The virtual reality pieces depicting the demonstration, released in the weeks leading up to it were varied. All stressed the final humiliation of the "Zionist dream." Only one, predictably posted by IJM Ltd. (Islamic Jihad Multimedia LTD.), depicted the future event with violence, the blood of the last Israelis running thick through the streets. It was quickly denounced by the Palestinian government, which, of course, was unwilling and unable to prevent it from being "sensated" by millions around the world. It was considered the primary motive behind the panic that caused thousands of the remaining Jewish inhabitants to flood Arafat International Airport in Lod, one-way tickets in hand, days before the demonstration actually took place.

The real event took place on a balmy summer evening, July 4, 2001, chosen for its thematic symbolism as well as to humiliate the Israelis who planned to uplift their waning spirits by quietly celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Entebbe rescue mission. But the days of Israeli heroism had long since come to an end. With signing of the second Oslo Agreements in 1995, a dramatic power shift had begun to take place, setting the stage for an eventual Palestinian takeover of all the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River.

Ironically, it was The Israeli Border Police, the last remaining branch of Israel's once formidable military, who were left to defend the myriad of Jewish enclaves and neighborhoods that constituted what was left of Israeli sovereignty in Palestine. The main focus of the demonstration was to be Jerusalem and the Knesset building, the symbols of Israeli authority over the land. The building, while still held by the Border Police, was little used as it had become easier for the legislators to debate decisions regarding the nation's survival on the Internet rather than risk the perils of the journey to Jerusalem. The West Bank settlements, ceded to the Palestinians under the third Oslo Agreements, had ceased to exit. The surviving refugees, tenaciously standing their ground in crowded "Jewish ghettos," now made up the bulk of the non-Arab population of the holy city.

In the north, the Triangle and the Galilee, which traditionally possessed large Arab populations, had been abandoned, except for a group of religious zealots who had managed to hold out in the mountains around Safed. The United States peace-keeping force on the Golan Heights, which was in place shortly after the signing of the peace treaty between Israel and the new "moderate" post-Assad Syrian government in 1998, had been withdrawn the following year due to adverse public opinion in that country following an attack that took the lives of 57 of its soldiers. The mortar attack was perpetrated by a young sergeant who was described by the Syrian government as "unstable." His trial and subsequent hanging in Damascus Square were attended by the international press, but the rumor that he was an Islamic fundamentalist recruited by the Syrian secret service, ready to die for "a greater rank" in the world to come has persisted.

Following the evacuation of U.S. troops the situation in northern Israel became untenable. Israel was literally cut in half, the Palestinian border having been only 15 kilometers from the coast north of Herzlia. With the port of Haifa relinquished, the lifeline to the central area of the country began in Ashdod. The convoys that traveled from that port to the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas were reminiscent of those of the pre-state days. Jews from the north who attempted to resettle in the sparsely populated areas of the Negev were rebuffed by the Arab "returnees" who received generous grants from the Palestinian Ministry of Absorption to settle there. Israel's objections at the United Nations were of no avail.

In the end, it was economic factors that led to the weakening of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. The economic boom in the country, which had characterized the early days of the "peace process," had collapsed as it became apparent that the "New Middle East" that the Israeli architects of the agreements had envisioned did not materialize. In place of economic cooperation between Israel and her neighbors was the economic sabotage that came with growing Islamic fundamentalism. The regional Middle Eastern headquarters proposed by PepsiCo, planned for Haifa was built, instead, in Amman. Major investors such as Intel, which had long-term investments in the county, found that the continuing Jewish "brain-drain" and the security situation made their ventures unsound. The famous "Silicon Wadis" reverted to what they had once been, rocky expanses -- adorned only by the shuttered buildings of a technological past.

