For the second address, above, put "No Demolition at Yitzhar," "Don't destroy the Yeshiva," "Stop Barak now," or something similar. Short and to the point.
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Now, to the farce known as the "proximity talks." Mitchell is here. He held talks with Abbas in Ramallah yesterday, and is scheduled to meet with Netanyahu today.
Right before Shavuot, I read yet another statement by PA negotiator Saeb Erekat, and I thought, ah, the "threat du jour." Said Erekat: "Israel is now facing two options: Peace or settlements. Israel cannot combine the two together."
Spoken, once again, with the arrogant self-assurance of someone who assumes that the American president will deliver for the PA.
Personally, I think our prime minister should put out a parallel statement:
The PA must understand that peace is only possible if it recognizes Israel's right to exist AS A JEWISH STATE. The PA should not delude itself that it can have peace without this.
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There were additional statements that Erekat made that I wish to examine here:
"He added that according to agreements reached between the PA and the Obama administration, core issues, such as Jerusalem, refugees, water, borders and prisoners, would be resolved on the basis of international law and United Nations resolutions.
"'This will eventually lead to ending the Israeli occupation of our land and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,' he said."
I've been writing vigorously about the need to tell our narrative, or, put more boldly, tell the truth, to combat the Arab lies. And here is an instance in which that truth is very badly needed. For the truth is stretched so badly by Erekat that it is not even recognizable as such.
"...resolved on the basis of international law and United Nations resolutions." UN Security Council Resolution 242, passed after the Six Day War, does not require Israel to return to the '67 lines and does not even mention a Palestinian people or a Palestinian state.
Erekat refers to "our" land (which is commonly understood to be everything past the '67 line), but it is not their land. It never was their land. We need to talk about the Sanremo Conference and the Mandate for Palestine, which exist within international law to this day, and give all of the land between the river and the sea to the Jews. Now, as never before, our case must be made.
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Even Security Council Resolution 1397, which was passed during the intifada in 2002 and recognizes the "vision" of two states living side by side, calls for "secure and recognized borders." It says nothing about Israel returning to the '67 line and does not in any way acknowledge that all land on the other side of that line is automatically "Palestinian."
What is more, it "demands immediate cessation of all acts of violence, including all acts of terror, provocation, incitement and destruction."
And so, if Erekat is going to refer to UN resolutions, he should be prepared to put his own house in order.
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I would further point out here that there is a difference between Security Council resolutions, which have standing in international law, and General Assembly resolutions, which are no more than recommendations and do not. Too often, that difference is conveniently ignored.
It is important to note that both resolution 181 of 1947, which called for the partition of Palestine, and resolution 194, passed in 1948, which the Arabs use as the basis for a "right of return," are General Assembly resolutions. They carry no weight in international law.
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Yesterday, PA president Mahmoud Abbas warned about Israeli "provocations" that are threatening the talks. He presented Mitchell with a letter detailing Israeli "crimes." You can see just how far this is going to go.
Allow me, please, to note a couple of things the PA, our "peace partner" is doing:
According to a Palestinian Media Watch report, the PA TV children's show "Chicks," this past week featured children who had visited places in Israel such as the Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee), Haifa and Jaffa, and they were all identified as being in "Palestine."
"The Arabic word chosen to define 'Palestine' was 'dawla' which means 'state'".
"The Palestinian Authority alternates its messages between denying Israel's right to exist and denying Israel's very existence. This is one example of denying Israel's very existence, having it replaced by 'the State of Palestine.'"
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The PA has declared "all out war" against the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. It has now launched a large scale campaign to persuade Palestinian Arabs that they should boycott everything coming from these communities.
This is contrary to what is stipulated in the Oslo Accords.
What is more, it is particularly galling considering that Netanyahu, since he became prime minister, has worked to strengthen the PA economy.
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Above I refer to the "threat du jour." Here I have the US idiocy of the week:
Reuters reports that according to John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, Washington is concerned about "some elements" in Hezbollah. There is a need, he said, "to try to build up the more moderate elements."
When you stop laughing, you can finish reading...
Brennan, who made his comments at a Washington conference, referred to Hezbollah as a "very interesting organization" that has moved from being a "purely a terrorist organization," to a militia, to a partner in the Lebanese government.
How pathetic these people (not Hezbollah, the decision makers in Washington) are! I have news for Brennan: Hezbollah, which is bringing in weapons galore, is still a terrorist organization. My concern is that this sort of thinking may color the US reaction to us when, sooner or later, we take on Hezbollah again.
Remember when Obama proposed reaching out to the moderate elements in the Taliban, and members of the Taliban said they didn't know what he was talking about, as they were all the same?
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I spoke about the farce that is the "proximity talks." I haven't the stomach here to also address the farce that is the dealings with Iran. But it's painful.
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Allow me to end with teachings from a shiur, a religious lesson, I attended on Shavuot night. It was intended to provide us with a vision of hope during these terribly dark times. It did so for me, and I share this with you can you can be buoyed as well.
Our teacher used as her model the situation of the parents of Moshe (Moses). Struggling against the decree of Pharaoh to toss all newborn Israelite babies in the Nile, they hid their son for three months, and then recognizing that it would not be possible any longer, they placed him in a teva (Hebrew for "ark") and set it in the bulrushes at the edge of the river. There, of course, he was discovered by Pharaoh's daughter.
After studying the Torah text itself, we looked at two commentaries on this situation. One was exceedingly grim. Oh, the pain those parents must have felt, the grief... The other was imbued with faith (emunah) and hope.
Consider: Why does the Torah refer to the water-proofed basket in which Moshe was placed a teva? This word is the same one used for the ark of Noah at the time of the flood. What is a teva, as compared to a ship? our teacher asked? A ship has a steering column. A teva does not: It is steered by G-d. Moshe's mother, Yocheved, was placing her baby son in G-d's care.
There is a midrash that tells us that the day on which he was placed in that teva, is the same day (Shavuot) that years later he ascended Har Sinai to receive the Torah from the Almighty.
We must never, ever, despair.
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