by Simon Fischler
Peace is an interesting term when dealing with the Israeli-Arab conflict, mostly because it asks everyone involved in the process or living in the area in question to take history and toss it out the window.
I want peace, for my children, for myself, for my fellow citizens and I even want peace for the Palestinians. However, I do not want peace at any price, especially not at the price of committing national suicide.
I know the majority of Israelis feel the same. I know a majority of us are also willing to make great compromises for true peace.
Attaining peace in this conflict is far simpler than people make it out to be. It takes the recognition of both nations’ (Jewish and Arab) right to exist here.
Israel has gone to great pains to express this and recognize this. The Arabs have not.
Prime Ministers of Israel from Itzhak Rabin to Benjamin Netenyahu have all said that a final peace agreement would lead to the creation of a Palestinian (i.e., Arab/Muslim) state.
NOT ONE PALESTINIAN leader has ever been, or is now ready to recognize Israel as the Jewish state. There lame excuses for why they can’t do this are not acceptable!
This creates an absolute impasse that has existed since the State of Israel came into being and tragically has never altered.
Thus, how can Israelis be asked again to compromise, when we are always met with propaganda, rhetoric, lies and absolute intransigence on the subject of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state?
Why in the world should Israelis support peace, when the side we are supposed to be making peace with is doing all they can to delegitimize the nation we have created and worked and fought so hard to protect?
Why should we endanger ourselves when the other side is so unwilling to take that one simple step?
The pro-Palestinian side always says that Yassar Arafat could never have accepted the compromise given to him at Camp David and later on at the Taba negotiations for fear of assassination.
That means Arafat could not accept the realization of Statehood for the Palestinian nation in simple return for recognizing Israel as the Jewish State.
What it really is simple, the Arabs would rather destroy Jewish self-determination than have their own state!
The pro-Palestinian advocates always seem to forget that Israeli Prime Minster Itzhak Rabin took that same chance Arafat was not ready too take and he paid for it with his life, as did Anwar Sadat of Egypt.
Revisionists will try to distort what has happened. They will say Arafat did not get enough.
In one way they are right. Arafat was not capable of getting Ehud Barak to dismantle Israel by accepting the made up Palestinian right of return!
History is there to remind us that no one ever gets exactly what he really wants.
The Yishuv (pre-Israel Jewish leadership in mandate Palestine) wanted far more land than was given to them when the United Nations partitioned the British Mandate of Eretz Israel.
David Ben Gurion did what the Palestinians still have not learned to do. He compromised and did what was BEST for his PEOPLE.
If the Palestinians truly wanted a state they could have already had one on numerous occasions.
It has gotten to the point where one must admit all signs point to the fact that the Palestinians don’t really want this state they supposedly crave so much.
It is better for them to lie to the world and play the role of the not-so-innocent victim!
If Barack Obama, the EU and the UN really want peace for our region, then there is a simple way of getting it: make the Arabs finally take responsibility for their actions.
Make the Arabs take responsibility for turning their back on Partition!
Make them take responsibility for starting the war that has lead to so many wars!
Make them take responsibility for stealing the money that was given to them by the US and the EU for building the foundations of a state and using it to buy weapons to be used against Israeli citizens!
Make them take responsibility for saying NO to peace and statehood at Camp David and Taba.
Make them take responsibility for putting another thorn in the side of peace by sponsoring the Anti-Israel camp currently attempting to delegitimize Israel with slander and falsehoods.
MAKE THEM TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT THEY HAVE BROUGHT UPON THEMSELVES.
As I said, I want peace, almost everyone does, but we Israelis will never, ever give up our right to self-determination, statehood or the nation that we have built and to the achievements we have created through OUR OWN HARD WORK!
This is because:
ReplyDeleteIslamic culture is a War Culture
The Arabs are controlled by this and do not know it!
The Middle East conflict is an Islamic Cultural War.
It is not about land, rights or settlements, water or being politically left or right. If it were it would have been solved long ago. It is not.
It is Cultural War that means Islamic Culture must destroy Western Culture or Western Culture must destroy Islamic Culture.
It is a Genocidal War.
We can try changing them but that would be very difficult or even impossible
The book "Culture and Conflict”, explains it clearly. It shows that current cultural conditions in the Arab Middle East will not support internal development, advancement or peace until there is a major cultural change. “It is critical that we understand our enemy. That is step one in every conflict,” RR. Philip Carl Salzman, INSB # 978-1-59102-587-0.
Robin Rosenblatt
Fact: Hamas has defacto recgonized Israel in its 1967 border.
ReplyDeleteFact: So have all other Palestinian factions.
The ongoing building of settlements in the West Bank is proof that Israeli leaders have no interest in partition.
The complete and unwillingness to freeze them in order to start peace talks is completely insane. Confiscating land that is no yours is not a peaceful gesture, period.