THINGS TO COME?
by David Basch
Freeman Center For Strategic Studies
"To the clear eyed, two states living peacefully
side-by-side in what has been Israeli controlled
Mandate of Palestine territories has been a figment
of the imagination. The Arabs had wanted a new
state only as a stop-gap on the way to the elimination
of Israel...."
"One must live in dread of the proposals that Netanyahu
will be presenting to the US Congress in days ahead."
What I think I see developing before my eyes is the birth of a new
Arab state on Israel's lands. Israel's Leftists and their
collaborators -- which include Netanyahu -- will at long last be
achieving their dream. Once upon a time they had dreamed of a Jewish
state living in safety and security on their ancestral lands, but,
this in the last decades, this had given way to their powerful and
exciting dream of a new Arab state.
How do I know about thE outcome? Well, Netanyahu in a late Jerusalem
Post news report said that he won't accept such a state unless the
Hamas-Fatah combine agrees to live in peace with Israel. So, "Presto!"
Here is the formula for that new state: it will indeed agree to live
in peace, just like Arafat agreed to at the start of the Oslo-Israeli,
surrender process, and Netanyahu will dutifully follow through. (We
know what happened to Arafat's signed peace.) Unhappily, the
Arab-State-Express is on track going at full speed, powered by the
Israeli leader that the Right-wing parties voted for -- a leader that
was a RINO, a Right-winger In Name Only.
What Israelis can look forward to from here on in is, of course, not
peace, any more than the lamb can expect peace from the jackal. The
first outcome of such an agreement could be the bifurcation of Israel
-- you didn't think a self-respecting Arab state would agree to accept
a division of the land of their country between Gaza and
Judea-Samaria, did you? Hence, after all, it will be the
non-self-respecting Israel that will divide north and south and give
way in this.
And, then, hold your breaths, Israelis, as Arab and Muslim fighters
the world over will descend on the territories to reclaim the rest of
the lands of the former Mandate of Palestine that had been set aside
for a Jewish homeland. The Arab fighters will be armed by their
compatriots in surrounding Arab lands. They will force, openly or
stealthily, the bringing in of the millions of what the Arabs have
called their "Palestinian refugees." Naturally, it is the Israeli Jews
that will have to give way in the press of humanity since the region
cannot accommodate both Jews and Arabs. It will be the Jews
that will either have to leave willingly or be forced out, no doubt,
to the musical strains of the Barren-bum led Arab orchestra.
This predicament did not arrive in a day, but has been the outcome of
decades of failed key Israeli policies. To the clear eyed, two states
living peacefully side-by-side in the former Israeli controlled lands
has been a figment of the imagination. The Arabs had wanted a new
state only as a stop-gap on the way to the elimination of Israel. But
Israelis, in love with their dream of peace, worked tirelessly with
Israel's enemies making that peace of the grave for Israel a reality.
To be sure, this outcome will take some decades to unfold, decades in
which the Leftists will bask in the wielding power over the rump
Israel. But it is ha'olam ha'zeh -- this world -- that Leftist
Israelis live for. They bank on developments lasting long enough to
cover their own life times -- ha'olam ha'zeh. After that, comes la
deluge. But what Leftist cares? Leftists will be able to live out
their lives in their world wielding power over the rump disappearing
Israel.
As Uri Savir, a prominent Israeli Leftist, noted many years ago,
"three months before the 73 War no one expected it." And, true to
form, no one on the Left expects this coming disaster.
What to do? Well, decades of articles by observers warning against
Israel's steadily lose of ground to the Arabs as a result of
governmental surrender policies have proven that Leftist in power are
impervious to rational appeals based on the facts. "Peace or bust" had
been Israeli policy. Something had to give. "Bust" it is. In the end,
Israelis will have been defeated by their fatal flaws, the
"over-righteousness" and the being "wise over much" that Ecclesiastes
warned of as the sure formulas of self-destruction.
For clarity, "over-righteous" is a human flaw that has nothing to do
with actually being good. It is indulging in such things as "seeing
and sympathizing with the point of view of Amalek," sharing what are
your own rights and needed for your own survival, and, worst of all,
attempting to be so righteously good that defeated, unreconstructed
enemies are not safely cut down so that they cannot recoup. Instead,
they are enabled to become mortal dangers again and reverse their
defeat. Such behavior is taken on grounds of an irrational, imagined
"high morality" beyond any semblance of what justice actually calls
for and is a way deemed superior to God's morality since it would
wallow in a mercy uncalled for and negating of justice.
