[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 47 (Wednesday, April 24, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E615-E616]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     HONORING RABBI ISRAEL ZOBERMAN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EDWARD L. SCHROCK

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 24, 2002

  Mr. SCHROCK. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise today 
to honor Rabbi Israel Zoberman, spiritual leader of Congregation Beth 
Chaverim in Virginia Beach. He is also the President of the Hampton 
Roads Board of Rabbis, and Chairman of the Community Relations Council 
of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater. I would like to share the 
following article that was written by Rabbi Zoberman and appeared in 
the Virginian-Pilot on April 12, 2002.

  An Open Letter to Chairman Arafat on the Occasion of Israel's 54th 
                              Anniversary

       Your present living accommodations are a far cry from a 
     past of world capitals hopping. However, you are reliving the 
     ``glorious'' 1982 days in Lebanon under siege by the same 
     Sharon encircling you again. In truth, you are both caged in 
     as long as there is no peace for your respective peoples.
       You itched to duel again (for the last time?) with your old 
     nemesis, otherwise how explain the Second Intifada following 
     Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount. You trapped each other; 
     he aroused you enough for a pretext of rash action, yet you 
     catapulted him to become a Prime Minister! Soon you may have 
     the time to check out for yourself the over 800 references to 
     Jerusalem in the Hebrew Bible, but why doesn't your Koran 
     mention it even once?
       I wanted to believe that you transformed yourself from the 
     terrorist you were--a freedom fighter to you--to a statesman 
     representing a long-enduring people abused as a pawn by its 
     Arab brethren. Your partner to the sacred opportunity and 
     responsibility was an Israel weary of wars imposed upon it, 
     yearning for normalcy and that elusive peace it has sought 
     all along. When entering into official peace with Egypt, 
     entailing painful compromises, it was Sharon as Defense 
     Minister who dismantled the Israeli town of Yaniit. I 
     resisted those doubtful of your famous handshake's sincerity 
     with martyred Rabin--it cost him his life--when signing the 
     1993 Oslo Accords on that beautiful day at the White House, 
     facing a breathless world celebrating a hopeful beginning. 
     Remember the reward of a Nobel Peace Prize? How have you 
     fallen, Ya Raees .
       Of course, the murder of your friend Rabin by a Jewish 
     zealot profoundly affected you for you were justly proud of 
     ``the peace of the brave'' with your ``brother'' Rabin. Then 
     came vicious terrorist attacks on Israelis by Muslin 
     extremists who opposed your peace, and Israel's political 
     power in the only Middle East democracy shifted to the Right. 
     Netanyahu, the victor with an American accent, claimed you 
     were not sincere (were you?) and that Israel risked too much. 
     He

[[Page E616]]

     lost the confidence of the Israeli voter in the absence of 
     peace progress, facilitating the Left's comeback with Barak 
     at the helm. Barak miscalculated, focusing on the Syrian 
     track and neglected to develop the same bond you enjoyed with 
     his mentor Rabin. I empathized with your changed status, but 
     as a leader you should have stuck to your people's welfare. 
     Finally when Barak took a visionary and valiant step beyond 
     Israeli premiers before him, with President Clinton's 
     enormous input and personal stake, you simply walked away 
     from the deal of your life. Abandoning your cause of peace, 
     you inexplicably chose the path of violence of your own Arab 
     enemies.
       Didn't you realize that indiscriminate suicide bombings 
     with no moral inhibitions, wreaking havoc on Israeli 
     civilians could not indefinitely be tolerated? Did you try to 
     trigger Sharon into a harsh response, gaining from it? Well, 
     he held back, though no nation would have delayed a far more 
     severe answer, particularly an Arab state unencumbered by 
     that democratic stuff and the Judeo-Christian all-consuming 
     regard for a single human life. Why not allow your youth to 
     grow up as God intended them instead of sacrificing your 
     people's future on the revived pagan altars of demonic hate. 
     When Israeli families sat down for a Passover Seder 
     (ironically it's about freedom and standing up to terrorism) 
     at that doomed hotel in Netanya, you greeted them with a 
     massacre. That proved the turning point and you really cannot 
     blame Sharon, you gave him no choice.
       Oh yes, an event called September 11 shook great America 
     and President Bush declared a global war on terrorism. Did 
     the Palestinians have to cheer when we were so diabolically 
     attacked as they also did during the 1991 Gulf War in support 
     of Saddam Hussein who underwrites your suicide bombers, 
     always backing evil-doers and losers? Though fifteen of the 
     nineteen hijackers were Arabs, you failed to halt that ship 
     of arms from Iran, and carelessly leaving your signature on 
     incriminating terrorist documents. It is clearer now that the 
     line of American defense and civilization's survival run in 
     Israel, and the unimaginable demise of that small but 
     determined democracy would signal America's fall and both 
     linked propositions are preposterous. Perceived weakness 
     invites the bullies' aggression. The world is yet to accept 
     an Israel that is not the traditional Jewish victim, with 
     Israel bashing the new anti-Semitism. The shameful specter of 
     burning synagogues has returned to a hypocritical Europe.
       Lastly, before Israel celebrates at this season its hard-
     won independence after two millennia of powerlessness and 
     persecution, it pauses to recall a Holocaust you seem to care 
     little about and I cannot forget for I am son of survivors. 
     That monumental tragedy gave the final push for Israel's 
     rebirth, etching forever upon Jewish consciousness the call, 
     ``Never Again''. Do you see why doves like me feel betrayed 
     by the ``new Arafat'', concerned about creating a hostile 
     twenty-third Arab state so close to the only Jewish state? 
     There is one word we Jews have never dared erase even in our 
     darkest hours and we had many of them, for it is our ultimate 
     weapon. Guess, Arafat, it is ``Shalom''.

     

                          ____________________