Jennifer re: public affairs

created in the CAT database on April 15, 2002 at9:26

Re: public affairs

Jennifer,

I'm glad your television is broken so you can't see what has been going on. Here's
a sanitized version of current affairs so you can stay up-to-date without too much
pain.

I hope the travesty in the Holy Land soon gets so ridiculous that a light begins to
glimmer even in Senator Joe Lieberman's brain... Well, I don't want things to get
THAT bad.

These days on CNN, and everywhere else, we see the despised terrorist, Yasser
Arafat, on camera with his face illuminated by flashlight. He's standing in the
rubble of his headquarters. What's left of his redoubt is surrounded by Israeli
soldiers, tanks and armoured bulldozers waiting to move in. Helicopter gunships and
supersonic jet fighters fly above bombing what remains of the terrorist infested
areas. House to house fighting continues. This morning Colin Powell, the United
States Secretary of State, has managed to get from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
grudging permission to visit the still dangerous criminal mastermind. Powell will
attempt to force Arafat "to crack down on terrorism" — at gunpoint if necessary.

*****************

A conversation Israeli spokesman Dore Gold recently had with himself:

"One cannot be too careful with people like Arafat. The Israelis have tried. We
have offered our hand in peace.

"The West Bank, Gaza Strip, Negev Dessert, and Golan Heights have been
systematically populated with hundreds of peaceful Israeli settlements and several
hundred thousand peaceful settlers since the heroic 1967 "Six Day War" which Israel
was forced to launch to pre-empt the attack that was planned by Palestine's
monstrous Arab neighbours. The reason Arabs hate Israel? Anti-Semitism. Why do
they hate Jews? It's a mystery. Anti-Semitism must be genetic and everyone knows
what to do about that. But the people of Israel are patient, and peaceful.

"If only Arafat would crack down on terrorism. Over the years, Israelis have tried
everything to help Arafat. We've used pinpoint rocket attacks from Apache
helicopters to assassinate terrorists who were riding in their cars. Only a few
non-combatants have been killed. We've infiltrated terrorist cells with secret
agents and informers. We've even invented telephone bombs so a terrorist's head can
be blown off when he answers a phone call from the secret police — extra effort has
been made to protect the lives of non-combatants. Israelis have blown up and
bulldozed police stations along with television and radio stations in an effort to
stamp out terrorism. Terrorism is everywhere. Israelis have even been forced to
stop and slowly, painstakingly, search ambulances taking pregnant Palestinian women
to delivery rooms. Fighting terrorism is difficult. It's a dirty job, but someone
has to do it.

"We Israelis have tried and we won't give up or do something drastic — although we
can only take so much of this. Anyone could understand.