We all want peace. We pray for peace in our Sabbath services every Friday night. After thousands of years, being victims of persecution, expulsion, extermination, and discrimination, it is natural that we yearn for peace with every ounce of our bodies and souls.
It is because our hunger for peace is so strong that we must be doubly cautious not to fall for a pseudo-peace that is really the wolf of war wrapped in sheep's clothing. Today none of us believe Chamberlain really negotiated "peace in our time" with Hitler. Why do some Jews believe that Peres and Rabin really negotiated PEACE with Arafat, one of today's Hitlers?
Israelis my age have fought in seven wars and I understand their desire to be free of constant conflict. Unfortunately there is no magic cure. I wish I could write more optimistic words. Beyond the neighboring states that Israel is negotiating with now lies another ring of unmitigated hostility led by Islamic fundamentalists like those in Iran.
In blood and fire was Israel born and on a hot anvil was she forged. The brave young soldiers of Israel must take a quick glance back to the crematoria of Auschwitz and then go forth to face the enemy knowing that there is still no alternative (ein briera).
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Incomprehensible!
Prof. Paul Eidelberg
“On whom can we stay ourselves?—on our Father in heaven.”
It is incomprehensible that a prime minister of Israel, the leader of a reputed democracy, can give away any part of Eretz Yisrael, and do so without public debate? Not even an absolute monarch in the Middle Ages possessed such arbitrary power. Yet six prime ministers of Israel—one after another—have had the audacity to surrender all or parts of Israel’s heartland to Arab villains known to be pursuing a phased strategy aimed at Israel’s destruction!
How shall we characterize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is willing to give away Judea and Samaria via the policy of “territory for peace”—a policy whose logic requires Israel to yield territory whenever the Arabs threaten war.
Should we attribute his behavior to stupidity or to arrogance? If so, the same stupidity or arrogance must also be ascribed to his predecessors, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, and Ehud Olmert. Expecting peace from Muslims who have a 1,400-year history of exalting war—this condescending attitude toward Islam, this arrogance or stupidity is incomprehensible.
Of course, arrogance and stupidity are ordinary human frailties. But we are speaking of men who have surrendered land promised by God Himself to the Jewish people—their only homeland, which countless millions of Jews throughout the ages have yearned for and turned to in their daily prayers. The arrogance attributed to the prime ministers in question is of incomprehensible proportions—which may also be said of their inane expectations of peace from the worshippers of the Quran.
Can it be that these men, contrary to appearances, have been deprived of reason and free will? Can it be that, having taken the road of “territory for peace,” they must go down this road to the bitter end? Can it be that even many of their critics unwittingly facilitate this march to politicide—to oblivion?
Some of these critics say, “Peace, But Not Surrender!” By succumbing to the rhetoric or delusion of peace, they inadvertently contribute to suicidal surrender. Suppose they said: “Peace, Yes, But Not With Tyrants!” This would mark a signal improvement: it would indicate that genuine peace is not possible with Arab tyrants and tyrannies. Witness how Egypt facilitated the smuggling of arms via tunnels to terrorists in Gaza. Or consider how, despite Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel, its state-controlled media calls for Israel’s annihilation.
Politicians and pundits fail to see that to seek peace with tyrants is to arm the wicked and disarm the virtuous (as Churchill warned in The Gathering Storm). Negotiating with Arab despots and dictatorships not only dignifies them; it also places them on the same level as Israel, thus obscuring the distinction between good and evil. But “Woe unto them,” warns Isaiah, “that call evil good and good evil.” Seeking peace with evil men is tantamount to calling evil good.
I contend that once you take the twisted road of peace with tyrants you succumb to evil and falsehood—ultimately to colossal stupidity. We read in Isaiah: “I am the Lord … that turns wise men backward and makes their knowledge foolish.”
That the relentless participation of Israel’s Government in the Oslo “peace process” is irrational has been demonstrated by the present writer in Demophrenia. There I show that Israel’s political elites are suffering from a mental disorder peculiar to contemporary democracy, whose moral egalitarianism obscures the distinction between good and evil, blunts the instinct of self-preservation, and leads to extraordinary stupidity. Is it rational, is it sane, to repeatedly release Arab terrorists, many of whom go on to maim and murder more Jews?
