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February 13, 2012
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Menachem Wecker: Business Schools Teach Real Estate Despite Troubled Housing Market
February 10, 2012
Lisa M. Krieger: Man with defibrillator demands access to his own heart's information
David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
February 9, 2012
Laura McMullen: 10 Least Expensive Public Schools for Out-of-State Students
Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Caught off-guard? President's Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer gives those who need a reason not to vote for him, a darn good one
Suzanne Bohan: Leaping lizards! Tiny reptiles advancing robot design
February 6, 2012
Jonathan Tobin: Iran Threatens Israel With Destruction, But the New York Times Doesn't Hear It
Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
Oct. 8, 2003
/ 12 Tishrei, 5764
The real duel over fencing
By
Jackie Mason & Raoul Felder
http://www.jewishworldreview.com |
The critics — and there are many across the world — of the fence Israel is in the process of erecting as a defense against invading murderers do not seem to understand the basic difference between a sword and a shield. Bing Crosby explained it nearly fifty years ago.
On July 25, 1944 Crosby ambled into a recording studio, was joined by the Andrew sisters and was handed sheet music for a Cole Porter song he had never seen before. A half hour later he left the studio having recorded a song that subsequently sold more than a million records and was at the top of the Billboard charts for 8 weeks. Its name was not "Don't Fence Me Out."
For readers whose age is little more than the size of their suit, or regardless of age whose IQ hovers around the same number and cannot figure it out, the name of the song is, "Don't Fence Me In."
The point is, the offending element of fences and walls is when they are meant to keep people in, not out.
America has created ditches, barbed wire fences, electronic devices, instituted patrols, border crossing stop-points, and utilized guard dogs all of which are intended to keep undesirable people and products out of the country. Before 9/11 these systems were not even aimed at terrorists who sought to sneak into this country to do violence, but were designed to prevent smuggling of illegal drugs and commercial merchandise upon which custom duties had not been paid into the U.S., as well as curtail illegal immigration and keep migrant Mexican workers out of America. No one — except occasionally spokespersons for migrant workers and for people seeking political asylum — voiced any objection, since every country has the self-evident right to determine who or what will be allowed entrance to its homeland.
In any developed country, every house or apartment has a front door with a lock. The purpose of the door and lock is to keep unwanted people out, not to lock people in. If it were otherwise keys to the doors would be on the inside of the door not on the outside. As a matter of fact — putting children and pets aside - if the purpose were not to keep people out there would be no need for these doors — let alone locks — at all.
The opponents of the Israeli self-defense fence immediately likened it to the Berlin Wall or, more usually, the Warsaw Ghetto. The Warsaw Ghetto was created by the Nazis as a way-station to the death camps — the way the cattle today are penned in at the Chicago stockyards before being taken to the slaughterhouse — not to protect the citizens of Warsaw against the Jews. If the walls of the Ghetto were put up because Jews had become suicide bombers, infiltrating into Warsaw, blowing up buses, killing infants and children, this fact has managed to be hidden from history for fifty years.
Similarly the Berlin Wall was not built to protect East Berliners from suicidal West Berliners, seeking to become martyrs, with visions of 17 virgins in heaven dancing in their heads, as they slipped into East Berlin, bent on reckless violence, murder and their own self-destruction.
And, as we know from the graphic newsreels, the East German border guards were shooting at people seeking to escape East Berlin, not trying to enter the city.
Some few of Israel's critics (and across the world the distinction between anti-Semites and anti-Zionists is rapidly being extinguished) have also made a comparison with the Great Wall of China, it was built by the Chinese to keep the Mongols out, not to keep the citizens of China Chinese fraternizing with the hoards sweeping down from the north.
Walls or fences can be torn down, altered, dismantled or moved. Not one Jewish life extinguished by the invading terrorist fanatics can be resurrected — even in Bethlehem.
The on-line Palestine Report — guess about their impartiality — interviewed Bethlehem's Mayor, Hanna Nasser. It noted that in the 1948 war his family lost properties. Of course, outside of the mere mention of the war, there is no mention that it was an aggressive Arab war aimed at the extinction of Israel — a goal that Arabs are hard-put to repudiate, even merely in name only, so many years later.
The Mayor is quoted as saying "What makes good walls are good neighbors." This obviously is, what he believed to be, a clever reference to Robert Frost's poem Mending Wall, which contains the lines "Good fences make good neighbors." Equally as obvious, he did not read the poem. The poem is about two old neighbors, old friends who are walking along the boundaries between their property, as they do each year, picking up the rocks, stones and tree branches that have fallen over time,
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
The poem then goes on to explain that the poet's friend, walking beside him, said he adopted the "… good fences" expression from his father.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought it so well...
Mayor Nasser might do well to read the entire poem, since the problems Jews have with the Palestinians do not involve apples or pines nor are the Arabs good neighbors. In fact it might do many of the Palestinian a great deal of good if they spent their time reading Robert Frost, who wrote of the simple virtues and honest lives of Americans, rather than devote their reading to bomb-making manuals.
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