Time For New Thinking About the 'Peace Process'

Notion that Palestinians should get greater sovereignty a recipe for violence, instability.

Yoel Meltzer - Ynet

Roughly 20 years ago Israel made a decision to bring back from exile in faraway Tunisia its most bitter enemy, Yasser Arafat, and deposit him together with his close associates on our own doorstep. Still further, not content with the shock value of such a startling move, the leaders of the day outdid themselves by actually helping to arm and train Arafat’s newly created “police force.”

Underlying this odd yet bold course of action was the assumption that the only way to achieve stability in the region is to boost Arab sovereignty - a kinder way of referring to the minimization of Israeli sovereignty. By now, there is no doubt that this belief has had an enormous influence in shaping the policies of successive Israeli leaders for nearly two decades.

Moreover, although it's true that when the Oslo process was launched many observers believed that the reasoning behind such gamble was sufficiently sound, two decades of experience have demonstrated the fact that the essential assumption was clearly wrong: Reduced Israeli sovereignty does not lead to local or regional stability. It never did and it never will.

In fact, the very opposite is true, as this school of thought exudes a defeatist attitude and projects a message that "we're wrong, the land is not ours." This, in turn, empowers our enemies to act in a more brazen manner. The result is that local and regional instability is perpetuated, not eradicated.

Tit-for-tat reprisals

This flawed line of reasoning, despite some good intentions, is the real driving force behind the many diversified attacks on Israel since the dawn of Oslo. Moreover, it makes no difference whether the attacks are against Israel's legitimacy, such as the international BDS campaign or annual "Apartheid Week," or against Israel's very existence, such as the countless terrorist attacks or missile barrages from Gaza. Ultimately, they're all a result of Israel's indefatigable attempt to grant further Arab sovereignty at the expense of Israeli sovereignty.

What's more, when facing military attacks, Israel is reluctantly drawn into yet another round of tit-for-tat reprisals – you kill, we kill, you kill, we kill – which do little, if anything, in diminishing the constant Arab-Israeli tension.

In order to finally change the seemingly endless cycle of insanity for both Jews and Arabs, Israel needs to take a clear look at reality and change the paradigm. As the only source of real stability in the entire Middle East, it’s a no-brainer that the exact opposite of the Oslo assumption is true. Namely, real stability can be achieved only by increasing Israeli sovereignty, not reducing it, while increasing Arab sovereignty will only lead to Israel's demise.

Although such change in direction at this late stage of the game would not be easy for Israel, it's simply a must, not just for those of us who happen to be alive today but for future generations as well.

Negotiating for What?

Peace talks can achieve nothing at this time, so why not consider other options?

by Moshe Dann

Insisting that the Palestinian Authority engage in negotiations rather than appeal to the United Nations for recognition is based on the belief that an agreement that will end the conflict is possible. However, both sides know that Israel cannot offer anything that will satisfy Palestinian demands and that the Palestinians refuse to agree to minimal Israeli requests.

Why then pretend they will? If the emperor has no clothes, why call for a fashion designer?

The idea that creating a second Arab Palestinian state will solve the problem not only defies reality, it prevents other options and undermines Israel's legitimate claims.

Why not consider other options? Because anything less than a Palestinian state and full sovereignty negates the Arab resistance movement that has sought Israel's destruction for the last 63 years.

Variations of a "two-state solution" – "land for peace,” which produced the Oslo Accords and fueled Palestinian demands for statehood - assumed the conflict was over territory ("the occupation"), not Israel's existence. And both Israeli and Arab negotiators at the time were careful to avoid core issues, which would have blocked an agreement and since then have remained to haunt and destroy.

After Israel broke the terrorist infrastructure, allowing modest cooperation, despite ongoing terrorism - and with Arafat no longer around - there seemed to be hope. But Hamas’ rise, a massive campaign of de-legitimization financed by Arabs and many European countries, a hostile US Administration, and spreading unrest throughout the Arab world have radically shifted the balance against Israel. Nothing can be taken for granted any more - even solemn peace treaties and international agreements.

The lid is off and the pot is boiling over.

The belief that Palestinian Arabs deserve a state is a powerful idea; if so, why not give it to them? And if negotiations will not lead to that state, why engage in them? For Israel, the illusion of negotiations buys time in the hope for recognition and acceptance; for the Arabs, negotiations only postpone their goal – Palestinian statehood and Israel’s elimination.

Alternative to 2-state plan

The problem is what constitutes that state; what are its permanent borders, can it be stable and will it end claims against Israel and end the conflict? Arab leaders have refused to commit to any answers - leaving the problems open, and the possibility of future violence a clear and present danger.

The only way Israel can rescue itself from this self-defeating position and avoid another policy failure is by offering an alternative to the "two-state" plan for another Palestinian state. This assumes that Israel must act in its self interest, independent of what Palestinian Arabs do, or don't do. It removes decision-making from the prison of false promises and addictive hopes to doing what is necessary to ensure Jewish survival.

Policy makers need to confront what is, not what they would like. That means understanding what Arab and Palestinian leaders really want, and how they try to get it.

For Arabs, it is about recognition and legitimacy for Hamas as a negotiating partner; it is about "the Nakba" of 1948 – the establishment of Israel and "the occupations" of 1949, and 1967. It is about core issues: "the Palestinian Right of Return," "al Quds" (Jerusalem), and complete Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria – for starters.

