacre, “ in which 22 Israeli students were murdered. The Israeli army kicked them out of Gaza but didn’t arrest them, put them on trial or punish them. I didn’t know there was a statute of limitation on murder.

The “Hamas” Muslims in Gaza and

the “West Bank” in just the last six months have murdered 36 Israelis and wounded 150 . And now Israel wants to withdraw from all the territories, leaving the Hamas terrorists to be eliminated by their “ Palestinian” brothers.

The “Hezbollah”, an Iranian backed Muslim group , has for the last several months been killing and wounding Israeli soldiers in south Lebanon. Israel, in retaliation, does nothing more than destroy buildings and ammunition dumps, which doesn’t deter their continuing terrorist activity.

Now, if there is some evidence that Iran or Syria is behind the recent explosions, the question is whether the Israeli government will retaliate. The Israeli government tells us that such type of terrorism has increased because of the peace process. However, such terrorism against Jews has

already existed over the last three decades when no peace was in sight.

Once, when terrorists killed any Jew in the world, they Knew no matter where , no matter how, the Israelis would catch and punish them. Now a perceived weak Israeli government endangers every Jewish community in the world. We Jews have the same destiny. So speak up against the agreement with the PLO!

Shoula Romano Horing was born and raised in Israel. She is an attorney and a public speaker in Kansas City, Missouri .