Notice that while the leaders of the Palestinians teach Arab children to hate and kill Jews, Prime Minister Netanyahu is anxious to renew negotiations with these villains and without preconditions! Is this rational, is it sane?
Recall that the Sharon Government, contrary to reason, yielded Gaza to Hamas for nothing, and did so even though Israel’s highest security and intelligence officials warned that Gaza would become a haven for terrorists armed with missiles supplied by Iran. Was this rational, was it sane?
It seems incomprehensible, a compound of stupidity and madness without parallel in human history! But perhaps this is the fate of Jews who, having forsaken the God of Israel, have been deprived of reason and free will? Although they may appear normal, even intelligent, like Benjamin Netanyahu, perhaps these “wise men” are fools trapped in a Pharonic syndrome from which they cannot escape?
Let me therefore paraphrase a few words from the Mishna (Sotah, 8:15): “With the footsteps of the Messiah, arrogance shall increase … The council chamber shall be given to idolatry and corruption … Galilee shall be laid waste … the people of the frontier shall go about from town to town … The wisdom of their opinion-makers shall become foolish … The face of this generation is as the face of a dog … On whom can we stay ourselves?—on our Father in heaven.”
Facing the Ugly Truth: Or How to Be Popular*
Paul Eidelberg
Good morning ladies and gentlemen. It is my sad duty to inform you that your prime ministers cannot face and tell you the ugly truth. It was only after she was no longer in office that Golda Meir published the truth about your enemies. Here is what she said:
I have never doubted for an instant that the true aim of the Arab states has always been, and still is, the total destruction of the State of Israel, or that even if we had gone back far beyond the 1967 lines to some miniature enclave, they would not still have tried to eradicate it and us.... It is our duty to realize this truth ... We need to [face] this truth in all its gravity, so that we may continue to mobilize from among ourselves and the Jewish people all the resources necessary to overcome our enemies.
Contrary to what Golda said, Israel’s greatest enemies are not the Arabs. More deadly are Israel’s own prime ministers who have made an art form of concealing the truth, especially since the Oslo or Israel-PLO Agreement of 1993. Concealment is typical of dictatorships, even if adorned, like Israel, in the apparel of a democracy. Hence I must also inform you that your country, driven by the remorseless logic of Oslo, is in the grips of a democratically elected dictatorship at war with you and your homeland.
I have already told you how former prime minister, Ariel Sharon, nullified the February 2003 election, and foisted on you, without public or Knesset debate, the policy of disengagement from Gaza. And now, without public or Knesset debate, your prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, in his speech at Bar-Ilan University, has extended Sharon’s policy to Judea and Samaria. Yes, he has renounced your biblical right to Judea and Samaria, a right sanctioned by international law since the San Remo Convention of 1922. Mr. Netanyahu has thus joined the ranks of prime ministers arguably guilty of treason! No wonder the word “treason” has been forbidden for public use in Israel since Oslo!
Is it too late to face the ugly truth? Perhaps. For the record, however, let it be known that your prime ministers have been consorting with your grave-diggers for more than sixteen years since Oslo. Yet none had the guts to abrogate an agreement that has already resulted in the murder or maiming of thousands of your loved ones. And now they warn us of the “third intifada”.
Our prime-ministers know, as did Golda, that the destruction of our country is inscribed in the PLO’s Constitution. In fact, without any prompting from Ahmadinejad, Israel has been wiped off the maps of the PLO and of Egypt. This spells politicide. Yet your prime ministers have consorted with Yasser Arafat, hobnobbed with Mahmoud Abbas, and kissed the derriere of Hosni Mubarak! The collusion of your prime ministers has been buried by transparent lies, by a nation of opinion-makers that fear the truth—including the truth about your prime ministers!
Consider Menachem Begin. When Begin signed the Camp David Accords in September 1978, and followed this up by signing the Israel-Egypt peace treaty of March 1979, he initiated Israel’s inane strategy, “land for peace.” But only a fool surrenders land won in a war of self-defense to the aggressor—surrenders land for what Anwar Sadat mockingly called “a piece of paper.”