Even Israel's much-acclaimed technological prowess became internationalized as local investment money flowed to the new "Sunshine Valleys" (named after the latest "optical computing" chips) of China and the Pacific Rim. By July, 2001 most native-born Israelis were no longer living in Tel Aviv and Holon, but were scattered throughout the world in places such as Teinstein and Haifong. Remarkably, a vast web of government institutions, economic and cultural interests, was held together by new high-speed communications. Israelis, in fact, were among the prime innovators (some claimed out of necessity) of the tremendous technological advances that had taken place on the Internet in recent years. This attributed to Israel's high ranking among the industrialized nations in GDP per capita (calculated by the Israel Bureau of Statistics, located in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Building in New York).

The Jerusalem "Tea Party" began with a massive rally at "Faisal" Stadium (formerly Teddy's Stadium) in the Malkha area in the south of the city. This modern commercial and industrial zone, with its large abandoned buildings, had been converted into the main staging point from which Palestinian refugees returning under "Kanoon-al-Rajaa" -- The Law of Return, were housed until being settled permanently in other parts of the country. The adjacent Jerusalem Mall, once among the most elegant in Israel, had been made into a mosque -- one of the largest in the Middle East. A small "suk" (market) was retained, so that the returnees could purchase provisions. It was home to the famous "Quraysh Cafe," named after the Meccan tribe with whom Mohammed had signed a treaty. Yassir Arafat had referred to this agreement, which the prophet later abrogated, as a model often in his speeches to his Muslim constituents since the signing of the first Oslo Agreement. The Israelis called it rhetoric.

The Arabs, many dressed in traditional Moslem attire and carrying beautiful brass teapots with long spouts set upon trays, listened attentively to the long speeches delivered in classical Arabic by the Imams. When "Il Rais" -- the President, approached the podium and broke into the local dialect of the masses, there were great cheers. He spoke of democracy. He spoke of Islam, of dreams fulfilled. He spoke of peace.

The demonstrators set out for the Knesset in, what was described by CNN, as "a euphoric trance," shouting and waving signs in English. "Representation Without Taxation is Undemocratic," a reference to the intolerable existence of the Israeli enclaves which must be integrated into the Palestinian State. (None of the major news organizations on hand referred to the fact that next door in the Islamic Republic of Egypt an "infidel" minority, the Coptic Christians, are forced to pay special taxes, a return to the dhimmi status of the Middle Ages). "Tea for Two -- Palestinian Arabs and Palestinian Jews," -- "The Democratic Islamic Republic of Palestine -- One Nation Under Allah, with Liberty and Justice for All."

The sight of the remnants of the Israeli Border Police, batting a hasty and frantic retreat from throngs of traditionally-clad Arabs in long white flowing robes peacefully offering them tea, was humiliating to those who still cling to the image of the "fighting Jew" of the early days of the State. Some soldiers later claimed to have been scalded with boiling brew, but like the "Greenmarch" (when thousands of Moroccans marched across their border taking possession of the sparsely-populated territory of the Western Sahara in the 1970's), upon which this demonstration was modeled, it was the masses who prevailed. The scene was repeated in the remaining Jewish enclaves throughout the country. Not a shot was fired as the last inch of Israeli territory fell into Arab hands. Israel had become the first nation in history to exist solely in cyberspace.

Following these events, the elderly statesman and Nobel Prize laureate, who as Israeli Foreign Minister and later Prime Minister, was credited with being the main architect of the Oslo Accords, posted these words to the Internet from a suburb of that Norwegian city where he had been living for a number of years:

"There is a time in international affairs, when past policies are said to cast shadows over the present. For some, these create an ominous darkness in their lives. But to the wise traveler through history they give shade, much as the palms of an oasis give shade and comfort to the desert wanderer on his journey to the city -- to higher civilization. Our two peoples, Arabs and Jews, were born into the same cradle of civilization. We began our journey through history as nomads, wanderers searching -- some searched for trade, their caravans crossing the empty expanses and bringing the greatest treasures and advances of the time to the Middle East. Others traveled in a quest for land and settlement. There was yet another search brought about by a great thirst -- a thirst for culture. From this Middle Eastern cradle, the world's great religions went forth to influence all humanity. Today, as the 21st century dawns, we are standing on the threshold of something entirely new. Once again, it is from the same Middle Eastern cradle that a new civilization is being born -- one that goes beyond what we have known until now, one that opens new horizons that a short time ago no one could envision -- the cyberspace nation.

