HISTORY THAT'S FORGOTTEN -- BUT SHOULD BE REMEMBERED

By Schmoel Yitzhak

If ever a case could be made for American Jews to reject a Democrat it is made on a weekly basis by a Democrat -- Jimmy Carter.

The former president never misses an opportunity to draw and quarter Israel and if no such opportunity exists, he'll still find a reason to skewer the Middle East's only democracy.

While Carter spews his regular rants, I hear of no attempts by President Obama at muzzling the maniacally anti-Jewish ex-head of state. 

It would be interesting to determine which Arab state -- or states -- are funding the contemptible Carter vitriol but, more importantly, the time has come for the pro-Israel bloc to trumpet the historic facts that would bury Carter-type rhetoric to some landfill where it belongs. 

If and when an attempt is made at the United Nations to secure some sort of "recognition" of an Arab Palestine, historic facts must be lined up by Israeli advocates to puncture such promotions. For example:

* LAND FOR PEACE: The three little words look good on paper but not terra firma. No matter how genuine any Arab government may seem when it tenders the "land for peace" malarky it fades away as quickly as smoke rings curling in the air. What inevitably happens is that whatever Arab ruler makes the offer could be drummed out of office faster than you can say Hosni Mubarak. 

Any Israeli who lived in the Sinai before Prime Minister Menachem Begin agreed to cede that precious hunk of land to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat will assure you that it was the most egregious mistake of Begin's stewardship. 

One who speaks firsthand about Begin's blunder is Karni Eldad Tags who lived in Ofira -- formerly known as Sharm al-Sheikh -- and loved it. She was appalled at the land-for-peace deal that Sadat employed to con Begin.

"The Egyptians demanded and Begin agreed," says Tags. "He gave the Egyptians everything they asked for; a piece of priceless strategic value and sustaining land full of oil and coal and uranium, of sand unes and tourist havens, of beaches of potential as vast as Mount Sinai.

"Since that peace treaty we have paid a great deal of Jewish blood. After having sold our homeland for ephemeral coin to our Arab neighbors, we could not get up one day and demand it back just because we were dissatisfied with the peace we got in exchange."

That "peace" was as phony as a three-dollar bill. At it's best the Egyptians were cool to Israel. Sadat was blown out of existence and Mubarak was about as warm as an iceberg. But compared to the current Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government, Mubarak was a saint. 

Land for peace didn't work in Egypt; didn't work in Gaza and was a bummer in South Lebanon.

* THE DECEPTIVE "PALESTINIANS': "The Arab 'Palestinians' have no rights to Israel." Those are the words of Bnai Elim, a pro-Israel American group based in Brooklyn.

Bnai Elim underlines its points starting with the irrefutable fact that Jews lived on the land now known as Israel and Jordan beginning over 3,500 years ago. 

Start with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve sons of Jacob, Moses and Joshua. Continue with Kings Saul, David and Solomon. In later centuries Jewish communities continued in Galilee and their descendants remain there to this day. 

In the year 1267 Rabbi Moshe Ben Nahman arrived from Spain and revived the Jewish congregation. In 1700 Rabbi Yehuda He'Hassid arrived and started construction of the "Hurva" synagogue. A little more than a century later disciples of the Vilna Gaon and their families -- numbering more than 500 -- made aliyah to the Land of Israel.

"There never has been a time when the Land of Israel was bereft of Jews," Bnai Elim offers in its pamphlet, A Different Solution To The Arab/Israel Conflict. "Even following the Roman exile there was a continuous Jewish presence on the land we call Israel."

Granted Bnai Elim's "solution" is dramatic and most likely unrealistic. It foresees a "swap of populations and for the Arabs to return and live with their brethren. Or, as the group puts it, "The Arab 'Palestinians' have no rights to Israel."

Mahmoud Abbas and his gang may try an end run through the United Nations but it won't change any historic fact; only the Jewish people have a valid claim to the Land of Israel.

"Having failed numerous times to destroy Israel by war," concludes Bnai Elim, "the Arab League initiated a different tactic by inventing a fictional people known as 'Palestinians,' formerly and more accurately known as 'Arabs living in Israel.' Historically the term 'Palestinian' actually referred to Jews."

It would help if the likes of Jimmy Carter studied these facts of Jewish life from Abraham to Netanyahu.

He won't, of course, because he'd realize that the Arabs are unwilling to accept a Jewish state of any kind.

As we sadly learned in Lebanon, Gaza and, now, Egypt, the Land For Peace deal will never work!