SARIDISM AND PRAGMATISM

By Simon Fischler

With Judge Richard Goldstone retracting his conclusions against Israel in his United Nations report, you would think a media group such as Haaretz would apologize to the citizens of Israel and the soldiers who defend her for all of its disparaging coverage based on Goldstone’s now-recanted conclusions.

Of course this would be way too much to expect from Haaretz. A good example of the paper’s inability to admit they might have been wrong is the title of a recent article in the “Paper of the Perpetual Whine” written by Sir Yossi Sarid, aristocrat of the political far left called “Who is Israel’s King of Corruption?”

As expected, Sir Sarid lambasted just about everyone and their mother who is not ready to give the Palestinians every inch of land from Jerusalem to Los Angeles, and not accepting full blame in the name of the Jewish Nation for every problem this world has faced.

That is Yossi Sarid and that is why he and those like him are the most corrupt politicians and commentators in Israel.

Yossi Sarid walked away from the citizens of Israel when they dared to make him pay for endlessly trying force feed them a Peace Agreement that was never going to happen by voting Meretz down from ten seats to six in the Knesset in 2003.

His party, Meretz, lost most of the power it had in the Knesset; not because the people of Israel are stupid and ignorant -- as Mr. Sarid obviously thinks, but because he and his former party clung to beliefs proven wrong when the Palestinians rejected peace, statehood and reconciliation in 2000 at Camp David and 2001 at Taba.

Yossi Sarid and just about everyone at Haaretz are the ones who are morally corrupt and have no right to judge anyone.

All one needs to do is look at what Haaretz has produced since Judge Goldstone retracted the conclusions in his report. They have done nothing but make excuses for why they were right to lambaste Israel; nothing but nonsense and certainly not worthy of being in print.

The latest schtick for the left here in Israel (i.e., Haaretz, Sarid et al.) is a spate of dire predictions for Israel and her politicians as the Palestinians inch closer and closer to a unilateral declaration of Statehood at the United Nations in September.

Why do the Palestinians refuse to negotiate with Israel? Because they have not changed their political goals since 1948: they still hope to destroy Israel. If they negotiate they will have to compromise, just as Israel will. By going the route of a United Nations Unilateral Declaration, the hope is to gain statehood without out making any of the compromises needed to end this conflict.

However, rather than carping and whining a la Haaretz and friends, now is the time for Israel to get organized and move against the Palestinians and their insidious moves against her.

Israel must remind Europe, Russia and the U.N. that unilaterally declaring a Palestinian state is not simply counter to their demands of Israel NOT to act unilaterally, it is also contrary to the agreements signed by the Palestinians. Further it is essentially illegal by the UN’s own law which clearly states an agreement must be negotiated.

Now is the time for Israel and her supporters to press the offensive both diplomatically with other governments and at the UN, including the many grass roots bloggers and supporters to get the word out.

It must also be made clear that if the Palestinians do declare a state unilaterally, Israel can -- and probably will -- annex (in effect legally, since the Palestinians and their supporters will have made the General Assembly recommendations and security council resolutions null and void) the land and the major settlements that are as close to the Green Line as possible. The Palestinians will receive NO land in compensation.

Now is the time for the leaders of Israel, especially Benjamin Netenyahu and Tzipora Livni to be pragmatic, to form a coalition that can withstand what will be one of the most dangerous years diplomatically for Israel.