IMRA challenges Rabbis For Human Rights and "Rabbis For Olives' Rights"

There certainly is some irony that as you sent me this note it was reported on the radio that the olive trees next to Hermish are being removed for security reasons. The terrorist who reached Hermish last night apparently didn't loiter around seeking a way in. He went straight for a small gap under a fence. How did he know it was there?

I frankly find it disturbing and disappointing that when discussing issues of life and death that you are willing to dismiss the possibility that under certain circumstances the olive harvest is being exploited for other purposes without subjecting it to any serious consideration. I find it particularly puzzling that your appeal to logic is that exploiting the olive harvest would hurt the economic interests of the Palestinians. If immediate economic interests truly drove the Palestinian program the Palestinians would never have launched the continuing terrorist attacks over the many years of Oslo - knowing that time and again the attacks would cause Israel to impose closure and other measures that ultimately plunged them into abject poverty.

It would be a welcome relief to see some published remarks from your group that struggle to strike a balance between the security needs of human beings and vegetation. The upcoming Tu Bishvat might be an appropriate venue. It would also be a welcome relief if your organization struggled with striking a balance between the security needs of human beings and the "right" to build illegal buildings that are strategically located to provide the Palestinian firing positions (just recently Minister Ben Eliezer's office told me that they had a "great many" orders in the hopper to demolish just such buildings. But they don't.)

And, of course, it would be a great relief if your organization took a vocal stand denouncing the position taken by your Palestinian colleagues that the "armed struggle" may continue beyond the Green Line. I note that, unfortunately, you "call upon.......... Palestinian human rights groups to condemn suicide bombings, and the continual murderous attacks on Israeli civilians" - as if it is acceptable to murder soldiers or settlers ("settlers" do not qualify as "civilians" in Palestinian eyes).

So here we are today when your organization has earned another few minutes of media exposure - at a time that the Palestinian leadership is busy testing the waters to see if their assessment that they can murder Israelis beyond the Green Line to their heart's content without fear of criticism from the Israeli Left. Your silence on this is deafening.

Is Rabbis For Human Rights "leftist"? I would hope so. Because at least then there would be an ideological explanation for this grossly skewed view of "human rights". An apparently dogmatic view that doesn't appear to entertain the possibility that there are circumstances that Jewish lives take precedent over Arab trees. "Blood libel"? More a call in the genuine hope that it is possible to induce you and your ilk to send a clear message over the airwaves denouncing the Palestinian position that they will continue the "armed struggle" beyond the Green Line.

Will it make a difference?

Can you afford to take the chance that your now silent voices might have made a difference?

Best regards,
Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA