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.
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. These pro-Palestinian advocates never point out that Itzhak Rabin paid for peace 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 Palestinian right of return and they never will achieve this.
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 Mandate of Palestine. David Ben Gurion did what the Palestinians still have not learned to do. He compromised and did what was best for his nation.
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 ask if the Palestinians want this state they supposedly crave so much. Maybe it is better for them to always play the role of the 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 throwing away or stealing all the money that was given to them by the US and the EU for building the foundations of a state. Make them also take responsibility for taking much of that money and buying weapons to kill Israelis. 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. I want the Palestinians to achieve self-determination and statehood, but not at the expense of Israel. We Israelis will never, ever give up our right to self-determination, statehood or the nation we have built and to the achievements we have created through our own hard work.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
SAVING AMERICA -- AND ISRAEL
By Schmoel Yitzhak
Uncle Sam's citizens go to the polls on Tuesday and where the election will go nobody knows.
Of course there are many -- mostly pollsters -- who THINK they know how Americans will vote and they may be right.
This much is certain; Israelis should have as keen an interest in the results as folks from California to Connecticut because a significant victory for the Democrats will embolden their president beyond all reason. That, in turn, could be damaging to Benjamin Netanyahu and his country because of Barack Obama's negative track record vis-a-vis the Middle East's only democracy.
At the moment it appears that the Republicans will triumph although to what extent remains to be seen.
Can they capture the Senate as well as the House of Representatives? Nobody will know until early Wednesday morning.
Much will depend on how many Americans turn out to vote and how disenchanted they are with Obama's bizarre policies which have left the United States more divided than in recent memory; perhaps more divided than since the Civil War.
As always is the case, the Jewish vote will be pivotal. A resounding repudiation of the Democrats concomitantly will signal a thorough put-down of Obama and his platform which has been as destructive toward Israel as any similar program propagated by the White House.
Ah, but how will Jews vote? Will they be deceived into believing that their traditional Democratic bent is the right move no matter what, or will they come to their senses and understand that -- enough is enough -- it's time to cast a ballot for the party that most favors the hopes of Jews both in America as well as the Middle East? That would be the Republicans.
This is an extremely difficult call because it's virtually impossible to discern what precisely is going on in the mind of American Jewry.
In the last presidential election, only a precious few Jewish pundits discerned the dangerous direction in which Obama politics was headed.
Normally insightful political observers such as former New York City mayor Edward Koch and widely-read professor and Israel-defender Alan Dershowitz supported the Obama campaign.
Keenly aware of the error of his ways, Koch has made public his disenchantment with Obama. Although he remains a staunch Democrat, Koch never would support the president again; unless Obama does a 180-degree turn toward embracing Israel. That is about as likely as the sun rising in the West.
I'm not certain as to where Dershowitz stands -- I confess that I have not read his material lately -- but I highly doubt that he supports any of Obama's directives toward Israel.
Mind you, a Republican landslide will not ensure a turnabout in the president's policies but it might put the brakes on his anti-Israel behavior.
Might.
The possibility also exists that a Democrat defeat might very well curb the enthusiasm of Arabs who have found Obama the best friend they've ever had in the White House.
Might.
Of this there can be no doubt, the faster Obama is pushed out of the White House, the better off Israel will be.
Defeating the Democrats on Tuesday will be a start.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE LATEST THREAT AND THE NEW YORK MOSQUE PLANS:
Political correctness has reached such an absurd level in the United States that it has blinded editorialists, columnists and television types into a consummate fear of criticizing Islam for fear of retaliation either verbally or physically.
Yet, one cannot be blind to the facts and once again it cannot be denied that the latest threat to the United States -- via United Parcel Service deliveries, no less -- has come from the Arab side.
Attack after attack -- whether it's the destruction of the World Trade Center or the attempted destruction of Chicago synagogues via mailed explosives -- is generated from the Muslim front.
Kill Jews, wherever they are, is the Islamic mantra.
The destruction of America, bit by bit, is the aim of Al Queda and its allies and yet the American president blithely continues to woo Islamic support.
Which brings me to the issue of the planned Manhattan mosque across from the 9/ll site.
A few thoughts on this matter:
1. The name Cordoba, intended for this mosque, comes from a Christian city in Spain conquered by Muslims. No surprise, its citizens were slaughtered or enslaved.
2. The original mosque of Cordoba -- the namesake of the Ground Zero mosque -- was built atop and partly from the materials of a Christian church.
