[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 66 (Tuesday, May 15, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E796]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       NO ESCAPE, NO MORE TO GIVE

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                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 15, 2001

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call the attention of my 
colleagues to a poignant and powerful article about the increasing 
violence we are witnessing in Israel. The author of the article, Sherri 
Lederman Mandell, is the mother of one of the two teenage boys who was 
found stoned to death in a cave last week. Her words provide us with an 
insightful look into the lives of Israelis living on the front lines of 
the violence in Israel.
  We must not lose sight of the human element of the issues which we 
debate. The decisions we are trusted to make impact the lives of real 
people, a fact too often forgotten. This is especially true for the 
current violence in Israel, where personal testimonies are often 
drowned out by pools of rhetoric and propaganda. The fact is, Mr. 
Speaker, that innocent Israelis are forced to live lives full of fear 
of violence and terror. Confined to their homes by the violence that 
surrounds them, these brave people hold out hope that peace will occur 
one day.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that this entire article ``No Escape, No More to 
Give'' by Sherri Lederman Mandell, and published in the May 14th 
edition of the Washington Post be placed in the Congressional Record. I 
urge my colleagues to carefully consider the tragic human suffering 
that persists in the Middle East and which the author describes so 
vividly in this excellent article.

                [From the Washington Post, May 14, 2001]

                       No Escape, No More to Give

                      (By Sherri Lederman Mandell)

       We want to stop listening to the news and watching TV. It 
     is so unbearable that we have reached the point of 
     saturation; no more--no more listening to reports about our 
     children, our soldiers, our husbands, our mothers, our 
     fathers dead, maimed, dying, lost, suffering.
       My friend Leah this morning had to pay a mourning visit to 
     a friend whose husband died on Friday. He was on his way from 
     Neve Yaakov, home to Beit Shemesh, and was found in the trunk 
     of his car, dead. It's not clear whether the killing was 
     criminal or terrorist. The astonishing thing is that we talk 
     about this story and feel as though the world is lost. Then, 
     10 minutes later we're talking about our diets. Everyone I 
     know is on a diet. Why? Because our weight is all we can 
     control.
       I am cleaning house, something I generally don't do. Each 
     corner has to be swept, each bed needs to be made. It is a 
     way of feeling that I can cope. My house is clean and in 
     order, so the world is good.
       My friend Shira who is a former SDS member, a feminist and 
     now a therapeutic masseuse, has been reading romance novels--
     for the first time in her life. She also is decorating the 
     walls of her house with shell sculptures that she fastens 
     with concrete glue. She is busy designing waves and a sun. 
     She is building a life of freedom within the confines of her 
     four walls, the only place she feels safe nowadays.
       Suddenly, everyone is home for Independence Day. The only 
     picnic is one that is close by, one that we don't have to 
     drive to with our whole family in the car. We say a special 
     prayer in the synagogue on Friday for Linda and Bobby who 
     were shot at on the tunnel road--shots were fired over their 
     car, the road was closed and they turned around and went 
     back, unhurt.
       This is our freedom and independence in our own country. 
     During Holocaust Day, you could hear the sounds of gunfire 
     and tank fire from Gilo and Bethlehem as the prime minister 
     made his speech at Yad Vashem praising Israel as the land 
     where the Jews are free to defend themselves.
       On Independence Day, my daughter read the names of 12 
     people from our area who were killed in the most recent 
     battles. This is not Holocaust Day; this is not some distant 
     battle. This is the battle of today.
       We can try to deny it, but we can't escape it--a battle is 
     raging around us. No matter how much we don't want to listen, 
     we lie in bed and hear the shooting.
       There is no way not to listen. But what is the message we 
     are supposed to hear? It's not clear anymore. We want peace, 
     but peace is a word that is not the absence of war. Peace has 
     to have value in itself. We have been dreaming about peace. 
     But we have been dreaming with our eyes closed.
       Now our eyes are open. We can't escape the sounds of 
     battle. And what is most alarming is this: The battle is a 
     result of giving everything we could. To give more, makes no 
     sense.
       The writer's 13-year-old son, Koby, was stoned to death in 
     a cave in Israel last week; she wrote this piece before her 
     son's death, and it is published now with her permission.

     

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