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Zeev Shemer is a writer and full-time teacher who works with B'Ahavat Yisrael, a charitable organization that helps Jews worldwide
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Never Again: Words we do not really mean
By Zeev Shemer   May 2, 2008


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We stood still while the sirens were heard everywhere in Israel. We attended functions and remembered our connection to the Holocaust and its victims. We can only wonder how many geniuses we lost. How many teachers, scientists, artists and great minds vanished?

We proudly uttered the words Rabbi Kahane used as his motto: Never Again! We meant it, at least for that moment. The IDF Chief of the General Staff for the "March of the Living" spoke like a hero to his elite battalion in front of the Auschwitz Death Camp. Never Again, he said, never again will we stand idle while Jews are being targeted by murderers and anti-Semites. That is what he said. Those words got printed and recorded. And only one day later, as Kassam missiles were launched from Gaza into Sderot and the community farms of the Negev, our brave army did as it always does, it stood idly by.

As Jewish men, women and children are targeted for murder every day with rockets launched from what used to be our land, the brave words Never Again are nothing but hypocritical utterances by people who either reflect Olmert's nonsensical "I am tired of fighting and tired of winning" self-loathing ideology or they reflect a darkness in our very souls.

"We are not like Rabbi Kahane" would be the politically correct answer when asked why we refuse to protect the Jews we have sworn to safeguard. Rabbi Kahane may I remind you all, proposed to transfer the Arabs out. At this point, any normal nation would respond to daily rocket attacks to any of its towns or cities with a mighty military strike. Only Israel sits idly by. "Go look for the heads of these terrorist groups" our soldiers are commanded. While a terrorist leader is taken out, only a few thousand remain anxious to take his place. If we continue targeting their leaders, I figure we should rid Gaza of all its terrorists within the next 300 years, give or take.

I feel bad for people whose lives are in distress, but the Muslims of Gaza took a vow to eliminate the "Jewish State". As bad as I may feel for bystanders and victims of their democratically elected Muslim extremist leaders, my duty is to protect Israel. Therefore I would offer these Gazan Muslims a chance to relocate.

Not long ago it was reported that half of them wish to emigrate. Why is it that neither Israel nor the UN are providing these people with the opportunity and financial assistance to leave? Are they being used as pawns against Israel? Could that really be the case? Is that why the 22 Muslim nations that surround Israel have not attempted to integrate and absorb these people?

When I uttered the words Never Again, it would have meant leveling Gaza if attacked again by its inhabitants. But I do not wish to be an extremist. I rather do as Rabbi Kahane had proposed and help those loving rocket-launching Muslims find a home elsewhere. Our other last alternative would be to do as our IDF Chief of Staff does: Say nice things we do not really mean.

Views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.


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