Discussion on Middle East Conflict Dynamics

Three years ago, I served in the army

in Samaria on the West Bank.

In Ramallah,

the Arabs rioted,

so they sent me there to put down the riots.

Now-

Now, I want you to know

that not five minutes passed, the word spread through that

town like lightning, "Kahan is here." The rioting

stopped.

It's important that every one of you know what the name Kahan

means to the Arabs.

It means terror.

They're afraid,

and that's the only language they understand.

And for those nice Jews sitting here who say, "That's, that's

terrible," let me just

repeat what Moshe Arens once said to a group of UJA

givers in Jerusalem. One Jew got up and he said, "Why,

why, why must there always be, be war?

Why can't we sit down with the Arabs, coffee and cake, and we work the problem

out?"

And he said, "Sir,

this is the Middle East, not the Middle West."

That's right, it's the Middle East, and that's what the Arabs know and

understand. If you're good to them, you're not good, you're weak.

And if you're weak, you're dead.

And if you're strong, they listen to you.

I don't expect them to love me.

I'm not the kind of Jew who walks around begging

people to love him. I'm sick and tired of being...

You know when people love us? After every Holocaust, that's

when they love

us. That's when they love us.

That's when they give us plaques and monuments, and Jimmy Carter

gives us a Holocaust commission.

Well, I'm tired of Kaddish, and I'm tired of York sites,

and I'm tired of plaques

and mon- I don't want love, I want respect.