Snoopy isn’t the only one who was upset by Professor Hillel Weiss. But the professor has apologized for his outburst.
A week after sparking a row after he was caught on video by a Ynet cameraman cursing Hebron Brigade commander and IDF soldiers during the evacuation of Jewish settlers from the Hebron wholesale market, Professor Hillel Weiss of Bar-Ilan University took back his harsh remarks Monday morning.
“From the remarks and the curses quoted in the media it may seem that I have bad feelings toward the soldiers who sacrifice their lives for the resurrection of the nation and the land,” Weiss wrote in a letter to IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and Police Commissioner Dudi Cohen.
“Without going into the events and the many details of what happened, including before I even spoke, I am sorry for stooping to such a level of curses in the remarks I made, and I regret these remarks.
But wait. There’s more.
Weiss later explained in a radio interview that he apologized due to “terrorist Mapainic pressure exerted on the university.”
Talking to Ynet, he clarified, “Since the remarks were published, Bar-Ilan University President Prof Moshe Kaveh was forced to get down on his knees against his will. After Rabin’s murder they looked for the national religious Jews at the university, even though Bar-Ilan did not support the act and was not guilty of the murder.”
Here is my problem with the entire incident, in a nutshell:
“I am trying to wake the people up to face the real danger: The expulsion of Jews is a distraction from the real danger, which is the eradication of the Jews by our enemies.”
Israel had to give up Gaza. Sharon and Olmert didn’t do it right, but Gaza had eventually to go. But Israel should not have to give up Hebron, the city where Jews were massacred and expelled in 1929. It’s not an Arab city. It’s not a Palestinian city. It’s the city mentioned in the Torah, which describes how Abraham bought the land for the Caves of the Patriarchs, and where, as soon as we leave, the Arabs will do to them what they did to Joseph’s Tomb. This is our holy site, yet another site the Muslims are expropriating, and yet another example of the Exception Clause: The world will not allow Jews to worship at or keep their holy sites, not when the Muslims have managed to put their mosques atop them.
No, I don’t support Professor Weiss when he curses Jews. But he has a point about the expulsion of Jews from Hebron. We are doing our enemies’ work for them when we allow ourselves to be divided like this.
I seem to have missed the paragraph where you explained exactly why “Israel had to give up Gaza.”
Because there was no way Israel could keep it. There shouldn’t have been Israeli towns in there to begin with. You can’t ignore the fact of 1.3 million Palestinians, and Gaza, at least, isn’t nearly as important historically and religiously as Hebron and Jerusalem.
Just as the Pals can’t have everything they want, neither can Israel. Deals have to be made. Gaza should have been such a deal, but the disengagement was poorly conceived and carried out, so Israel got basically nothing for removing her citizens from Gaza.
If you’re asking me if I believe in Eretz Yisrael, yes, I do. But I know it’s not realistic to do more than wish for it. At least, not until the Moshiach gets here.
A new era of cooperation, where Israel is cooperating itself to pieces. Where are the Palestinian Arabs cooperating, besides with each other, paying Hamas salaries, buying Hamas legislators new cars.
We cooperate with Arabs but with Jews we cooperate with police. Granted, the “settlers” — Israeli citizens! — could have been more agreeable, but when Israel demolishes Arab housing, the world passes UN resolutions.
After a massacre of Arabs by one Jew, we get international observers to protect Arabs. After a massacre of Jews by Arab organizations, Arab governments, Arab complicity, dancing in the street, genocidally bigoted cartoons in the media, when do we get a protective international force? We get UNIFIL, pronounced “you knew, fool”.
There is one bright spot in all this. Israel is piling up a tremendous buffer of international goodwill, which with a shekel will buy you a shekel. I tried so hard to allow Olmert time to work on the real problems …
If I gave you time to change my mind
I’d find a way to leave the past behind
Knowing that you lied straight faced while I cried
Still I look to find a reason to believe
Still I look to find a reason to believe
Still I look to find a reason to believe
(Ahh, Rod Stewart understands )