[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 26 (Wednesday, March 3, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E292]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    ARTICLE BY RABBI ISRAEL ZOBERMAN

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                         HON. EDWARD L. SCHROCK

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 3, 2004

  Mr. SCHROCK. Mr. Speaker, l am pleased to share the following article 
written by a constituent, Rabbi Israel Zoberman.

       The recent bus #19 suicide bombing in the heart of 
     Jerusalem with its heavy toll found me in Israel's capital 
     during a solidarity mission of my Reform Jewish movement.
       I passed by that doomed site, near another past one, only 
     hours before the latest of incredible serial terrorist 
     attacks in the three and a half years of the bloody Second 
     Intifada. Once again violating Jerusalem where Biblical 
     Abraham proclaimed the sanctity of human life in the midst of 
     a paganism now being resurrected by its contemporary 
     messengers of death who should not be allowed by the 
     civilized world to reverse Abraham's victory. Let what just 
     ghastly happened, newly available on Israel's Foreign 
     Ministry website for a reality check not become an added 
     statistic!
       Upon arriving in my parents' home in Haifa on that hellish 
     day, I found them anxious, even panicky, already having 
     called hospitals in Jerusalem looking for me . . . I thus 
     experienced a bit the anguish encountered by Israelis, 
     without parallel, with Holocaust survivors like my parents 
     whose constant exposure to trauma may reawaken repressed 
     carnage images.
       The timing of the deadly Palestinian violence with both 
     Arafat's forces and Hamas competing to claim responsibility, 
     purposefully coincided with exchanging only four Israelis, 
     three of them in coffins, and promised information on the 
     fate of Israeli navigator Ron Arad, captured 17 years ago, in 
     return for hundreds of Hizballah terrorists. Of the three 
     killed Israeli soldiers, Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan and 
     Omar Suad, whose fate was cynically manipulated by the 
     Hizballah to inflict pain upon their families, the first 
     one was connected to Tidewater Jewry through a joint 
     communal program.
       Israel has proved again, with Prime Minister Sharon's 
     guiding input, that for humanitarian values' sake, sorely 
     lacking by its enemy, it is willing to pay a high price 
     though it might be interpreted as a weakness. Is it any 
     wonder that without a credible peace partner and unwilling to 
     respond in kind, Israel is forced to erect a costly security 
     separation fence to save innocent lives? The fence, which our 
     group observed for miles, is not necessarily permanent and 
     can be adjusted. Some resulted Palestinian hardship has to be 
     weighed against penetrating terror. It is the least Israel 
     can do in face of relentless terrorism, experienced by the 
     United States' heroic troops in Iraq as well, while 
     questionably restraining itself to the very limits from using 
     its superior military power. A state's obligation for self-
     defense is no less incumbent upon Israel whose national 
     morale and very way of life are threatened. In spite of 
     Sharon's uncharacteristic dovishness, at the moving state 
     welcoming ceremony for the fallen soldiers he referred to 
     unspecified options in Israel's arsenal. His announced 
     intent, tantamount to an earthquake, to unilaterally withdraw 
     from the Gaza Strip reflects Sharon's commitment to peace 
     even in the face of painful sacrifices, opposition within his 
     own political camp, expected resistance, and increased 
     threats on his life. Will the Palestinian Authority finally 
     respond by halting terror in compliance of President Bush's 
     Roadmap?
       General Shlomo Gazit, former director of Military 
     Intelligence and fellow at the Jaffe Strategic Center at Tel 
     Aviv University, who addressed us, justified the fence as a 
     security need, refusing to call it a wall. He urges economic 
     and demographic separation from the West Bank to safeguard 
     Israel as a Jewish and democratic entity. Both the reserve 
     General and former Minister Michael Melchior who serves in 
     Israel's parliament as chair of Diaspora Affairs, view the 
     American war in Iraq to have a transforming impact on the 
     unstable Middle East, sending a clear moderating message 
     to the Arabs. Gazit was optimistic that the ultimate 
     resolution of Israeli-Palestinian conflict has begun. He 
     and Melchior stressed building bridges to Israel's own 
     Arab minority, attending to its special needs with the 
     hope to draw the two essential partners closer. Otherwise 
     Israel's security is at risk.
       I watched Jewish kids purchase with their moms costumes for 
     the joyous Purim holiday and Arab families celebrating the 
     Eid. For the sake of their inevitable shared future and that 
     of their own children, may these parents find a way to each 
     other's hearts. Perhaps, Israeli Arabs will yet be a bridge 
     of shalom to the larger Arab world.
       Rabbi Israel Zoberman, spiritual leader of Congregation 
     Beth Chaverim in Virginia Beach, was born in Kazakhstan and 
     grew up in Haifa, Israel.

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