Dr. Anat Berko (Likud) has been a member of the Knesset for nearly a year, but only this week did she undergo her first real baptism by fire, when she became the target of critical barbs from the Left for daring to say there was no "P" in Arabic and this proved that the word "Palestina" was a name the Arabs of Israel had only adopted, because -- as she put it -- "no people would give itself a name it couldn't pronounce." MK Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) condemned Berko's statements via a real-time tweet from the Knesset plenum and added that Berko had claimed that there was no Palestinian people. Zandberg also mocked Berko by saying, "No brains -- no worries." The media picked up the story quickly. But Berko had not said any such thing. In an interview with the Israel Hayom weekend supplement, she explained: " What I'm saying is that the name 'Palestina' came from the Romans' attempt to wipe out the Kingdom of Judea. Arabs have no P in their language, but adopted the name. It was long before 1967, and there is evidence of it being used at the beginning of the 20th century. The British [in documents from the Mandatory period] referred to this place as 'Palestine-Eretz Israel.' My statements in the Knesset plenum were made as a side reference, and people made a big deal out of them. No one said there was no such people. But they [the Palestinians] certainly adopted the name," Berko says. "Obviously, the nationalist definition of the Arabs in the Land of Israel who are most populous in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza as a separate people began as a response against Zionism. The experts in Meretz might think I was talking nonsense, but the Arab MKs thought otherwise and an entire discussion -- furious on their part -- began about where they came from. Some of them claim that they are the descendants of the Jebusites, and others say that they belong to the ancient Canaanite people. The word 'Palestina' was taken from the biblical Pheonician people." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to take steps against some Arab MKs. What is your opinion about that? "[Joint Arab List MK] Ahmad Tibi said in a speech that we, the Jews, are here just as the Crusaders were in the past. That is, we are temporary and they [the Arabs] are eternal," Berko says. "The Arab MKs sometimes meet with foreign envoys not as representatives of the state, but as opponents of it. Foreign Ministry officials are not permitted to sit in on their meetings when they meet with foreign leaders. Sometimes they [the Arab MKs] order them [the Foreign Ministry officials] to leave the meeting rooms. They use Israeli passports to operate against the state. Israel doesn't appear on their maps. They don't recognize our existence. "Their coalescence as a separate people was, as I've said, an antithesis to Zionism. The Arabs of Gaza aren't like the Arabs in Judea and Samaria, and at times they have nearly no common ground. The state that's here, Israel, is what created their identity, and that can't be ignored." Berko also notes: "Incidentally, I've already said these things in the Knesset. If MKs would bother to show up for meetings they would have heard them. Tamar Zandberg just wanted to make a political and media fuss about it. MKs mostly come to the meetings where the media is present. They don't bother to show up for discussions on bills, even important ones, like the ones that benefit soldiers, for example. If the prime minister is coming and they know ahead of time that the media will be there, then they appear." It was hinted that you only made it into the Knesset because your husband [Dr. Reuven Berko] writes for this paper, and journalist Shimon Shiffer called you a "cow" on TV. "It's very unfortunate that there are rude sexists who think that it doesn't matter that you're a lieutenant-colonel In the reserves, have written books and lectured all over the world -- they still believe that you can't get anywhere on your own without your husband to fix things for you. As far as Shiffer goes, I watched the broadcast and I saw how people sat in the studio and stayed quiet. Not one of them thought to speak out against the hurtful words. Some of them did text me later that they were sorry, but in real time, they said nothing. "Even when I'm angry at someone or disagree with what he's saying, I watch my mouth and don't speak crudely. But some people behave differently." A soldier up to the last second Berko was dropped into politics by Netanyahu, who used his prerogative to reserve a place for her on the Likud Knesset list. At first, she was slotted in as No. 11, but when MK Benny Begin agreed to return to politics, she was moved down to the 23rd place, which was not considered a sure Knesset seat. Begin later called Berko and apologized for his reserved place on the list coming at her expense. Berko told Begin she wasn't angry, and it wasn't a tragedy if she wasn't elected to the Knesset. Married and a mother of three, Berko is an academic with a doctorate in criminology who has written books about suicide bombers while attempting to understand how their minds work. She grew up in Ramat Gan and in the army advanced up the ranks in the most combat-oriented jobs then open to women, including head of women's officer training and commander of the IDF's Prison 400. While serving as head of the prison, the facility received a citation for outstanding volunteerism when she made a precedent-setting decision to allow the female inmates to go to Rishon Lezion to volunteer with disabled children. After she was discharged, Berko stayed in the security field as a representative of the defense minister, and acquired a unique professional reputation when she presented her doctoral thesis on the people who send out suicide bombers and the differences between them and criminal murderers. A year after completing her doctorate, Berko published her book "The Path to Paradise," about the internal world of suicide bombers and their dispatchers. After that, she wrote another book titled "The Smarter Bomb," which deals with women's and children's involvement in terrorism. They were both translated into English and published