Since the Oslo Accords, Israeli diplomats, led by Shimon Peres, made a Palestinian state the cornerstone of Israeli policy. That has been a proven mistake. It led directly to the Palestinian bid for international recognition. Instead of reducing Palestinian Arab demands, it inflated them. Instead of moving towards accommodation, it led to conflict. Rather than promote reality, it encouraged the fantasy of Israel's demise.

As visions of a new Middle East sink into quicksand swamps of revolutions and counter revolutions throughout the Arab world, those concerned about Israel's survival must focus not only on the dangers of a Palestinian state, but Israel's needs.

Israeli policy can remain committed to peace without another Palestinian state. This requires a paradigm shift, a bold and imaginative new direction based on Jewish and Israeli – not Palestinian - sovereignty. This policy entails refuting charges of "illegal occupation," "illegitimate settlements," racism, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing. These accusations cannot be avoided by shifting attention to Israeli achievements in technology and science.

Shifting the focus from external form – statehood and symbols – to internal substance – values, purpose and transparency - moves the question to fundamentals: Will a Palestinian state be a force for stability and safety, or a combustible mixture primed to explode?

Advocates for another Palestinian state need to explain why those who are concerned about Israel's survival and regional peace need not be worried. Only then can negotiations become a play instead of a ploy.

The author is a PhD historian, writer and journalist living in Israel



Ynet News

The Palestinian Wonderland

Palestinian statehood bid based on irrational worldview, flawed interpretation of history.

by Asaf Romirowsky

Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found are a great way to understand the Palestinian narrative. Specifically, Carroll uses time and space as the plot device while drawing on chess imagery, mirror themes, opposites and time running backwards. As such, it provides the perfect “logic” to the irrational Palestinian worldview and interpretation of history as they attempt to achieve statehood through unilateral declaration of independence at the United Nations this month.

This is the same historical read that has convinced Palestinians that it is Israel and the West that created the Arab-Palestinian refugees, rather their own Arab leaders who did indeed put them in this state intentionally. Today, the perfidy of Palestinian society lies in its division, dysfunctionality, and complete denial of the reality it lives in.

The historical truth is that the notion of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state existing alongside Israel has never been part of the Palestinian worldview. The Palestinians have also always rejected the notion of a single bi-national state.

Palestinian society has never seen Jewish sovereignty or Israel's existence as a “right.” The only right in the Palestinians’ narrative of the conflict is their own connection to the land. They do, however, see Israel as a temporary military fact. But believe there will come a day, the narrative goes, when they will be able to defeat the Israelis. Their recent appeal to the UN is a new and cynical turn that should not mask the history of rejectionism.

In November 1947, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 recommended the creation of separate Jewish and Arab states. Palestinian representatives and Arab states rejected this recommendation and consequently launched a war against the Jewish community. A close look at the General Assembly’s final tally in 1947 highlights this rejectionism when 33 countries voted for partition, 13 against and 10 abstained. The countries that rejected co-existence with the Jews and blocked Arab-Palestinian statehood overwhelmingly came from the Arab/Muslim world: Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey and Yemen.

Talk is cheap

The reality is that a unilateral statehood bid is yet another Palestinian halo of “normalcy” that undermines every accepted model for peace even according to UN standards. Unilateralism was never accepted as the modus operandi, but rather, mutually agreed upon concessions by the parties as illustrated by UN Security Council resolutions 242, 338, the Oslo Accords and the Roadmap for Peace.

Talk is cheap. Land and lives are precious. If the Palestinians genuinely want to talk about statehood they need to come to terms with accepting and recognizing Israel and first get their own territories under control, stop firing rockets at Israeli towns, and start creating a decent civil society.

Pragmatically, the larger issue of Palestinian statehood raises a basic question - do Palestinians really want a state and are they prepared to take responsibility for their own people under such a rubric? In accordance with reality of Through the Looking-Glass, where time and space can be turned around, the answer would be yes, but at the expense of Israel’s creation to begin with.

Asaf Romirowsky is a Philadelphia-based Middle East analyst and an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Forum



Ynet News

Bibi, Do the Opposite

Given Peres, Barak and Olmert's track record, Netanyahu should ignore their advice.

Last week, three senior figures – Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak, and Ehud Olmert - demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu do everything, immediately, in order to salvage the talks with the Palestinians.

The tone of their voice not only conveyed great concern for our future, but also moral validity. The demanding tone of these words, and the eagerness with which they were quoted by the media, portrayed these message as though they were a supreme diplomatic decree.

After all, all three figures are former prime ministers. Their full life experience is at the basis of their incisive recommendation to freeze, at once, settlement construction and establish a Palestinian state.

The problem is that their experience is bad. Very bad even. Peres, Barak, and Olmert already led Israel in the past through the paths of the diplomatic process and brought it to a dead-end.

One of them initiated a sensational agreement with Arafat that ended up exploding in our faces. The second one dragged us to the infamous conference at Camp David. The third one came up with the foolish disengagement idea. All three of them were sent to the opposition before their terms in office expired, or alternately, dragged their party to the opposition because of their great failures.

Trusting the Arabs too much
Reading the political map is apparently not their strong suit. All three of them got terribly lost in the dense topographic area through which they now make pretenses of guiding Netanyahu. They believed the Arabs too much, while doubting the warnings of Jewish defense experts.

