On Wednesday, smack in the middle of a working week, 1200 of us from the Northeast flew, drove or were bussed into Washington DC to strengthen the congressional commitment to help sustain Israel in this difficult time, amid the embroilment of so many Islamic Middle Eastern and North African states. We had not only given up a working day, but had paid between $120 and $150 for the privilege of doing so. This covered transportation, breakfast, lunch and supper en route or in DC. This 1200 represented a 20% rise over 2010 figures of 1,000, and that in turn represented a gain over the prior year of some 20%.
 
We saw 535  members of Congress, speaking with them about the perils facing Israel, and the indissoluble bond between our two nations, the US and Israel, as well as the non-transparency of the Palestinian Arabs and their odd reception of the annual US gift of  400 million dollars: Take the money, and poof! It is gone. It immediately disappears without a trace of aiding its intended recipients, only to pop up in new media, materials and textbooks that fan the flames of hatred against Jews and Israel’s existence in TV, radio and schools throughout the territory. These gilded-by-foreign-aid ingots of hate rouse the populace not to economic productivity or innovative entrepreneurship, but to repeated ransacking of opportunity—encouraging attacks against neighboring Israel by any means possible. 
 
This past fortnight, this hate-fueled violence resulted in the shocking brutality of butchering a family of five in the town of Itamar—two parents and three young children knifed in the middle of the night, stabbed for no other reason than the celebration of butchery. Candy and sweets were handed out by the Palestinian Arabs to their children and passersby when the ugly news of the five murdered Jewish victims of hate emerged.
 
We 1,200 were notably successful, judging by the warm reception accorded us by the men and women into whose offices we went in teams of 6 to 8 NORPAC members. This reporter alone visited Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer, neither of whom was free, as they had a full roster of visitors on the days we visited, and the scheduler could not shoehorn in any more minutes into a  sausage-bursting day. The major affect one noted in all the senators and representatives, in fact, was one of exhaustion. They take meeting after meeting, without a break, all day for the months from February until late May, and they barely have time to scan the news tickers running at the foot of the muted TVs in their offices.
 
Events come at a rapid pace in that part of the world, the Middle East, and the recent discussions of ex cathedra fiat statehood for the disputed minority makes these delegations all the more important. People do not necessarily all read the papers or follow Drudge for the latest scoop. For those who feel that Israel is outnumbered and outspent, on weapons as well as PR, our day’s work was an imperative that sees results every time we hear the headlines.

After the delegation returned, we wrote follow-up notes to the senatorial aides and assistants with whom we interacted, reminding them that they had pledged to sign the Iranian transparency agreement, HR 740, and planned to continue their support of embattled Israel.

marion ds dreyfus                        .    .    .                 13 April 20©11

When the subject of illegal Palestinians living inside of Israel is broached, we more often than not view it through the prism of  terrorism directed against the Jewish state. Considering the collaboration between Israeli Arabs and Islamic terrorist organizations in the region, such as Hamas or Hezbollah, that’s not an altogether baseless concern.

We’ve also been told countless times of the alleged plight of Palestinians working inside of Israel illegally, often within the context of a broader condemnation of Israel’s construction of homes for citizens living on the West Bank.

What’s less frequently discussed are the problems posed by the large sub-population of Palestinian illegal aliens living within Israel on a daily basis. The gravity of this problem though was made apparent recently when an eleven year-old Israeli boy was habitually raped and tortured at the hands of four Palestinian men. As gruesome as this crime is, it reflects the enormous problems you invite into your country when you sanction the presence of hundreds of thousands-or in our country’s case, millions-of illegal aliens. Peruse New York tabloids from the past decade and you will find hundreds of criminal incidents that illegal aliens lie at the heart of, including one of the most notable cases, the brutal murder of acclaimed actress/director Adrienne Shelly by a nineteen year-old IA from Ecuador.

Nations can continue to ignore this problem-in order to reap the dubious benefits of access to a cheap supply of labor-or they can grapple with the enormous human cost of illegal immigration. As last week’s horrific revelations in Israel demonstrate, this is a problem that all Western nations must face, even if they are reluctant to do so.