Dancing in Gaza

There they were – young men dancing in the streets, jubilantly waving their shirts, smiling a victory smile. You can see them on the wire service photo websites cheering and celebrating their victory. What victory? Twelve dead Jews.

Not as big a victory as some others, like the 17 at Sbarro or the 27 at the Seder. Not as many as you could get on a really crowded bus. And not as deliciously personal as entering a home and slaughtering two babies and their mother. But still, 12 dead Jews.

There they were – young men dancing in the streets, jubilantly waving their shirts, smiling a victory smile. You can see them on the wire service photo websites cheering and celebrating their victory. What victory? Twelve dead Jews.

Not as big a victory as some others, like the 17 at Sbarro or the 27 at the Seder. Not as many as you could get on a really crowded bus. And not as deliciously personal as entering a home and slaughtering two babies and their mother. But still, 12 dead Jews.

Some were Sabbath observers, ambushed on their way home from evening prayers. Some were their rescuers, Jews who work on the Sabbath in the name of “pikuach nefesh” – the requirement of saving lives that supercedes even the Sabbath.

“Settlers,” the newspapers called them, as if that made them something other than human beings, or other than Jews. But for their murderers, the goal is Jews whether they live on one side or the other of the 1949 armistice line that looms so large in political circles.

These twelve Jews were on that side of the very arbitrary line. But the families at Seder in Netanya were blown to bits on this side of the line; so were the pregnant woman at the Apropos cafe, the families at Sbarro and dozens of commuters on buses. The bomb outside a synagogue where women were waiting for prayers to finish was on that side of the line. The infant Shalhevet Pass and five-year-old Danielle Shefi lived on that side; teenagers at the Dolphinarium and the Ohayan toddlers lived on this side.

When Palestinians cheer on those who murder Jews at worship, at home or at play, we cannot see that they make a distinction between Jews here and Jews there. And if they did, we wouldn’t care.

But we do care about a distinction President Bush made when he postulated a divide between nasty Palestinian “leaders” and good Palestinian “people.” He said, “I’ve got confidence in the Palestinians. When they understand fully what we’re saying, they’ll make right decisions…” JINSA asked, “What, in fact, will the U.S. do if the Palestinian people weigh a new constitution and free political parties and STILL decide that blowing up Jews is better? What if they have transparent government, economic advancement and an independent judiciary, and STILL decide Jewish sovereignty must be eradicated with the blood of their children?”

Somebody in the Administration had better be working on a damned good answer because those guys dancing in Gaza look perfectly content with the bloody leadership they have, while the number of dead Jews just keeps going up.