The story of this arson has a mirror-image in contemporary theater. Here, in what emerges as an illuminating parable, Swiss playwright Max Frisch tells the distressing story of Gottlieb Biedermann, a cautious businessman who contends with a a rash of deliberately-set fires by succumbing to a deadly series of self-deceptions. Ultimately, Biedermann invites the arsonists into his home, lodges them, feeds them a grand dinner, and even provides them with matches. Not surprisingly, The Firebugs ends on an incendiary note. The play also ends, predictably, with a pathetic and revolting disclaimer from an academic "expert" -- a professor -- who has counseled appeasement all along.

There is an enormously important lesson here for present-day Israel. Faced with periodic epidemics of "arson" from militant Islamic terrorists, Jerusalem has responded again and again like the playwright's weak and foolish character. Asking the terrorists into Israel's very "home," because it believes that entreaty and reason are preferable to courage and struggle, the Government of Israel, from Rabin to Peres to Netanyahu, has prepared even to help light the fuse. Pretending for a long time that Hamas and P.L.O. are truly distinct and discrete -- a delusionary pretense that fit comfortably with the simple polarities favored by so many Israeli pundits -- Prime Minister Netanyahu still looks to his "Palestinian partners" for Israel's security and survival. It should come as a surprise to no one, therefore, that "arson" has become a growing problem for Israel, one that could soon even culminate in chemical, biological or even nuclear terrorism.

Netanyahu's immediate predecessors is done and cannot be undone. Indeed, by creating the conditions whereby each successive act of anti-Israel terrorism compelled a groveling Government to reaffirm its commitment to a so-called Peace Process, Messrs. Rabin and Peres created a lose-lose scenario. Should Netanyahu continue with the time-dishonored policy of incremental surrenders, the enemies of Israel will proceed with their elegantly orchestrated strategy of attrition and annihilation. If, however, Netanyahu should now stand firm, refusing further Arab demands for Israel's auto-destruction, Yasser Arafat -- a Nobel laureate and a "man of peace" celebrated at Clinton's White House -- will authorize increasingly murderous attacks on Jewish women and children -- attacks like the July 30 burning of primarily old women and young children at the Jerusalem market.

What, then, should be done at this painful time of Oslo's four-year anniversary? For Israel, this Peace Process was destined to fail. Founded upon a series of false assumptions and glaringly unreasonable expectations (e.g., the arch terrorist would join Israel in anti-Islamic counterterrorism) it has always been an Arab Trojan Horse leading Israel toward certain disaster. Taken together with ongoing and still planned surrenders of vital territories to enemy states, further concessions to Hamas/PLO will surely threaten Third Temple Commonwealth survival. For those who still believe that Hamas is an enemy of PLO, it is time to acknowledge the former's primary policy statement: "The PLO is among the closest to Hamas, for it constitutes a father, a brother, a relative, a friend. Can a Muslim turn away from his father, a brother, a relative or his friend? Our homeland is one, our calamity is one, our destiny is one and our enemy is common to both of us."

For the past four years, Jerusalem's "Palestinian partners" have been lighting and relighting the fuse. As long as their Trojan Horse remains within Israel's gates, the PLO/Hamas will make it impossible for Israel to do what is needed to survive. In this connection, Arafat fully intends to keep all of his genocidal promises to the Jewish State. As he stated very recently: "I have no use for Jews; they are and remain Jews."

At the end of The Firebugs, in the closing moments of the play, as the sky reddens from fire, the all-too-familiar "professor," the expert, exclaims:

I can no longer be silent. Cognizant of the events now transpiring, whose evil nature must be readily apparent, the undersigned submits to the authorities the subsequent statement....(Amid the shrieking of sirens, he reads an involved statement, of which no one understands a word. Dogs howl. Bells ring. There is the scream of departing sirens and the crackling of flames. The Professor hands Biedermann a paper.) I disassociate myself!

# Click for the B'tzedek commentary index.