For these reasons, there is no need to be overly impressed by the trio's latest recommendations, as incisive as these may be. Olmert, Barak and Peres should even be prevented from serving as diplomatic advisors, based on the same logic that prevents Eli Zeira, the tragic hero of the Yom Kippur War, from making a living through intelligence work.

Should Netanyahu take their advice nonetheless, he too may have trouble making a living in the future. He should therefore listen to them very carefully, and then do the exact opposite.

Ynet News

Peace Process a Disgrace

Why is Israel offering concessions in return for what was agreed to in past deals?

by Moshe Dann

Wait a minute. Wasn't Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state part of the Oslo Accords?

"The Government of the State of Israel and the PLO team… representing the Palestinian people, agree that it is time to put an end to decades of confrontation and conflict, recognize their mutual legitimate and political rights, and strive to live in peaceful coexistence and mutual dignity and security and achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive peace settlement and historic reconciliation through the agreed political process."

If this isn't what Prime Minister Netanyahu is asking for now, what does this document mean?

And why is PM Netanyahu willing to make more concessions in return for something which was already agreed upon?

True, none of the major issues were dealt with, including "refugees," "settlements," "Jerusalem," etc. According to those behind the negotiations, that would have meant no agreement!

Thank you Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres for an agreement in which one side got most of what they wanted, and the other side got nothing. Thank you Alan Baker, for your legal "expertise," and Yossi Beilin for the PR cloud cover. Nice show.

Excuse me for asking, but, if the Oslo Accords, and Wye, and Hebron Agreements did not mean an end to incitement and terrorism, what do they mean? And, if these agreements do not mean what they say, why did Israel give up territory, help create a Palestinian army, and transfer billions of dollars to the PA?

If all of these agreements and Israeli concessions did not bring Israel closer to "peace," an "end to the conflict," and greater security and world acceptance, why were they made, and why is PM Netanyahu now back at square one?

De-legitimization must stop
If the PA has not lived up to its agreements, why doesn't President Peres object that he was misled? Why isn't he demanding that the Palestinians live up to their side of the bargain? Or, is he part of the campaign of disinformation?

The fact that PM Netanyahu needs to call for recognition, and is rejected by the PA, means that the agreements were a fake, and the Israeli people have been brainwashed.

That the Israeli government offers further concessions in return for what was agreed to during the past 17 years, is a disgrace.

It is a disgrace because it means that the "peace process" was a lie, and those who perpetrated it - deliberately, or, naively - have some explaining to do to the Israeli people. They include not only current and past government officials, but academics who supported this fraud, and especially the media which managed the brainwashing.

Those who oppose "the occupation" owe the Israeli people an explanation for why Palestinians reject any form of recognition of Israel's legitimacy – and why they remain silent in the face of that insult. Why do they call for boycotts of Israel, and refuse to demand PA compliance?

There is no need for further Israeli concessions. The Israeli government can announce that until and unless the PA accepts Israel's legitimacy, there is no basis for ongoing economic assistance, and no further cooperation on infrastructure.

For example, it is totally absurd that the Israeli government assists the PA in building the new city of Rawabi, near Ramallah, without such basic agreements. That this project, and others that are being planned, are supported by the Peres Center for Peace, without PA acceptance of Israel is mind-boggling.

PM Netanyahu's policy of unilaterally "freezing" Jewish construction led to this impasse. It's time to freeze the system that rewards PA non-compliance and contributes to undermining Israel, at home and the international community. PA de-legitimization of Israel must stop now.

An obstacle for Palestinians and those who support their demands, the question of recognition shows that the primary dispute – obviously – is not over territory, but over Israel's existence.

PM Netanyahu's demand that Palestinian leaders recognize Israel as a Jewish state is not a semantic tease; Israel's Jewish character is its raison d'etre, the "Jewish national home," and the essence of its sovereignty.


Ynet News

Direct Talk About Direct Talks

by Paul Lademain

Barry Rubin makes some good points:

The big story of the moment is the announcement that there will soon be direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). We will see if this new round of negotiations actually happens or not.

The other thing we need to see are the terms for the talks. Are they designed as a give away to whatever the PA demands? Are they well-organized in some coherent structure? Is this a set-up to allow the Obama Administration to claim credit for getting direct talks going (after messing up and contributing to their not getting started for about 16 months?)

Israel's one-year freeze on building inside settlements is coming to an end. For making this concession, Israel received nothing. Now it will be "rewarded" with the opportunity to renew the freeze. How is there going to be a "democratic, and viable Palestinian State living side by side in peace and security with Israel and its other neighbors" when about half of that supposed state — the Gaza Strip — is based on a radical Islamist regime that seeks genocide against Israel?

I suggest that someone in the media and politics actually begins to talk about what Israel wants out of a negotiated agreement. We hear constantly about Palestinian demands — a state, 1967 borders, east Jerusalem, return of refugees — as if these were the only things on the table. Yet if Israel's demands — recognition of Israel as a Jewish State, security guarantees, resettlement of refugees in Palestine, non-militarization of a Palestinian State, end of the conflict — are ignored that will sabotage the talks.

