[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 5866-5867]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    ARTICLE BY RABBI ISRAEL ZOBERMAN

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EDWARD L. SCHROCK

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 11, 2003

  Mr. SCHROCK. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to share the following article 
written by a constituent, Rabbi Israel Zoberman. His article is timely 
and informative with respect to the current political situation in 
Israel.

       With a heavy heart I bade shalom's farewell to elderly 
     parents who are Holocaust survivors, and to Israel where I 
     grew up, on the eve of the unknown. I left a country calmly 
     readying itself for a probable American attack on Iraq in 
     freedom's name, and possible ramifications for the Jewish 
     state that already experienced a limited taste of Saddam 
     Hussein's Scud missiles during the 1991 Gulf War. As then, 
     which I witnessed as well, the Israeli public receives 
     updated gas masks, and urged to prepare a sealed shelter with 
     essential food items. There is less concern now though it can 
     quickly change.
       I visited Israel with fellow rabbis immediately following 
     the general elections there which serve as a barometer for 
     the citizens' mindset, particularly after enduring over two 
     years of the bloody Second Initifada presenting Israel with 
     its greatest crisis since its 1948 inception. The resulting 
     shrinking economy and the growing gap between the haves and 
     the have-nots have added pressure, but also fortified the 
     Israeli resolve to withstand the Palestinian assault of 
     unprecedented suicide-homicide bombings, reflected in the 
     elections' outcome. Free elections are not to be taken for 
     granted in that part of the world, and Israel's vibrant 
     example is the only such sign of democratic life! Israel is 
     worried that only 69 percent of eligible voters participated 
     this time, that should only happen in our own great 
     democracy.
       Prime Minister Sharon and the political Right were assured 
     a major victory though the message was primarily aimed at 
     Chairman Arafat along with punishing Israel's Left for 
     providing him through the Oslo Accords with the means to 
     terrorize though

[[Page 5867]]

     short of submission to his agenda. Thus Arafat's plan 
     boomeranged to gain through violence beyond what former Prime 
     Minister Barak so trustfully offered him. He lost his gamble, 
     with the Palestinians miscalculating once more and continuing 
     to hurt their own welfare. This time Arafat succeeded to 
     convince Israel and the U.S., both victims of terrorism and 
     allies in combating it, that he is a critical obstacle to 
     peace. I was fortunate to participate in a helicopter ride 
     along the seam line separating the Israelis and Palestinians, 
     watching from above the complexity of erecting the separation 
     fence and Israel's disconcerting narrow waistline.
       The sharpening conflict has also adversely impacted 
     European Jewry as we studied the precipitous rise in anti-
     Semitism in France during our initial stop there, mindful of 
     the contributing presence of millions of Arab Muslims though 
     the French authorities are not indifferent to the Jewish 
     plight. We were warmly greeted and candidly briefed by Howard 
     Leach, the American Ambassador to France in his official 
     residence. Israel's ambassador, Nissin Zvllli, was gracious 
     as well. Both ambassadors pointed at the linkage between the 
     events in the Middle East and the French scene. Our moving 
     meeting with the legendary Nazi-hunter Beatte Klarsfeld 
     reminded us that the Holocaust's ghosts are not altogether 
     expunged. This sense was reinforced at the Drancy Memorial on 
     the outskirts of Paris, where French Jews were herded into 
     the surrounding building complex before deportation to death.
       I painfully watched in disbelief on Israeli TV the 
     shattering dream, so close to realization though so far, of 
     Israel's first astronaut on his maiden voyage. Ilan Ramon's 
     call from outer space to remember that we are all one human 
     family on a precious but fragile planet Earth will long echo. 
     His radiating and captivating optimism is so sorely missing 
     and needed at this trying time. He, whose mother survived 
     Auschwitz, along with his inspiring American colleagues 
     aboard the Columbia, taught us how vulnerable are our most 
     noble human aspirations and that the road to accomplishing 
     them is strewn with broken pieces of a reality we are yet 
     pledged to redeem through shalom's persistent promise of 
     peace.
  Rabbi Israel Zoberman, spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Chaverim 
in Virginia Beach, is a member of the Rabbinic Cabinet of United Jewish 
Communities.

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