internationally. Berko was also a visiting professor at George Washington University and has taught at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya. She has been asked to lecture in front of American forums such as the U.S. State Department, the directors of the FBI, the New York Police Department, and also in Europe. Israel's Foreign Ministry has frequently brought her in. She has spoken in front of a delegation of IDF representatives in the U.S. at the request of then-military attache Benny Gantz, and also before the Israeli U.N. delegation under Ambassador Ron Prosor, where she addressed the issue of hunger striking among security prisoners. Until she was elected to the Knesset, Berko was still in the IDF reserves. Berko has security in her blood, and many of the bills she brings to the Knesset are tied in one way or another to security. Her bill that would make professional training soldiers receive in the army applicable to parallel civilian jobs is due to pass its final reading before the end of the current Knesset session. And this year, the first class of the program she founded to train teachers during their army service will graduate after four years of specialized education. As an expert on terrorism, how do you view the knife attacks we've been dealing with in recent months? "I have sat in the most heavily guarded prisons in the country as an observer, I've sat with the murderers' attorneys, and I've witnessed many hours of courtroom discussion. I did very serious work, at the end of which I assessed that soon more children would be involved in terrorism. I also said that the Arabs would start committing terrorist attacks against each other, and they thought I was crazy. There is very widespread incitement, and today it's 'to be a shahid [martyr] or not to be.' The incitement is enormous, from every direction. Soon we'll see that it's abnormal not to be a terrorist. They plant the values of terrorism very deeply. The government institutions in Ramallah are in danger because they're trying to stop the wave [of terrorism], because they understand it hurts them. But what we're seeing is that they, too, in schools and on television, participate in the incitement because Hamas is breathing down their necks. So they pay the shahids and speak against the State of Israel. If they stopped it, Hamas would throw them off a cliff. It's a life and death struggle. They can't live together," Berko says. Berko wants to make it clear that the recent controversy has not deterred her. "It did become a joke at home, but after the attacks on me I said I was strong, I'd sat with the worst murderers, and now I see what the politicians did to me as an attempt to silence me. But no one will silence me. I'll keep on even if they slander me -- in the world as well as in Israel -- because they tried to silence me there, too." How was the move into politics? You were a surprise name on the Likud list. "In 2000, I interviewed Benjamin Netanyahu. He said then that the Internet would bring down the dictatorial regimes around us. He was right. But we were acquainted already. He saw my interviews in the media and chose to bring me into the Likud." A test of democracy Berko says that she is not "a part of the harsh, unfriendly politics we see here. I still don't see myself as a politician. Even today, I mostly sit with my friends from the army in the MKs' cafeteria. I don't have the bug. I'm one of the first ones to arrive and one of the last ones to leave the Knesset. I go to discussions held by different lobbies. Even the Joint Arab List's Lobby for Education in the Arab Sector." Berko says she holds "a very liberal and democratic worldview, but doesn't want [to see] moves that will lead to us [Israel] committing suicide. There are people on the extreme Left who approach the positions of the Arab faction. Sometimes, they vote together." You're also a member of the Likud party. At some point, you'll have to run in the primaries, meet with activists and members of the Likud Central Committee. Are you ready? "I seems I'll run in the Likud primaries next time. I probably won't hand out treats, but it's enough that they tried to haze me for people to know who I am. I think the prime minister will take a sane, right-wing ideological line, unlike the Left and the Zandberg types, who live in a fantasy world. Let Zandberg keep visiting the grave of [PLO founder Yasser] Arafat, as she's already done, and we'll hold on to the keys of our dear country." The prime minister is currently promoting a bill that could lead to some Arab MKs being dismissed, but you said in the past you had no problem with [MK] Hanin Zoabi serving in the Knesset. "I said before I was elected that Israeli democracy was strong enough to take someone like Zoabi. I came into the Knesset with a very positive approach, but now I see Zoabi, who screams that we're poisoning the ground in [Arab] villages; [MK Jamal] Zahalka, who shouts 'fire' on the Temple Mount during terrorist attacks, and [MK Basel] Ghattas, who takes part in flotillas against Israel, and now I say that Israeli democracy must not destroy itself. These Arab MKs are doing damage to the Arab public." So as someone who has studied terrorists, do you see a solution on the horizon? "I think it's definitely possible to make greater use of psychological warfare. In my opinion, the reason why each terrorist attacker chose to act should be reported and we should pressure [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] to come to the negotiating table without preconditions. Reporting the reasons for the murders will reduce the glory that surrounds the murderers and stop them from becoming role models. For example, there was a case in which a young woman's fianc left her, so she decided to commit murder. Young people use it as a way of solving problems. When we report [the reasons,] we take the glory away from them." "I know of another case of a young woman whose father was forcing her to marry a divorced older man she didn't want to, so she went to murder Jews. In my opinion, we should look at what Abbas' own children are doing and present the education they received at home. That information must not be kept a secret."
