By Sig Demling
There are certain realities of life that cannot be denied. Viz and to wit:
* EXPLOSIONS: If a Grad rocket blows up in your vicinity, chances are you're going to get hurt; maybe even exterminated. It's a fact of life.
* IRON DOMES: The antidote to rockets is a device that is able to defuse Grads and Kassams before they wreak havoc. However, there are precious few Iron Domes and thousands of rockets. Thus, the Domes are limited in scope. It's a fact of life.
* TWO-STATE SOLUTION: It sounds good and looks good on paper. But since the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan was set forth the Arabs have rejected such a plan as well as rejecting Israel. It's a fact of life that has been repeated over and over. Attempts at a two-state solution have failed at every step, Oslo included.
As Hamas continues to intimidate the Israeli South with missiles it is gradually becoming apparent that the idea of a two-state solution is no more than a grand myth.
More importantly significant Israeli politicians are putting the two-state proposal where it belongs -- in the garbage heap.
That's why I'm so pleased that Kensset Speaker Reuven Rivlin has joined the chorus which is nixing any thought of establishing a Palestinian State in Judea and Samaria.
"In so small a space between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea," declares Rivlin, "there cannot be more than one country."
There are several reasons that underline Rivlin's point and they include more than geography.
It has become apparent beyond a shadow of a doubt that turning over any more land --and I'm talking about inches as well as miles or dunams -- to the Arabs is akin to suicide.
What better proof than the three significant withdrawals: 1. Sinai; 2. Gaza; 3. Lebanon.
With the Muslim Brotherhood now ruling Egypt, attacks on Israel from the Sinai must be taken as a serious possibility. As for the Gaza and Lebanon threats -- well -- we all know about them.
Neither the Lebanese War nor Operation Cast Lead did anything useful in terms of long-range Israeli security from massive rocket attacks. The Israeli powers that be at that time were too impetuous when it came to signing what would be a useless truce in both cases.
But that's old business.
What's confronting Benjamin Netanyahu now is the challenge of finding the most efficient ways and means to obtain security on all fronts.
Once and for all rocket attacks from Gaza must be stopped and not with a two-day truce that's immediately followed by more Grads hurled at Ashkelon, Sderot and Beersheba.
Likewise, Bibi must unequivocally assert that the two-state solution will spell an end to his country's welfare precisely because of Speaker Rivlin's point; it clashes with two realities;
1. WAR: No matter how you shake it the Arab mentality cannot abide The Jewish State. Given the opportunity, Hamas or Iran's proxy, Hezbollah will attempt to destroy Israel. (Don't rule Egypt out either.) They've tried before and they'll try again.
2. GEOGRAPHY: Israel requires a meaningful buffer between itself and its enemies. If a Palestinian state were to be created it would be annexed in no time by Hamas and by the same method that the terrorist organization employed in Gaza.
Israel must remain defensible. Its main population and industrial centers cannot be put in jeopardy and certainly not by returning -- Obama-style -- to the pre-1967 lines. If the American president had his way, Israel would be reduced to a coastal strip of land only nine miles wide at its narrowest point.
Israel not only must maintain a military presence along the Jordan River, it must ensure that both Judea and Samaria remain in Israeli hands.
For further proof take a gander at the memorandum of June 29,1967 authored by Earl Wheeler, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the United States Armed Forces:
"From a strictly military point of view," Wheeler concluded, "Israel would require the retention of some Arab territory in order to provide militarily defensible borders. In the West Bank, Israel should control the prominent high ground running north-south."
What was true just weeks after the Israeli victory in the Six Day War is true today; even more so.
Rivlin is right. A two-state solution would be Israel's worst nightmare; as Hezbollah and Hamas have so amply demonstrated.
There can be only one state on the available land; and that is The State of Israel!
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