Even assuming there was a negotiated settlement, Hamas, Hizballah, Syria, Iran, and the Muslim Brotherhoods, among others, would try harder to wreck it. The level of terrorism and conflict would rise even more. Iran, for example, would not stop developing nuclear weapons. The ideas that everything is linked to the Arab-Israeli conflict or that resolving the conflict would bring stability and moderation to the region are simply not based on a serious consideration of the area and its politics.

Good points. But how 'bout a fresh approach?

Israel tasks Hillary for a change. First, she will be obliged to produce a list of what she wants Israel to concede, sacrifice, donate, to the arab invaders.
Second, Israel will go deaf, instead of groveling and haggling. Groveling, begging, and haggling invites people to view Jews as guileful chiselers - e.g., nobody respected or admired Barak when he offered Arafat most of Israel's lands in exchange for "recognition" and "peace." You want to know the truth? People here in the US were nauseated by Ehud Barak's craven behavior; Albright was in over her head; Bill Clinton's eye was on the Saudi's mega-million dollar promise to fund his presidential library and of course Hillary benefited from that by proxy.

Israel will stand up straight and respond to Hillary's hubris with its own demands: Israel will demand the complete restoration of all lands recognized as part of the Jewish Homeland by the San Remo Resolution and this land encompasses Judea and Samaria, the Golan Heights, Gaza, and all the land that has since then been handed to the arabs. Jerusalem will be controlled in its entirety by Israel. Israel will keep in reserve its demand for restoration of the Transjordan region to Israel. (For Gossake, Israel has always had Transjordan as a bargaining chip, but it lacked decent, strong-minded statesmen to use it!) *** It appears that Israel's PM loves to bargain, which makes him a soft target for extortion and pressure, which he cannot handle because he loves flattery and "love" more than he values respect.

Israel will expel all illegals and remove the arab seditionists from its parliament (Knesset). The tunnels into Israel will be sealed. Gaza will be restored to Israel and all of Israel's politicians who agreed to give Gaza to the arabs will be prosecuted or fined. Islamics who want to create a new state and who want to be known as "palestinians" will be transfered to Jordan and they will form a separate state within the boundaries of "Jordan".

Restoration of the Temple Mount. Removal of all Waqf from the Temple Mount. Should Jordan balk at Israel's reasonable demands Islamics will be barred from the mosque that remains wrongfully ensconced atop Israel's holiest monument. Anyone who bars Jews from standing atop their Temple Mount will be arrested or fined. Israel will build a new Temple atop the Temple Mount as a symbol of their conquest over the arab invaders. (Do Jews have the stomach for standing up straight and celebrating their own faith? Or are they innately weak, cantankerous and rude? Demanding control over the Temple Mount will be a litmus test.)
Syria will abandon all claims to the Golan Heights or else Israel will demand the right of return for all Jews driven from Syria.

Israel will abandon all of its past feckless attempts to ask, beg, grovel, humiliate itself for peace. (Let old Peres furrow his oily brow and weep tears for his dear sweet jihadis all by himself.) Remember: Israel as an ally is more beneficial to the US than the US is capable of being useful to Israel. Israel will do unto its antagonists as its antagonists have been doing to Israelis. (God will love this.) Jews will abandon their conceits and regain self respect and honest pride without superstitious doubts about God smiting them down. Israel will declare that it has no obligation to prove itself to anyone except to its own citizenry. Any arab who cannot swear allegiance to Israel will be removed to the new state of Islamic Palestine to be formed within the boundaries of Jordan.

Can a Jew demand this? Of course, a real Jew can. (And should.) Israel will need new leaders. Pulpy, pampered, overfed, cowardly, frightened Jews should stay away from the US State Dept. or any other organized body that attempts to meddle into or curtail Israel's sovereign rights. Foreign or NYC Jews who belong to the NIF or TIP need not apply. Soft-skinned, emotionally needy, servile, exhausted, crooked, avaricious, vain, corrupt Jews need not apply. No Madoffs allowed.
Invite the Belgians to attend a ten-thousand missile salute and a flotilla landing to take place in their capital.

Viva Israel from the Secular Christians 4 Zionism!

Contact Paul Lademain by email at lademain@verizon.net.



Gloria Center

The Negotiations Illusion

Instead of counting on futile peace talks, Israel must disengage from Palestinians
By Gadi Taub

The Israeli media and public are not too excited over the resumption of direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, and rightfully so. The leftists are saying that the Netanyahu government will thwart any agreement, and that’s true. The rightists are saying that the Palestinians will thwart any agreement, and we would do well to remember that this is true as well.

There are indeed many people, ranging from Meretz to Kadima members, who still believe that the Palestinians will very soon sign an agreement on partitioning the land. After all, behind closed doors they say that they’re sorry for rejecting former Prime Minister Olmert’s generous offer. However, talking behind closed door isn’t enough. For 17 years now, the Palestinians have been agreeing to strike deals behind closed doors, yet for 17 years these deals evaporate the moment people come out of the room.

Yet perhaps the explanation is simpler. Perhaps this was no coincidence. Perhaps the Palestinians know what they’re doing. Perhaps, just like they say, they do not intend to renounce the demand of return (they refer to it as a “right,” even though international law does not recognize the return rights of refugees, and certainly not of their descendents.) Perhaps they indeed have no intention of renouncing Jaffa. Perhaps it is no coincidence that they refuse to recognize the Jewish people’s right for a state.