Similarly, "wise over much" is also a dangerous human flaw. In this,
one thinks he knows all the factors involved in events and makes
optimistic (or pessimistic) decisions based on such incomplete
knowledge of things difficult to know and that, perhaps, cannot be
known, when it would have been far wiser to hedge bets to prevent the
worst outcomes -- hedges that have usually not been taken by Israeli
governments, throwing caution to the winds. And when hedges have
been declared, they have all too often not been followed.
Has Israel, like Macbeth, gone so far into error and sell-out that
even turning back is as bad as going forward? The reality is that
Israel would do better to hold to the original terms of the Mandate of
Palestine that set aside mandate lands for a Jewish homeland,
declaring these as bedrock rights and the basis of the justness of the
Jewish cause. This must be affirmed rather than surrendering bedrock
claims and trusting to the mercies of an enemy that denies every
vestige of Jewish rights -- an enemy which will not mercy the young or
the old and pursues goals that do not include the existence of Israel.
Such backtracking to achieve Israel's security and safety will not
come cheap. It is only cheaper than the far more costly alternative.
(Stopping Hitler at the beginning would not have been cheap, but far
cheaper than the hundred times more costly alternative taken.)
One wonders whether a free wheeling Netanyahu with a past record that
is not too hopeful is the leader that will bring this Israeli future
about. Unless he is prevented from being a law only unto himself and
will be hemmed in by wiser heads -- remember, this is the guy who
executed the gratuitous surrender of the environs of Hebron, supported
the surrender and ethnic cleansing of strategic Gaza, and the
establishing of a new Arab state (here it comes and it won't be hedged
in by Arab commitments to peace either) -- Israel's future looks very
dark, shadowed by what will be an irredentist Arab state.
Netanyahu must be forced to share in advance his intended policies
with his governmental partners, lest his warped, "do-gooder" instincts
lead him to irrevocable surrenders, which he would undertake,
supposedly, in order to forestall short-term developments, but which,
ironically, will in the lkong run be fatal to Israel.
In the interim, one must live in dread of the proposals that Netanyahu
will be presenting to the US Congress in days ahead. (I hope and pray
that I am altogether wrong in these fears.)
******
'Fatah-Hamas unity a blow to peace, victory for terrorism'
By TOVAH LAZAROFF - J Post - 05/04/2011
Netanyahu discusses Palestinian reconciliation accord on London trip,
where he is lobbying European leaders against the agreement; PM:
"Hamas condemned the elimination of Osama bin Laden."
LONDON - Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu discussed the Fatah-Hamas
reconciliation accords with reporters on Wednesday, saying that it was
a boost for terrorism.
"What happened today in Cairo is a tremendous blow to peace and a
great victory for terrorism," Netanyahu said.
He added: "Three days ago, terrorism was dealt a resounding defeat
with the elimination of Osama bin Laden. Today in Cairo it had a
victory when Abu Mazen embraced Hamas, an organization that condemned
the American action against bin Laden and praised him."
Netanyahu landed in London early Wednesday in a trip where he is
expected to lobby European leaders against a Fatah-Hamas
reconciliation agreement.
In England, where he plans to meet with British Prime Minister David
Cameron, and than again in France when he meets with President
Nicholas Sarkozy, Netanyahu is expected to urge them not to recognize
a Fatah-Hamas government.
Palestinian leaders have defended the unity agreement, saying
reconciliation with Hamas reflects a deep-seated public desire to end
internal differences.
International leaders have had a cautious approach to the unity
agreement. They wanted Hamas and Fatah to come together, but at the
same time envisioned that it would come hand in hand with a
recognition of the State of Israel, a renunciation of terrorism and an
acceptance of all past agreements.
Hamas has continued to reject all three conditions.
Netanyahu is expected to tell Cameron and Sarkozy that they should not
recognize the new government until these terms are met.
He will also discuss wider regional issues, such as Iran, the killing
of Osama bin Laden and the upheavals in neighboring countries.
The trip was initially designed with an eye to thwarting a bid by the
PA to seek recognition of unilaterally declared statehood at the
United Nations.
It was scheduled in advance of a trip later this month to the United
States in which Netanyahu was expected to deliver a major address on
the stalled peace process to a joint session of Congress.
Since the European trip was planned, however, a number of events have
expanded the agenda, including the killing of bin Laden and the
Hamas-Fatah unity agreement.
Jerusalem Post staff contributed to this report.
Posts
