ISRAEL IS BEING TAKEN FOR A SUCKER

By Schmoel Yitzhak

The late, great American comedian W.C. Fields once uttered a deathless line that went like this, "Never give a sucker an even break."

So effective was the bromide that Fields eventually made a movie of the same name which, not surprisingly, was a big hit.

Without question, the time has come for Benjamin Netanyahu to digest the Fields' wisdom and fully realize how the Middle East's only democracy has become the "sucker" which never gets an "even break" from both friend and foe alike.

You can start with the Gilad Shalit affair and understand why and how the Arabs turn Israel into the sucker role and how the Jews never get an even break.

When an IDF soldier is kidnapped it should not be an accepted fact -- as it is everywhere in the world -- that it's no big deal. There should be an immediate and lethal response to the kidnappers because -- as we have so painfully seen -- the longer the wait, the higher the price Israel must pay.

Where else in the world would a trade-off of one soldier for more than 1,000 terrorists be accepted as a fair deal? The disparity boggles the mind until one harks back to Fields' commentary that suckers never will be given an even break.

What it immediately tells the Arabs -- in this case the Hamas terrorists -- is that Israel always can be taken for a ride and the proof was immediate. No sooner had the ink dried on the Shalit exchange pact, Hamas boldly declared that it would attempt more kidnappings. Which put Israel right back to Square One and atop the All-Tme Sucker list.

"We must make every effort to assure that terrorists will not again succeed to abduct Israelis," writes Moshe Arens in Haaretz, "and the mega-exchange deal that freed Shalit will be the last such deal made by any Israeli government."

That's more easily said than done since a precedent has been set that only encourages Hamas -- not to mention Hezbollah -- to pull off more abductions, no matter how hard the IDF tries to thwart them.

As we have witnessed over the past decades, the Sucker Syndrome smothers Israel over all points of the poltical spectrum and no better example is the incessant demand from our so-called Allies to halt construction in Judea, Samaria and parts of Jerusalem.

Well, Bibi did get suckered into one of those deals. He once acceded to these demands from America and the European Union. He did issue a "Stop Building" order on the grounds that this lengthy moratorium eventually would lure Mahmoud Abbas back to the negotiating table since, after all, it was Abbas who was demanding such a moratorium.

Ah, but the weeks turned into months and not a peep was heard from the Palestinian Authority about resuming talks. Finally, the moratorium ended and the only result was that Israel's Prime Minister was taken for a sucker.

The same thing happened with Operation Cast Lead and the damning Goldstone Report which even Judge Goldstone, himself, later refuted. But by that time, Israel has been taken for a sucker again. This time by a Jew named Goldstone.

That mess began with an endless Hamas rocket blitz aimed at Sderot, Ashdod, Ashkelon and all points in the Negev. At long, last Israel said, "Enough already," invaded Gaza and was en route to the destruction of Hamas when the usual American-European peacemakers intervened, forcing Israel to abort Cast Lead just as it was about to accomplish its worthy ends.

There was a rationale for calling off the invasion and that was an agreement that the so-called treaty would result in an end to rocketry, mortar fire and assorted other attacks against Israel. Once again, Israel was suckered; the pact was agreed upon and -- guess what? -- to this day the rocketry continues as any citizen of Ashdod will confirm.

What's the lesson for Bibi? Don't be a sucker. When you have a worthy offensive going; KEEP IT GOING; PUT THE ENEMY ON THE DEFENSIVE AND TURN A DEAF EAR TO THE "PEACEMAKERS" UNTIL THE MISSION IS ACCOMPLISHED.

Treaties on paper have the lasting value of toilet tissue and inevitably reduce the Jewish signee into the realm of sucker-hood.

Sad to relate but that appears to be the case with the Israeli-Egypt peace treaty. What's left of it hardly suggests permanency as the so-called Arab Spring sinks into a cesspool of anarchy. The international media conveniently forgot what happened to CBS's "60 Minutes" correspondent Lara Logan who was sexually assaulted by a gang during one of those "pro-democracy" demonstrations in Cairo. According to Logan, someone in the mob shouted, "Jew!" and the attack was on.

Sorry, but those street demonstrations in Cairo have not spawned a surge toward Western-style Democracy in the Islamic-Arab Middle East although the international news media would sucker you into believing such a marvelous event was happening.

And while all this is going on months have passed and thousands have been killed in Syria while the butcher Assad escapes with virtual impunity.

I wonder how many times Assad has seen "Never Give A Sucker An Even Break."