AMONA: YOUNG LADIES AT WAR

News Item:

Were settler girls sexually assaulted?

Disturbing accounts: Settlers claim that police officers molested girls during outpost evacuation, Ynet receives additional testimonies from educators and rabbis regarding girls complaining of sexual abuse by police.

"Police officers rubbed up against us and touched our chest and intimate body parts. They used dirty words while doing it. One policeman said: 'Come, I'll screw you'…We felt like we were being raped." (The testimony of a girl in Amona.)

Such police behavior is disgusting and any cop who participated in it should receive a good thrashing in the nearest town square.

On the other hand, what did the girls and their parents expect? The same families who would never think of sending their girls to train as combat soldiers (and rightly so!) proudly sent their daughters out to war in Amona.

Truth be told, the "national-religious" camp has always had an ideological problem with proper separation of the sexes in public gatherings. Their youth group Benei `Aqiva has been grappling with this question for decades. Witness this week's rightist pep rally in Jerusalem. I wouldn't want to give anyone ideas, but a policeman who wanted to "cop a feel" from a "settler chick" could simply have stood in Zion Square on Monday night as throngs of teenaged girls pressed up against him. Our hareidi friends never would have allowed such a mixed gathering, and neither should we.

If we should be more careful about s'niuth (modesty) at our protests and youth rallies, we should be especially careful when we go out to engage in physical confrontation with the police and soldiers, for many of whom the concept of sexual modesty is a subject for sneers and dirty jokes. Young ladies and their parents should realize that physical confrontation enflames men's hormones -- in fact, among the the nations of the world, one of the most enticing fringe benefits of war is the number of young ladies available for rape.

So, the next time we go out to confront the state, let's leave the baby strollers at home. Leave our small children at home. And leave our wonderful, modest Jewish daughters at home. In my opinion, and I believe that halakha concurs, young ladies do not belong on the battle field.

FREE MARKET SOLUTION TO BUS ATTACKS

News Item:

A 60-year-old woman was killed Sunday morning when an Israeli Arab stabbed five Israelis in a service taxi in Petah Tiqwa.

Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated the woman to Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, where she succumbed to her wounds.

Four other passengers were wounded in the incident. Two men in their 30s were listed in very serious and serious condition, while two other people were in moderate condition.

The 23-year-old attacker reportedly boarded the taxi in Petah Tiqwa. When it stopped near the Ossem factory on Rehov Jabotinsky, he pulled out a knife and began "wildly" stabbing the other passengers, eyewitnesses said.

Several passersby and workers from the factory surrounded the stabber, beat him with wooden planks, and restrained him. The man was taken into police custody and interrogated.

Police said that his motive appeared to be nationalistic.

What a pity that the State of Israel doesn't have the time, resources or manpower to deal with "minor attacks" such as this one. They simply don't have the personnel. The Israeli police are too busy galloping across the Samaritan hills, imposing law and order in the "lawless" Shomron, beating up unkempt settler children who want to live on unoccupied hilltops and raise goats.

Then, there's the matter of those vigilante passers-by who beat the alleged attacker with wooden planks. What sort of thing is that? It seems that even the staid citizens of Petah Tiqwa are becoming a bunch of wild-eyed anarchists as the state throws itself into the business of naked oppression at the expense of its alleged raison d'etre, keeping of the peace.

It would all be quite funny if someone's savta weren't lying dead in Petah Tiqwa.

So, how do we help prevent future attacks of this sort?

The answer is: allow individuals and companies to discriminate. The bus or cab driver is the first line of defense against terror attacks. He must be allowed to refuse any suspicious-looking fare, even if "suspicious" means looking "too Arabesque." Companies known to discriminate well will find themselves in great demand. Companies which habitually pass up our Yemenite and Sephardic brothers, fearing that they are "terrorists," will find themselves shunned by these communities. Very quickly, drivers will develop a keener eye. If not, other companies will enter the fray with drivers more adept at differentiating between wild-eyed Moslems and our darker complected brothers.