Perhaps there is sound logic behind all of this. Because if they still view Zionism as a colonial enterprise that invaded their land and must be expelled and have its state destroyed, the way to eliminate Israel as a Jewish state is simply to refuse to separate from it. All they need to do is avert partition, and wait.

The battle of demography
Without partition, Israel is the only Western democracy that keeps a whole population group without political rights, and this increasingly erodes our status. Our allies will eventually turn their backs on us too. Perhaps the Palestinians understand, just like many Israelis understand, that without partition we shall all be living in one state, where the Jews are the minority.

Members of the radical Right and radical Left comfort us by claiming it won’t be that bad. Some radical leftists think that one state will be a bi-national democracy, or a democracy devoid of nationality. The Mideastern Switzerland. Yet this is not just a misguided estimate, it constitutes deliberate blindness and dishonesty. One look at Gaza would be enough to remember why.

Yet the far Right has its own way of denying reality. Over there, they decided to provide us with custom-made demographic data that are in line with the arguments of settlement supporters. According to the message delivered by rightists, with Yoram Ettinger being the loudest among them, we have no reason to worry: As it turns out, demography is in our favor. They are premising this on a document called The Million Person Gap produced by Bar-Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat Center.

Yet top demographers are unimpressed. University of Haifa Professor Amnon Sofer wrote that the document was produced for political aims and is no more than deception. Hebrew University Professor Sergio Della Pergola wrote that juggling the data would not change reality.

So perhaps we need to look reality in the eye, and accept two basic facts. The first one, as opposed to the leftist view, is that the current round of negotiations is no more than another attempt by two refusenik sides to buy time. The second fact, which contradicts the rightist view, is that time is in their favor, not in our favor. Our international status is being eroded and we are gradually turning into a minority in the Land of Israel.

Hence, we would do well to let go of the negotiations illusion and start to plan another unilateral move in Judea and Samaria – because the alternative to partitioning the land is Zionism’s demise.

Sound logic?
Bibi, Clinton and Abbas 

Ynet News

Theater of the Absurd

In different universe, 'peace process' could well be the stuff of macabre comedy
By Martin Sherman

Obama, after the "pragmatic" Palestinians have repudiated any idea of "historic compromise," any recognition of Jewish national sovereignty: "…so far the talks are moving forward in a constructive way…"

You couldn’t make this stuff up!

In a different universe the recent events regarding the rekindling of the "peace process" could well be the stuff of a macabre comedy, couched and conveyed in deliberately overstated caricature.

But sadly in this universe they portend tragedy.

It has been an almost inconceivable spectacle, beginning with the Israeli prime minister traveling to Washington to express his resolve and commitment to implement a policy that he has repeatedly repudiated – and ridiculed - for over a decade and a half.

Even more astonishing is the fact that he did so not because his earlier criticism was proven unfounded in any way, but despite the fact that it was proven well founded in every way; not because his previous warnings that the policy would herald disaster were proven wrong but despite the fact that they were proven right.

Yet the absurdity does not end here. In the Alice-in-Wonderland world of Middle East politics things get "curiouser and curiouser."

No less astounding than Netanyahu's acquiescence to discuss the implementation of the very policy he correctly predicted would fail, is the identity of the "partner" with whom he assented to do so. The Palestinian negotiation team is led by Mahmoud Abbas, someone who has neither the formal legality (since his terms of office has expired) nor the political legitimacy (since his authority in not recognized by a sizeable segment of the electorate) to do so.

And then enter Hamas. With an impeccable sense of timing, Abbas' radical adversaries carried out two brutal terror attacks on Israelis, dramatically demonstrating that the man Netanyahu has incongruously deemed “my-partner-in-peace” cannot control events in the areas he purports to administer- underscoring both the impotence of the Palestinian "partner" and pointlessness of negotiating with him.

For what would be the value of an agreements reached if there is no guarantee that the Palestinian signatories will be any position to honor or enforce them, even assuming they desire to do so?

Abbas wants to shape Israel
And just to drive home the absurdity and futility of the entire exercise, after explicitly rejecting Netanyahu's call for a "historic compromise," Abbas pronounced categorically that "we won't recognize Israel as a Jewish state," as to do so would "block any chance of Palestinian refugees from returning to their original homes inside Israel."

This was reiterated the very next day by senior Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath, who declared that "The Palestinian Authority will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state," since this "would…prevent Palestinian refugees, who left their homes and villages a number of decades ago, from being granted the right to return to them."

So not only do the Palestinian leaders openly admit that they will never recognize the Jews' right to political sovereignty in the Israel, but by obdurately insisting on the "right of return," they make it quite clear that the only agreement acceptable to them is one that would make the maintenance of such political sovereignty untenable .

Now one might well ask: If Netanyahu is not recognized by his Palestinian interlocutors as representing the Jewish nation-state, precisely in what capacity is he participating in the "process"? But an even more troubling conundrum arises: In what capacity is Abbas doing so? For it seems that he has adopted a trans-national - or at least a trans-frontier - posture, speaking not only for the people he foresees living under the sovereignty of the envisioned Palestinian state, but also for those who he foresees will not!