3. Throughout Islamic history, whenever a country was defeated, one of the first moves was erection of a mosque atop the sacred sites of the vanquished.
As someone so sagely observed on the matter of the proposed Ground Zero mosque:
"It doesn't matter if every one of the Muslims who would worship are peace-loving saints. The proposed mosque at Ground Zero stands for the radical Muslims' conquest of America!"
Try telling that to President Obama.
Sorry, his head is in the sand. Arab sand, that is!
Uncle Sam's citizens go to the polls on Tuesday and where the election will go nobody knows.
Of course there are many -- mostly pollsters -- who THINK they know how Americans will vote and they may be right.
This much is certain; Israelis should have as keen an interest in the results as folks from California to Connecticut because a significant victory for the Democrats will embolden their president beyond all reason. That, in turn, could be damaging to Benjamin Netanyahu and his country because of Barack Obama's negative track record vis-a-vis the Middle East's only democracy.
At the moment it appears that the Republicans will triumph although to what extent remains to be seen.
Can they capture the Senate as well as the House of Representatives? Nobody will know until early Wednesday morning.
Much will depend on how many Americans turn out to vote and how disenchanted they are with Obama's bizarre policies which have left the United States more divided than in recent memory; perhaps more divided than since the Civil War.
As always is the case, the Jewish vote will be pivotal. A resounding repudiation of the Democrats concomitantly will signal a thorough put-down of Obama and his platform which has been as destructive toward Israel as any similar program propagated by the White House.
Ah, but how will Jews vote? Will they be deceived into believing that their traditional Democratic bent is the right move no matter what, or will they come to their senses and understand that -- enough is enough -- it's time to cast a ballot for the party that most favors the hopes of Jews both in America as well as the Middle East? That would be the Republicans.
This is an extremely difficult call because it's virtually impossible to discern what precisely is going on in the mind of American Jewry.
In the last presidential election, only a precious few Jewish pundits discerned the dangerous direction in which Obama politics was headed.
Normally insightful political observers such as former New York City mayor Edward Koch and widely-read professor and Israel-defender Alan Dershowitz supported the Obama campaign.
Keenly aware of the error of his ways, Koch has made public his disenchantment with Obama. Although he remains a staunch Democrat, Koch never would support the president again; unless Obama does a 180-degree turn toward embracing Israel. That is about as likely as the sun rising in the West.
I'm not certain as to where Dershowitz stands -- I confess that I have not read his material lately -- but I highly doubt that he supports any of Obama's directives toward Israel.
Mind you, a Republican landslide will not ensure a turnabout in the president's policies but it might put the brakes on his anti-Israel behavior.
Might.
The possibility also exists that a Democrat defeat might very well curb the enthusiasm of Arabs who have found Obama the best friend they've ever had in the White House.
Might.
Of this there can be no doubt, the faster Obama is pushed out of the White House, the better off Israel will be.
Defeating the Democrats on Tuesday will be a start.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE LATEST THREAT AND THE NEW YORK MOSQUE PLANS:
Political correctness has reached such an absurd level in the United States that it has blinded editorialists, columnists and television types into a consummate fear of criticizing Islam for fear of retaliation either verbally or physically.
Yet, one cannot be blind to the facts and once again it cannot be denied that the latest threat to the United States -- via United Parcel Service deliveries, no less -- has come from the Arab side.
Attack after attack -- whether it's the destruction of the World Trade Center or the attempted destruction of Chicago synagogues via mailed explosives -- is generated from the Muslim front.
Kill Jews, wherever they are, is the Islamic mantra.
The destruction of America, bit by bit, is the aim of Al Queda and its allies and yet the American president blithely continues to woo Islamic support.
Which brings me to the issue of the planned Manhattan mosque across from the 9/ll site.
A few thoughts on this matter:
1. The name Cordoba, intended for this mosque, comes from a Christian city in Spain conquered by Muslims. No surprise, its citizens were slaughtered or enslaved.
2. The original mosque of Cordoba -- the namesake of the Ground Zero mosque -- was built atop and partly from the materials of a Christian church.
3. Throughout Islamic history, whenever a country was defeated, one of the first moves was erection of a mosque atop the sacred sites of the vanquished.
As someone so sagely observed on the matter of the proposed Ground Zero mosque:
"It doesn't matter if every one of the Muslims who would worship are peace-loving saints. The proposed mosque at Ground Zero stands for the radical Muslims' conquest of America!"
Try telling that to President Obama.
Sorry, his head is in the sand. Arab sand, that is!
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