Another line of defense is to stop accepting cash fares on buses and sherut taxis. Accept only pre-paid tickets. This puts part of the responsibility for screening upon the cashier who can speak to the customer, detect a suspicious accent and request some sort of reliable ID (not necessarily a state-issued one). Tickets might also be purchased from automatic vending machines with pre-paid magnetic cards which could double as picture ID cards. Again, such pre-paid cards would be available only from trained cashiers.

Even our leftist friends, who wring their hands in concern over the transportation needs of the Arab community, might find these solutions interesting. After all, under a completely free market in public transportation, Arab drivers and companies could concentrate upon servicing the special needs of their communities -- even passing up us "sons-of-pigs-and-monkeys" if they so choose.

If Israeli public transportation were opened up to unlimited competition and the restrictions against discrimination lifted, we would very quickly find that we had safer, cheaper, and more responsive PT alternatives. Most importantly, we'd have fewer dead grandmothers on our cities' streets.

IDF: WE CAN'T HELP IT!

News Item:

Four members of the Amar family of Karmiya were wounded on Friday in a Qassam rocket attack, including their seven-month-old son Osher. Israel Radio reported that Osher had regained consciousness at Beer Sheva's Soroka Hospital after doctors managed to absorb all of his cranial bleeding.

The family, evacuees from the former settlement of Nisanit in northern Gaza, were sitting inside their "caravilla" (trailer-villa supplied by the Israeli Expulsion Authority) when the rocket fell outside their home. The combination of the home's thin cardboard walls and the force of the rocket that was packed with explosives and shrapnel caused extensive damage to the home.

Meanwhile, Defense Ministry sources denied charges on Saturday that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and the entire security establishment were failing to provide maximum security for residents of the South, who are frequent victims of Qassam rocket attacks.

"Recently the defense minister allocated an additional NIS 30 million to the existing budget of NIS 85 million invested in enhancing the security of residents of the South," the source said.

Mofaz has additionally demanded that the relevant authorities responsible for providing the security measures beef up their activities, the source said.

At present, Israel has no intention of cutting off the electric power in Gaza or shutting down the border crossings between Israel and Gaza, in response to such attacks, the source added.

"While Friday's attack and the harming of a baby is regrettable, one should remember that the Islamic Jihad are responsible. A terror organization who acts independently has no sentiment for the Palestinian public. Therefore, the question that needs to be asked is whether taking such drastic measures will succeed in halting the rocket attacks or harm the Palestinian public not involved in terror," the source said.

Residents of Karmiya decided Saturday to temporarily relocate to a recreational site in Ashqelon. Members of the community held an emergency meeting Saturday evening, during which they discussed methods of raising funds to protect their homes. The residents planned to demonstrate Sunday in front of the Defense Ministry, demanding greater protection against rocket attacks.

THE FREE CITY OF YITSHAR

News item:

The IDF has announced that it has removed soldiers securing the Jewish village of Yitzhar in Samaria this afternoon. Military sources in Central Command said the decision to pull the soldiers out on today came after "a spate of recent verbal and physical attacks on soldiers guarding the settlement." A soldier was allegedly beaten to the ground and his communication device was taken from him.

Great! Now that the government has given up the pretense of "protecting the settlements," the residents can stop paying taxes and spend the money on a REAL security service -- one that doesn't hide behind cement barriers, afraid to shoot back at the enemy. Rest assured that a private security firm will never try to evict its employers.

-- Uri DeYoung, Democratic Republic of Israel

From Jerusalem Post Talkback:

Re: Democratic Republic of Israel
Sgt. Barney Rosen - USA
02/03/2006 01:09

Democratic Republic of Israel, where have we heard that before? All of the communist dictatorships use that title and how democratic were they. The freaks inhabiting this "Democratic Republic" are lucky they are dealing with Israeli soldiers, this old Viet nam veteran would stomp them at least and depending on what they did would use his weapon.

Whoa, sarge! Put down the weapon for a minute! The "Democratic Republic of Israel" refers to the current state that worships at the armpit of unlimited democracy -- like the commie "workers' committees" which claim the right to do what they want with the property of others. It was my obtuse commentary on the current State of Israel. Sorry. My fault. However, if you'd bothered to read what I'd written, you'd see that I'm no communist.