Response to a recent article in the Israeli daily Haaretz by its reporter Gideon Levy.

 

Following is a letter by Col. (res.) Eliezer Cohen (Cheetah), in response to a recent article in the Israeli daily Haaretz by its reporter Gideon Levy. 

 

Mr Gideon Levy

Haaretz

 

Re: Your article, "Ahmad Arrived in the World" from Jan 25, 2008

 

Have you ever asked yourself why the Palestinians, who have lived next to us for 60 years, having nothing but terror organizations and murder weapons? Why is a Palestinian woman, who went into labor in Tel Rumeida, a Palestinian city the size of Netanya, unable to find a maternity ward in her own city. Not one single maternity ward in the big city of Hebron?

 

Tonight I could not sleep because of your emotional, considerate, humane, warm and intellectual words - so much like you, Mr Levy. It was so moving to read, "A woman in labor in Tel-Rumeida, Hebron...walking all the way to the barrier...for no Palestinian ambulance is allowed into Israel." May I ask you why the ambulance couldn't take her to a maternity ward named after the great Arafat, in her own city, or in another Palestinian city? What poetic talent you have, Lord Byron; my bed was almost drowned in tears on reading, "Kefah Sider did not arrive...lying on the road with her husband at her side...and the neighbors getting her a mattress." How kind of them - why didn't they bring her into their house?

 

'In biting cold was her son, Ahmad, born." When he grows up, will he ask why his mother had to suffer all that? Will his father and mother ask where the millions of dollars of aid had gone? Or perhaps they know that the colossal amounts of aid had been spent on weapons and explosives, not leaving enough for even one single maternity ward in the whole Palestinian city of Hebron.

 

We are not as intellectual and as sensitive as you are, Mr Levy. We simply care for our children and our families first, and only when we are attacked and killed to we arm ourselves against our murderers. To remind you: in this same city of Hebron, Palestinian rioters previously attacked and murdered yeshiva students, at almost the same location where "she lay down in the cold".

 

I am not amazed at you. When I read your articles, it is as if I am reading what our enemies think. You never write a word in favor of your own wonderful country, that country that 22 Arab states, with their oil resources and infinite manpower ave endeavored, but failed, to destroy. The country that in the face of incessant attacks and terror has developed and flourished, and today holds a place of pride in the world, in the fields of economy, technology, medicine and art.

 

In the daily paper that gives you a free stage, I never read a word about the policeman who was murdered by Palestinians this week, nor have you mentioned the farmer who was shot dead by a sniper, while working on his farm south of the Gaza Strip last week. Have you ever written a word on the suffering of the people of Sderot who for seven long years have been living in terror of the Palestinians' Kassam missiles?

 

I found it necessary to respond with a few words to your emotional, one-sided story and pathetic words, but as I said, I am not amazed at you, not at all, but I am indeed amazed at your respectable editor, Mr Schocken, who allows your rubbish to be published in his paper.

 

Many of the good citizens of this country gave everything they have in the defense of their homeland and people. My brother, a decorated solider, gave his live in the defense of this land, as many other good citizens like him have done. As for myself, I am just a decorated soldier who fought Israel's wars for 24 years in the ranks of the standing army and another 20 years in the reserves, in order to permit you to live and flourish in this country and above all, to have the full freedom to write.

 

Col. (res.) Eliezer Cohen (Cheetah) is a hero of the six day war with impressives accomplishments.