Indeed, Abbas' demands are not restricted to shaping the future state of Palestine, its character, the extent of its boundaries and the composition of its population (i.e. Judenrein with all the Jewish "settlements" evacuated and all the Jewish settlers expelled.) His demands extend to shaping the character of the State of Israel and to what the composition of its population should be (which à la Abbas is to include millions of non-Jewish Palestinian "refugees.")
In short, the "president" of a yet-to-be-established state - whose term of office has expired and whose legitimacy is contested by a significant portion of those he purports to represent - lays down, as a categorical demand, that for any agreement to be reached literally millions of people from third-party countries must be admitted as citizens - not into the sovereign territory of putative state over which he supposedly will have authority but into the sovereign territory of another state.

Like I said: You couldn’t make this stuff up!

Why help faltering, anti-Israel president?
But perhaps the most macabre aspect of this preposterous tragic-comic spectacle is that it the only conceivable reason for Israel to participate in it at all, is to mollify a floundering US Administration desperate for some indication – any indication - of success to boost its flagging popularity

Now had this been an Administration that had wide spread support across the US, there might have been some justification in reluctantly acquiescing to its behest. Alternatively, had this been an Administration which was favorably disposed towards Israel there might have been some argument for lending it support in a time of distress. But neither of these is true.

On the one hand, the approval rates for the Obama Administration have been dropping like a lead balloon with public support evaporating with each passing week. On the other hand, the Obama Administration been described as arguably "the most anti-Israel Administration in the modern history of the state of Israel."

So what conceivable political rationale is there in Netanyahu embracing a policy that rewards the White House's hostility and hubris and accommodates Israel's humiliation? What is possible political wisdom is there in providing the deeply unpopular incumbent Administration anything that might make it "look good"; anything that could give it any electoral advantage over the far more Israel-friendly Republican Party - especially as the crucial mid-term elections approach?

And if anyone thought that matter could not get any more farcical, they would be wrong. For just recently, Obama issued his latest exhortation for Netanyahu to make another gesture and extend the soon-to-expire building freeze. His reasoning: After the "pragmatic" Palestinians have repudiated any idea of making an "historic compromise" and any recognition of Jewish national sovereignty 60 years after Israel's establishment, was:

"…so far the talks are moving forward in a constructive way, it makes sense to extend that moratorium so long as the talks are moving in a constructive way."

You couldn't make this stuff up! Or have I said that before?

Macabre comedy?
Abbas, Netanyahu and Obama in Washington

Ynet News

There is No Peace Process

The reality being evaded is that Israel’s yearning for peace was shared neither by the Arab world in general nor by the Palestinians in particular. Their rejection to Israel's overtures had nothing at all to do with what Israel had done or failed to do... but to the very fact that Israel existed!

READ MY LIPS: "There is No "Peace" Process!"

The question REALLY is how did Israel get itself into this mess! It all began with a backroom deal among Yitzhak Rabin, the weasel Shimon Peres and representatives of a gang of Jew-murdering Arabs. In case you forgot, Rabin was the soft-headed Jew who prided himself on a "brilliant" military career which included the killing of fellow Jews on the Irgun ship, Altelena. And Peres never got elected to any office except head of the Peres Peace Center which he humbly named after himself! BOTH whackos would sell their mother's graves for a Nobel Peace Prize! These are the two Leftist dreamers who got Israel boxed into a corner after the wedding between Prime Minister Ehud Barak and his lover Yasser Arafat, culminating in the afterbirth of their bastard child, "Oslo!" Oh what a pity that the Jewish People have been cursed with self-hating, groveling leaders who still view themselves as losers!

The idea of the Oslo Peace Accords was to turn over Gaza and Jericho to the PLO leadership, now sanitized and repackaged as the PA (Palestinian Authority), to see if they could put aside their obsession of murdering Jews and try to administer their fellow Arab Palestinians in a responsible way. Yet to talk about the PLO and democracy in one breath is to reveal unfathomable depths of ignorance. With this chance for limited "autonomy," Rabin and the weasel Peres hoped the Palestinians would show their appreciation by killing fewer Jews! As an added bonus, the "moderate" Arafat was given Israeli-made automatic weaponry for his "police force" so as to counter the "extremists." Unfortunately, Rabin and Peres forgot that "moderates" still kill Jews moderately. Thus they had taken Yasser Arafat, the most vile Jew-hater in the world, and made him their personal "friend!" Arafat returned the favor by making Rabin and Peres his personal whores. Stupid is too kind a word for people who think it possible to have a new era of peace with murderers! And so is Treason!

What a sight it was in Gaza and Jericho... Israeli flags ripped off their mountings and replaced by the red, black, green and white flag of "Palestine." There was Arafat and his fellow Nazi Muslims firing Israeli-made bullets (none rubber-coated) from Israeli-made machine guns into the "liberated" air with promises from Arafat to "Liberate ALL of Palestine!" Even Prime Minister Rabin, the initiator of this suicidal Oslo disaster, publicly stated that should the PLO ever use any of our weapons against Jews, Israel would take everything back and throw the PLO out of our country. Why has this not happened? Countless Jews have been murdered by weapons given to them by the Israeli government in the asinine assumption that they would be used to fight terror. The Jew-murderer himself, Yasser Arafat, was given the Nobel Peace Prize in the hope that it would inspire him to end his terrorism. It didn't work. He has always been a terrorist. He continues to murder innocent Jews. He will ALWAYS remain a terrorist.