Without firing a shot, Sadat won the greatest military or diplomatic victory in history. From an adversary superior in arms he regained the entire Sinai, including its strategic air bases built by Israel, and oil fields which Israel had made productive. Begin surrendered a twelve billion dollar infrastructure for verbiage!
Sadat also manipulated Begin into abandoning the Jewish town of Yamit. If this wasn’t enough, Sadat conned Begin into signing the first international agreement referring to Judea and Samaria as the “West Bank.” Hence he was the first PM to recognize Arab rights to Israel’s heartland.
Let’s face the truth: Say what you will about Begin’s virtues, he didn’t really know what he was doing at Camp David. This pretty much sums up the story of his successors. Connect the dots: from Begin at Camp David to Bibi at the Begin-Sadat Center at Bar-Ilan University, where Netanyahu renounced your people’s right to Judea and Samaria.
The State of Israel has been led by losers since the IDF’s miraculous victory in the 1967 Six-Day War. It had to be miraculous, since it was achieved without any intention of incorporating Judea and Samaria into the State! In fact, this strategic as well as faith-based idea was opposed by Israel’s timid secular leaders. No wonder they ceded control of Israel’s holiest site, the Temple Mount, to the Arabs—who were stunned by this gesture of the conquerors.
The word “gesture” tells it all. Israel’s ruling elites think they can obtain peace through “gestures,” like yielding strategic assets for parchment—nay, for less than parchment, as witness the hero who retreated from Gaza for nothing. Let’s face it: Using a term coined by Lenin, we have to admit that for more than four decades this country has been ruled by “useful idiots,” whose behavior was facilitated by Israel’s idiotic system of government—a system that allowed Ariel Sharon to nullify the 2003 Knesset elections and become Labor’s surrogate prime minister!
Let’s stop the pseudo-sophistication, the obscurantism: It’s not the Arabs but Jewish prime ministers that have laid the foundations for a Palestinian state.
If this is provocative, let me try a more gentle tack. When Bibi was a cabinet minister in the Sharon government, he voted for the expulsion of 10,000 Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria. And now, by saying yes to a Palestinian state, he has endorsed the expulsion of 300,000 more Jews from Judea and Samaria. Sacrificing Jews for “peace” has become the idolatry of Israeli prime ministers. But perhaps this idolatry is nothing more than self-aggrandizement? It seems to me, ladies and gentlemen, that your prime ministers have been playing the “politics of peace”—a charade to gain or retain POWER. If this is still too harsh for the tender hearted, let me try another approach.
Ladies and gentlemen, Arab leaders have loudly declared that “peace” means the destruction of Israel. It seems, however, that your prime ministers, if they are not brain dead, suffer from impaired hearing. On the other hand, if they are unaware of the obvious fact that the policy of land-for-peace arouses Arab contempt for Jews and incites Arab violence, we must then conclude that your prime ministers are indeed brain dead.
Whatever the case, it’s safe to say that your political leaders are not prepared for total war—and total war is on the horizon to judge from US appeasement of Iran, the stockpiling of arms by Hezbollah, and the billions of foreign aid America and Western Europe—champions of democracy—have pledged to Hamas.
Can such a war be averted? Not by a government headed by a prime minister who has been deceiving the public year after year with the mantra of “reciprocity”—as if the Arabs can give Israel something equivalent to land!
Since I don’t expect a coup d’état, let’s say a few words about what needs to be done. First, the Israel Air Force will have to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons development program and simultaneously destroy Syria’s missile facilities.
Second, Israel’s ground forces, aided by air strikes, will have to cripple Iran’s proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas.
Third, the IDF will have to eliminate the Palestinian Authority and its entire terrorist network. But what am I saying? Netanyahu—and this applies to his successors—needs the Palestinian Authority. He needs a negotiating partner with which to display his diplomatic skills, his ingenious policy of “reciprocity”!
Ladies and gentlemen, Bibi is not going to pacify an Arab leader garbed in a suit and a tie, no more than Obama is going to pacify a Muslim leader adorned in a suit without a tie.
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*Edited transcript of the Eidelberg Report, Israel National Radio, October 19, 2009.
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