Would You Let Your Child On This Bus?

25 of the Twelfth Month (Alef) 5771

I was dumbfounded after I read this article from the Am HaAretz (HaAretz) news site yesterday. My comments are interspersed between paragraphs.

HaAretz.com: Settlement Leader Rejects Demands To Fire Israeli Arab Bus Driver

Residents of Gush Etzion settlement bloc demanded the bus driver be dismissed after word got out that he would work as a school-bus driver in the settlement of Elazar.

Chaim Levinson, February 28, 2011

Residents of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc near Jerusalem are demanding a bus driver be dismissed because he is Arab. The head of the regional council has rejected the demand.

The driver, an Israeli Arab, is employed by the Gush Etzion Development Company. The company is an agency of the Gush Etzion Regional Council.

The development company operates a bus service for local school children and employs dozens of drivers. The employee in question was hired several months ago to perform a range of tasks, but word got out that he would work as a school-bus driver in the settlement of Elazar.

In a letter, Elazar residents objected to the Israeli Arab's placement as a school-bus driver in the settlement.

Acknowledging that Jews and Arabs are "cousins," the residents said that the regional council "apparently wants to save a few pennies at the expense of the safety of our children, or perhaps for another reason, regional peace, eating baklava in Hebron, hummus in Bethlehem or a real vision of the end of days."

The "cousins" comment was completely unnecessary, not to mention that it made me gag. Nonetheless, the residents of Elazar are not stupid. They do not trust the lives of their children in the hands of a Yishma'eli (Arab), irregardless of his citizenship.

The residents stressed that the complaint was not motivated by anti-Arab racism but rather by what they said were legitimate concerns for their children's safety. They said that if a member of the driver's family were detained by the army, it was impossible to know how what the driver might do as a response....

I suppose that the residents are afraid of being labeled as racists, or getting arrested for incitement to racism, which is illegal in the State of Israel. They do their best to wriggle around this, in an attempt to be heard by their government leaders, and not to offend the limousine liberals of Ramat Aviv, Giv'ataim, and K'far Shmaryahu.

Now that we have heard from the residents of Elazar, let us hear from the organization known as as Qomemiyuth.

At the same time, the right-wing Komemiyut movement wrote to the Gush Etzion Regional Council asking that the council stop employing Arabs. The movement's board members include Rabbi Dov Lior of Kiryat Arba, against whom an arrest warrant was issued after he supported a book justifying the killing of non-Jews under some circumstances.

"In recent years we have been disabused of our innocence and know that to inherit the land, we must see to it that our enemies are not given a source of livelihood,"wrote Komemiyut chairman Moshe Cohen. "Whereas otherwise, heaven forbid, we will meet a fate similar to the fate of the Jews of Gaza, who were ultimately expelled from their land because they were left very few in number in the heart of a massive number of Arabs."

Moshe Cohen is citing halakah here, clearly seeing the dangerous conflict between "anti-racist," Israeli law and the safety of our children, not to mention the long term necessity of preventing the Yishma'elim from gaining any additional hold on the Land.

Moshe Cohen used to work with the YeSh"A Council. he thought that he was helping them prevent the expulsion of Jews from Azza. Instead, he discovered that the YeSh"A Council had other ideas, and he had the courage to expose them, in Part 1 of the video"Meraglim,"embedded below.

And now for the "Settler Leadership" position...

In response to the objections, Shaul Goldstein, the head of the regional council, sent a letter to area residents. He said employing Israeli Arabs is not an "innovation" of the regional council, adding that 40 percent of public drivers in the country are Arab and that the situation is similar in the construction industry. He said hundreds of Arab workers come to Gush Etzion settlements every day to work.

And, he is proud that he is just repeating these despicable practices, providing employment to the Yishma'eli enemy, in order to save a few sheqqels?

How many terrorist attacks does Gush Etzion has to incur before the likes of Sha'ul Goldstein start to get it?? How many of Sha'ul Goldstein's dangerous decisions will Gush Etzion residents endure before throwing him and his cronies out of power??

"Arabs in the State of Israel are employed in every field: doctors, economists, gas-station attendants, construction workers, teachers, Knesset members ... and drivers too," he wrote.

And he is proud of this?? This "religious" Jew does not appear to know much of halakhah, except perhaps "kashrus" and "shabbos inyunim." Would he send his wife to an Arab doctor? Would he trust his children with an Arab teacher?

Goldstein also noted that racist discrimination in employment is illegal and that as long as education encouraging manual labor is not being provided, "this is not the ideal reality, but that's the situation."

Goldstein neglects to address Elazar residents' concern over their children's safety. Is he that stupid? Does he even care? Even kind detestable, religious Jew would know be expected to know some of the concepts of piqu'ah nefesh and sakanath nefesh (saving a life & danger to life) AND not be embarrassed to mention this concept in public.

I wonder if he would put HIS children on that bus. I seriously doubt it.

I certainly hope that Sha'ul Goldstein is not that stupid, and does care about the safety of his neighbors' children. Let us pray that Sha'ul Goldstein at least has the decency to work out a deal behind the scenes, far from the press, which appears to frighten him more than Arabs.

Normally, I would say that one should not believe any reports by the HaAretz newspaper about settlers. But, since the report is about Sha'ul Goldstein,...well, then you can bet that it probably is true.

Remember Sha'ul Goldstein?

Sha'ul Goldstein was a member of the YeSh"A Council (Judea, Samaria, & Azza) which collaborated with the Sharon government to throw Jews out of their homes from Azza (Gaza/Gush Qatif). the details of which are all laid out in the four part video Meraglim.

Sha'ul Goldstein is also the same Sha'ul Goldstein who faked his personal expulsion from Azza.

Now, I turn to my Mamlakhti (undying State loyalist) friends and colleagues.

Which side will you take in this conflict?

The side represented by the religious Jew who holds Torah in high esteem, and believes it to have a higher authority than Israeli laws which endanger our children?

Or the side represented by the treacherous YeSh"A Council member, who cares more about his seat in power and his publicity than the lives and safety of your children?

This will not be the last time that you will have to make this decision between loyalty toHaShemand his Torah vs. loyalty to the State.

You can't have your cake and eat it, too.