The deal was to have a 20,000 man Palestinian "police force." Estimates now have it well over 60,000 and they're even receiving military training from "outside" experts. Additional guns and even anti-tankmissiles and anti-aircraft missiles are being smuggled in from Jordan, Egypt and via their new air and sea ports in Gaza. Small explosive factories are popping up inside West Bank Arab homes. The "policemen" are undergoing military training. Children are sent to FATAH military "summer camps," not to learn how to dance the hora or prepare felafels, but rather how to strap dynamite sticks onto their chests for Allah! Who can blame Arafat for murdering Jews after the Israeli government itself gave him money, guns, ammunition, training, and bases within Israel from which to launch attacks against Israelis? Did the Israeli government really think that Arafat would use these things to protect the Jewish People! Ahhhh, if only the Jews had a clever leader like Arafat!

In exchange for her "bold steps for peace," Israel has asked the United States for some financial assistance. This, of course, will be needed to build reinforced fences, trenches, by-pass roads, sophisticated electronic surveillance devices, bulletproof vehicles and bulletproof windows for civilian homes. If all THIS is for "peace," then why must Israel invest so much to defend herself from her "peace partners!" The money would be much better spent expelling the Arab citizens of Israel (the Enemy Within) along with the so-called Arab "PalestinEEEEEEnians" of Judea-Samaria and Gaza and relocating ALL of them somewhere else...like in Jordan, the Arab-Palestinian state in all but its name or perhaps next to Senator Hiliary Clinton's New York home where she might bake them all a cake!

Let Israel learn a most important lesson from this impossible Oslo "peace" deal. Whether they be from Judea-Samaria (West Bank), Gaza Strip on any of the 24 Arab nations in the Middle East, ALL ARABS seek the destruction of the Jewish State. The Palestinian Arabs would certainly prefer that they be handed a State on a silver platter (for "peace" of course) but would be just as willing to take it from Israel in a war as soon as they feel they are strong enough to do so. Right now, the ONLY reason Israel HAS a semblance of peace is because of its strong, well-trained Israeli Defense Forces and its nuclear stockpile. How comforting it is to know that the ONLY reason the Arabs are talking peace is because of Jewish nukes! Does that mean that as soon as the Arab world develops Muslim nukes it's "Let the war games begin?"

Shall we carry this nightmare called "peace" a step further? Let's say that Arafat, Hamas, Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad, or one of the other Palestinian "Liberation" groups calls for massive armed assaults on Jewish towns and cities in some of the more heavily-populated Arab areas within Judea-Samaria/Gaza or perhaps even WITHIN Israel herself. So as not to be thought of as "Zionist sympathizers," Israel's Arab citizens would join in with their Palestinian brothers and sisters. In a scenario such as this, nuclear weapons have little value. But wait, the nightmare isn't over. While the Israeli Army mobilizes internally to meet all these attacks, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and maybe even Iraq launch a coordinated surprise attack upon Israel's borders to finally finish off Israel. Am I dreaming the impossible... or can you not imagine the unimaginable?

A two-state solution is just not feasible if they are squeezed in the the tiny sliver of land nestled between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. Two sovereign governments and their two armies, cheek to cheek, eyeball to eyeball and fist to fist all the while squabbling over a field here, a hilltop there and, all the while, continuous Arab terror against Israel. The experiment from 1993 until now called "Oslo" has proven one undeniable fact... a two-state solution [one Jewish and one Arab-Palestinian] west of the Jordan doesn't stand a chance!

This "Peace Process" between Israel and the "Palestinians" is all but dead except in the sick minds of Yossi Sarid, Yossi Beilin, Shimon Peres, Ehud Barak (at right) and the Peace Now crew?. Continuing it would be no different than continuing to eat poison pudding so as not to offend the U.S. host who helped baked it. The Jews of Israel cannot make peace by themselves. Judaism teaches "Shalom" ... Peace. Islam teaches "Jihad" ... Holy War Against All Non-Moslems. Thus it would seem that the only way for peace to have any chance of success would be to have the Arabs convert to Judaism!!!

O.K., so Israel Gave Peace a Chance. It was a good try. It is not working! She was dealt a bad hand and now it's time to fold. The culture of peace that was supposedly nurtured over the last decade was nothing more than a delusion. The only thing nurtured by the Arabs was hatred and incitement to kill Jews. So where does Israel go from here? Any normal country would take back Jericho, Hebron, Shekhem (Nablus), Umm el Fahm, West Jerusalem, the Galilee... and all the other Biblical Jewish towns from which the Arab enemy has removed its Jews.

If Israel does not remove ALL the Arabs, she is inviting further acts of violence and murder against its Jewish population. Some will call this "Racism." And indeed it WOULD be racism if the Arabs were removed simply because they were Arabs. Unfortunately the Arabs have been murdering Jews LONG before the Oslo Accords of '93 and even long before the creation of the Jewish State itself. So call it racism if you like but if Israel does not do what must be done, she won't be around to be called anything!

