Israel's Greatest Enemy
By Prof. Paul Eidelberg
Long ago—long before Oslo—it occurred to me that there is something lacking in the mentality of Israel’s political leaders that makes Israel’s government the greatest enemy of the Jewish people. This iconoclastic idea began to percolate in me a week before Anwar Sadat’s historic visit to Jerusalem on November 19, 1977—hence before I saw the Swastika-designed tie Sadat wore at the state dinner the following evening.
Despite warnings of mine before Sadat’s Jerusalem visitation, the Begin government surrendered the Sinai to Egypt, the aggressor in the Six-Day War. Israel thereby lost more than sophisticated air bases and the promising Alma oil fields. It began to lose its sense of justice, especially when the government uprooted the Jewish settlement of Yamit.
Heedless of justice, the Shamir government released 1,100 Arab terrorists, from which arose the leaders of the first Intifada. More Jews were maimed and murdered. The Rabin-Peres Government went further. It imposed the Oslo Covenant of Death on the Jewish people. The government not only released but also armed and paid thousands of Arab terrorists to protect the Jews against terrorism! And so hundreds of more Jews were maimed and murdered. Indifference to justice thus became characteristic of the mentality of Israel’s political leaders.
Recall the first Netanyahu government, which was elected in May 1996. While this government published Arafat’s daily and murderous violations of the Oslo Agreement, it nonetheless refrained from abrogating that Covenant of Death. In fact, Mr. Netanyahu, oblivious of justice, continued to release and arm Arab terrorists and even surrendered Jewish land, including 80% of Hebron, to Jew-killers.
Turn to the Barak government: bad enough that it betrayed our Christian friends by withdrawing unilaterally from southern Lebanon. That withdrawal not only enabled Hezbollah to deploy more than 10,000 rockets near Israel’s northern border, but it prompted Yasser Arafat to launch his genocidal war against Israel at the end of September 2000. Do you not see the issue of justice here?
Barak was succeeded by the heroic Ariel Sharon, under whose effeminate policy of self-restraint against Arab terrorists, thousands of Jewish men, women, and children were murdered, maimed, and traumatized. Sharon also released hundreds of Arab terrorists, which of course encouraged Arafat’s army of Jew-killers. And as if he had learned nothing from the Rabin-Peres attempt to make peace with that Arab despot, Sharon signaled his willingness to withdraw not only from Gaza, but also from Judea and Samaria and establish therein a Palestinian state—the current position of Mr. Netanyahu.
What is amiss here? I will tell you: the inability of Israeli leaders to comprehend and confront Evil. But this means there must be something wrong with Israeli education, above all with what is called “higher” education. After all, Israel’s public school teachers are graduates of Israeli universities; and that’s where Israeli politicians are educated or, rather, miseducated. Is it any wonder that Israeli governments entered into the Oslo Covenant of Death with Arafat? Is it any wonder that they have released Arab terrorists and have thereby armed the wicked and made nonsense of Justice?
Was it merely an intellectual blunder that prompted a Ph. D. in political science, former MK Yossi Beilin, to negotiate a “peace” accord with Arafat, the godfather of international terrorism?
The prophet Isaiah warns, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil.” I ask: Is there anything in the curriculum of Israeli public schools or secular universities that teaches students about the nature of evil? Is there no significant difference between an ordinary murderer and an Arab or Muslim who murders Jews because they are Jews? And if there is such a difference, should it not be taught in public schools as well as in universities?
Ah, but this would inevitably involve classroom discussion of Arab-Islamic culture. And the question will arise as to whether or not there is something evil about Arab-Islamic culture—something one may not discuss in any classroom of the democratic world, where moral or cultural relativism reigns supreme. Indeed, in Israel, to draw any negative conclusions about Arab culture or about the Islamic religion would expose one to the charge of racism and incitement—a criminal offense.
But what am I saying! Do we not know that Islam is a “religion of peace,” hence that “peaceful coexistence” is possible between Jews and Arabs? Have we not been given to believe that the conflict between Jews and Arabs is not a religious conflict but a territorial conflict? This being the case, why not Oslo? Why not a Palestinian state? Why not a Golan Accord? What can be more conducive to peace and security than signed agreements between Israel and its peace-loving Arab neighbors?
But if this describes the see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, and speak-no-evil mentality of Israel’s political leaders, must we not conclude that Israel’s government is the greatest enemy of the Jewish people?
Posts
