[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 3]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 3378-3379]
[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

                        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

[[Page 3379]]

     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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