Gary Cooperberg
March 21, 2002    

As an Israeli Jew who has been living with terror and watching helplessly as so many of my friends and fellow Jews are being murdered in my country by Arabs who seek to destroy the Jewish state, I find the warped philosophy of Mr. Raab to be morally repugnant.

Initially he makes rational statements, such as "In dealing with Arab nations . . . we have learned that reasoning together, kindness, concession and bribery will not . . . lead to peace."

He further notes that we have only achieved peace ". . . on the basis of Israel's military strength and its willingness to use it against aggression." Up until this point we agree wholeheartedly.

He then makes an assumption which has no basis in fact or logic. He assumes that we can separate "radical Islamic groups" from the rest of the Arab population which, apparently he assumes would just love to sit down and be reasonable. He gives absolutely no basis upon which he has come to this utopian conclusion. Where is this majority of peace loving Arabs who long to break away from the radical Islamic groups? While he claims that eight out of ten Arabs living in Israel would prefer to remain Israeli citizens should a PLO state be created, not only does he not reveal the source of this dubious information, but he fails to point out that, even were this an authentic poll it does not prove that these Arabs love Israel. It is more likely that they wish to have both a PLO state and a foothold in the Jewish one in order to destroy it from within as they currently are doing.

He also offers a strange theory which suggests that by giving the Arabs of Israel a higher standard of living and a good education that their population growth will dwindle. Thus by giving money to Israeli Arabs we will benefit.

While this may sound impressive on paper, the reality on the ground is significantly contrary to Mr. Raab's contentions. The State of Israel has been steadily employing this theory for tens of years. It has made tremendous strides in improving the economic, social, medical and educational conditions of her Arab population. The theory has already been put to the test. The results are in. Anyone with eyes can see that the results of our policies not only have failed to produce the desired results, rather have created a far more sophisticated enemy which has used our enlightened good will as a tool in the war to destroy this nation. The educated Israeli Arab sits in our knesset and advocates our self destruction with an expertise given to him by the Jewish state. How anyone at this late date can suggest further contributions to educating and improving our enemy's ability to destroy us is totally unfathomable.

Had we the courage to simply be honest with ourselves, one needn't be a professor or a genius to understand that there is no solution to the differences we have with our Arab neighbors. They want us to disappear and we want to live in peace. We can either negotiate the method in which we choose to disappear, or we can remove our enemies from our midst once and for all. There is no other option. Those who think there is will soon discover that all they accomplished is the further deterioration of security in this country and the unnecessary deaths of countless people, both Jew and Arab.

Project Shofar is dedicated to spreading these truths wherever it is possible to do so. It is sounding the alarm, to Jew and Gentile alike, to open our eyes to the G-dly process that is presently underway, and work to support it. We dare not stand idly on the sidelines.