"During an earlier juncture in history our people gave the world 'the Book of Books.' We now have the historic opportunity to create the 'Net of Nets.' Unfettered by the outmoded concepts of statehood tied to territory that bring with them endless dispute and bloodshed, we can now be free from the clouds of war, the insults of tyranny and the ruinations of suspicion. If our brethren, the Palestinians, have proven to be unworthy partners in our march toward the 21st century, clinging tenaciously to aged ideas of territorial xenophobia, then let it be. We will continue marching toward the future. We will now create the world's first really pure democracy while keeping the Jewish character of our nation -- a character that in the past has contributed so much to universal principles. It is truly a new Genesis from the burdens of the past into a new future. It marks a Greater Israel, in its pure meaning: scientifically, intellectually, technologically and morally.

"To those critics who say that our policies have created nothing more than an 'electronic diaspora,' I say the new state of things should be judged by its potential -- not just by old-fashioned thinking. For in spite of the problems that exist on the international scene, the never-ending Balkan war, the tensions between Japan and China and Islamic fundamentalism, we are living in a new world of almost unlimited opportunities. Greatness is not just real estate. Surely we have proved this. Israelis are at the forefront of many of the new technologies that have created this new state of things and have allowed us to keep our government institutions intact. We have more PhD's spread across the fiber-optic cables of the Internet than any other nation or institution. Israelis will make over 150 billion dollars with their brains this year alone.

"There are, of course, the challenges of those who cling to past concepts and wish to uproot Israeli participation in world bodies, claiming that it is no longer a state. For a number of years Israel held onto the Knesset building as a symbol of sovereignty, in order to fulfill the outdated requirement in international law that a state must have territory. Today, as the frontiers of a new civilization stand before us, the United Nations requires a new concept of the nation-state. We are sure our loyal friends in the United States of America will help us in this matter, as they have in the past. To my Jewish brethren who see shadows of darkness in the new situation, I remind them that the sages had a vision beyond the earthly Jerusalem, Yerushalyim Shel Mala -- Jerusalem of Above, one that transcends the worldly boundaries of the past. Through our borderless communication technology, we will reach out and make contact with those throughout the Middle East who still share our vision of a new reality. We serve a world sick of violence and an age tired of failure with a new vision -- to be free in a commonwealth of peace and freedom -- a promised land for all mankind."

POSTSCRIPT -- The Democratic Islamic Republic of Palestine and other Muslim states argued under the auspices of Japan, a permanent member of the Security Council since l999, that Israel's continued membership in the United Nations was a question of representation and not, as Israel claimed, a question of the retention of an existing membership. Japan's opinion prevailing, the issue became a procedural question to which the veto does not apply. The Security Council voted overwhelmingly that Israel could not be represented in the world body under its present circumstances. The United States abstained, but recommended that a committee be formed to study the issue of "cyber-sovereignty." On November 29, 2001, Israel ceased to be a member of the United Nations.

On November 30, 2001, revisionists in Yumen, China confiscated an Israeli-owned electric car factory valued at over a billion dollars and expelled the Israeli community. There was no official reaction from the central government in Beijing.

On the same day a number of Jewish institutions were fire-bombed in New York, Arkansas and Arizona. A coalition of New Branch Davidians and the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood claimed responsibility. The following day, Neo-Nazis staged "victory" marches in major capitals throughout Europe.

The "Internet Watch" of the Anti-Defamation League reported 64,723,000 anti-semitic "hits" on the Israeli net by the end of 2001, in addition to the record quantities of anti-Jewish materials posted on the Worldwide Web.

Those wishing more information with older P15 machines and above: http://www.vms.huji.ac.il/news/mabat/isranet. Those with new Multisun7 networks can keep tuned to Channel One -- on the Israel Information Super Highway.

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