Cohen v Levy
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Colonel Eliezer Cohen, Israeli Air Force (Ret.) aka Cheetah, an ex member of the Knesseth, responses to Ha'aretz's columnist Gideon Levy's recent article in favor of the so-called suffering Palestinians * I am glad to host Col Cohen on my blog * Cohen's article was translated to English by Joshua levy *
Have you ever asked yourself [Gideon Levy] how come the Palestinians, living 60 years next to us, have nothing but terror organizations and murder weapons? Why does a Palestinian woman, who suffered labour pain in Tel-Rumeida, a Palestinian city the size of Natania, could not find a maternity ward in her own city? Not one simple 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. So moving to read “A woman lying down in labour 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 could not take her to a maternity ward on the name, for example, of great Arafat, in her own city, or another Palestinian city? What poetic talent you have, Mr 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 neighbours getting her a mattress”. How kind of them – why haven’t they brought her into their house?
“In biting cold was her son, Ahmad, born”. When he grows up, would he ask why his mother had to suffer all that? Would his father and mother ask where them 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 just one single maternity ward in the whole Palestinian city of Hebron.
We are not as intellectual and sensitive as you are Mr. levy. We simply care for our children and our family first, and only when we are attacked and killed do we arm ourselves against our murderers. To remind you: in this same city of Hebron had, in the past, Palestinian rioters attacked and murdered Yeshiva students, at almost the same location where she “lied down in the cold”.
I am not amazed at you. When I read your articles, it is as if I read what our enemy thinks. You never write a word in favour of your own wonderful country, the country that 22 Arab states, with their oil resources and infinite manpower have endeavoured, but failed to destroy. The country that in the face of incessant attacks and terror has developed and flourished, and is holding today a place of pride in the world, in the fields of economy, technology, medicine and art.
On the daily that gave 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 in the farm south of the Gaza Strip, last week. Have you ever written a word on the suffering of the people of Sderot, who for 7 long years have been living under the terror of the Palestinians’ kassam missiles?
I found it necessary to dedicate a few words in response to your emotional, one sided story and pathetic word, 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 are the good citizens of this country who gave everything they got in the defence of their homeland and people. My brother, a decorated soldier, gave his life on the defence of this land, as many other good citizens like him have done. As to myself, I am just a decorated soldier who fought Israel’s wars for 24 years in the ranks of the regular army and another 20 years in the reserves, in order to allow you to live and flourish in this country, and above all, to have the full freedom to write.
Eliezer Cohen