UPDATE:
If you feel like getting a preview on what sort of state a new Arab "Palestine" might be like, just listen to their lovely proposed national anthem:

My homeland
My homeland

The adoration and beauty and sublimity and grace

In your heights
In your heights

Life, survival, happiness and hope

In your love
In your love

Would I see you
Would I see you

Safe, blessed, victorious and honored
Safe, blessed, victorious and honored

Would I see you in your eminence

Reaching high prestige
Reaching high prestige

My homeland
My homeland

The youth will never get tired
Their goal is to get independence or die trying
Or die trying

We drink from death and for enemy we'll never be like slaves
Like slaves

We don't want
We don't want

Our eternal ignominy and our sombre life

We don't want but repeat

Our long standing
Our long standing

My homeland
My homeland

The sword and firefly are not speeches and conflicts are our symbols
Our symbols

Our glory and testament and duty of loyalty shake us
Shake us

Our greatness
Our greatness

A honorable purpose and waving flag
A honorable purpose and waving flag

Oh your felicity in your highness beating your enemies
Beating your enemies

My homeland
My homeland

Masada 2000

This Peace is Killing Us

One must be stupid, senile to think deal with PA will bring something other than blood, tears
By: Hagai Segal

The peace process and funeral processions always went hand in hand around here.

A day before the signing of the Oslo Accords, while then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was already on his way to the ceremony in Washington, three IDF soldiers were murdered in a Gaza attack. Yet that was merely the prelude for the huge wave of terror attacks we experienced later on.

At first, we referred to the casualties around here as “peace victims,” yet when the wave of funerals intensified, everyone shunned this Orwellian term and shifted to using more sophisticated eulogies.

Wednesday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the terrible terror attack in the Mount Hebron area, which left four Israelis dead, by declaring that “the murder proves that we must be more insistent on our security demands.” Really? Is that what the murder proves?

After all, the Oslo Accords were a masterpiece of Israeli security demands presented to the Arabs and to the Americans. On paper, everything was perfect: Strict security arrangements at border crossings, a thorough procedure outlining pursuit tactics following terror attacks, a complete ban on the importation of heavy weapons, meticulous registration of handguns at every Palestinian police station, and so on and so forth.

Yet what did we end up getting at the end of the day? Blood and tears; only blood and tears.

Those who think that things will be different after the next agreement is signed are either stupid or senile. All the security geniuses here in Israel and abroad will not be able to produce a formula that would guarantee tranquility in the event of handing over land to the control of Mahmoud Abbas’ militias.

Such agreement will be signed in an exciting ceremony in America, but end up with Israeli cars dotted with bullet holes here.

Car after being sprayed with bullets near Hebron this week:


Ynet News

An Open Letter to Israel Prime Minister

Dear Prime Minister,

If Israel's best young men and women must die, at least let them die defending a proud Nation... not a Nation groveling at the feet of murderers. Re-ignite the spirit of King David rather than that of the defenseless ghetto Jew. Be merciless on the Arab enemy who feeds off the carcasses of dead Jews. There are NO "bridges for peace." They disappeared long ago... right after Hagar and Sarah realized there wasn't enough of Abraham to go around!

The Arab enemy has chosen the terms of engagement. We want to live... they want us to die. That concept SHOULD be simple enough to grasp. The "Palestinians" are historical nobodies yet you have foolishly given them legitimacy. The world will not miss one single Arab "Palestinian." They have given the civilized world nothing but long lines at airport security checks. So why are you suddenly taking up their cause?

May I suggest that you take a walk through the Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem where we took these photos. Look for the grave of that beloved Jewish soldier and try to convince his parents that the Arabs truly seek peace. And one more thing, Dear Prime minister, Wipe that silly smile off your face when you go there!

Why so many Jews have such an inexplicable urge to be loved by the world to the point of sacrificing themselves to minimize harm to enemy civilians or their olive trees?

It can only be called madness!

They twist normal self-preservation to show the world that they are better and DEADER than their enemies.

Unfortunately, by asking the Israel soldier not to sink to his enemy's level, he ends up sinking six feet BELOW his enemy's level! All in hopes of being admired by the world and his enemies.... posthumously, of course!

If there are still some Jews so riddled with some sort of ageless ghetto mentality wishing to lay down THEIR OWN lives so that their enemy's "civilians" might live, that's just fine with us.

And the sooner we Jews rid ourselves of these sick Jewish types, the better!

But when these same Jews happen to be the leaders of Israel or I.D.F. commanders, THEN Israel surely has a problem... And THAT problem is the running out of Jewish soldiers!

The Arabs are fighting Israel and now Israel must fight like a real army!

If Israel could in 1967 defeat the combined Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian Armies in just six days, surely today's more powerful Israel Army could deal a death blow to the Palestinian Arabs in just six HOURS!

And THIS time, throw them out and KEEP THEM OUT!

No End in Sight...

While Israel continues to participate in one make-believe "Peace Process" after the other after the other after the other after the other...

Mothers water their sons' graves while cemetery workers will prepare new ones until the Israeli politicians finally
'Gets It."

This was written during the frightening prime ministership of Ehud Barak, during which he nearly gave away the 'whole store' for peace. Thank G-d Arafat once again saved Israel from herself by refusing his offer which may have been nearly 100% of his 'demands"... but not 100% of them! These words could just as easily have been written during the present Ariel Sharon prime ministership or ANY future one that thinks the Arabs will ever stop murdering Jews.

An Open Letter to Israel Prime Minister, Israel, Jews, IDF, Arabs, Palestine, Palestinians, Wars, Middle East Conflict, Middle East, News, Politics

"An Open Letter to Israel Prime Minister" Israel Jews IDF Arabs Palestine Palestinians Wars "Middle East Conflict" "Middle East" News Politics Military Analysis Arabic Government Educational Religion Warfare Commentary Protest





Masada 2000