My own humanitarian crisis
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[Excerpt:]
"In contrast, Israelis see no chance for lifting the virtual siege against their country. On the contrary, the hate and rejection which they meet when they cross their borders only increase by leaps and bounds. This sense of siege is enhanced not only by closed borders but also by the fact that most Israelis live close to hostile Palestinian areas, and the existence of Jewish settlements in these areas is no relief for Israelis like this author, who regard them as one of the major causes for their resentment and pessimism. De facto, these Palestinian areas – a short drive from the homes of most Israelis – are closed to Jews. Any Israeli taken prisoner by terrorists there will not enjoy any human right accorded under international law, and his relatives and friends will not know anything about him. No human rights organization – including the Israeli ones – will utter a word of protest or demand that the International Red Cross be allowed to visit the prisoner. Indeed, our humanitarian crisis consists of a constant anxiety surrounding our captured men. The anxiety which engulfed the whole country when we were uncertain whether our two soldiers – Eldad Regev and Udi Goldwasser – would be returned alive or dead from Lebanon is of no interest to the human rights NGOs – abroad or at home. A Palestinian POW can always appeal against maltreatment to the High Court of Justice, but every Israeli knows that if he ventures into hostile Palestinian territory he may disappear, or be lynched in broad daylight. This too is part of the siege of Israel. And there are also other components in the humanitarian crisis. The hate campaign against Israel and the Jews has reached such heights that it must be ranked as equivalent to the Nazi propaganda which preceded the Holocaust, and the fact that this campaign is aided and abetted by Jewish and Israeli academics does not make the crisis any easier. True, the country must act as a liberal democracy and never compare itself with Arab regimes; we must investigate every alleged war crime. But this does not detract from the daily burden of our humanitarian crisis. And there is one more little item which the human rights NGOs – at home and abroad – tend to ignore: over Israelis hangs a constant Iranian threat to obliterate their country and its people with nuclear weapons. Obviously, this threat, made publicly by a rich and powerful nation, is somehow not considered an infringement of human rights, and this fact too is part of my own humanitarian crisis."