Doc's Talk: Ships Passing in the Night

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Ships Passing in the Night

Jonathan Rosenblum
Jerusalem Post
December 12, 2008

No subject so divides the Jews of Israel and America as that which once bound them most closely: Israel itself. To appreciate the gap try telling an American Jew that George W. Bush was the president who best understood Israel's predicament and watch his jaw drop. American Jewry is lining up behind a return to the hyperactive American peacemaking of the Clinton years. The Jewish Alliance for Peace and Justice, according to an article in New York's Jewish Week, recently obtained the signatures of 800 rabbis on a petition to president-elect Obama urging him to make the Israeli-Palestinian peace process an early priority, beginning with the appointment of a high-level envoy to the region. And the new left-wing group J Street contacted the Obama transition team to argue that American Jews want a more active peace process and that large Democratic majorities in Congress provide the incoming administration with the power to push an aggressive peacemaking agenda.

J Street's is likely right. For many American Jews Israel has become a drag. If they were to wake up tomorrow and find that Israel had bloodlessly disappeared and its Jews had found safe haven elsewhere, they would be relieved. That includes the 50% of American Jews under 35 who told sociologists Steven Cohen and Ari Kelman that they would not view the destruction of Israel as a personal tragedy.

Others, such the Jewish Alliance for Peace and Justice and Americans for Peace Now, are intensely concerned with events in Israel. But it is their cherished image of the Jew as the bearer of universal justice, not concern with the lives of Jews of Israel, that primarily drives their Middle East agenda. So long as Israel does not have peace with its neighbors and is the subject of widespread obloquy, that image is tarnished. .

Even among the 3% of Reform Jews and 6% of Conservative Jews for whom Israel is the crucial issue driving their voting choices (according to a May study conducted by the American Jewish Committee) there are many who would not protest intense American pressure on Israel, as long as known "pro-Israel" figures like incoming Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, and prominent American Jews, such as Dan Kurtzer, Martin Indyk, and Rahm Emmanuel are the ones turning the screws.

And who can blame them when Israel's prime minister himself says that Israel's future depends on the speedy achievement of a peace agreement with the Palestinians? For all Ehud Olmert's venality, nothing so reveals his soul-deep corruption as having deliberately handed any future American president the club to pressure Israel without doffing the mantle of "a true friend of Israel."

THOSE AMERICAN JEWS who still fret about the safety of their brethren in Israel should at least ask themselves the question: Why do the majority of Israel's Jews view matters so differently? Why are they poised to elect as their next prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the bete-noire of the Clinton Administration in the heady days of Oslo?

Is it that Israelis are an anomaly in Jewish history – fanatic warriors craving permanent warfare? Or is it rather that they learned something over the last fifteen years?

Israelis do not have fond memories of the period of most intense American involvement in Middle East peacemaking under Oslo. Terrorist attacks claimed almost 1,500 Jewish lives in that period, and only abated after the IDF re-entered Judea and Samaria in 2002.

The chief lesson of the Oslo process is that there are no shortcuts to peace. Without a transformation of Palestinian society and a collective decision on the part of Palestinians that improving their own lives takes precedence over the destruction of Israel there can be no peace. That was the central insight of President Bush's June 2002 Rose Garden speech, and of Natan Sharansky and "Boogie" Ya'alon's calls for a "bottom up" approach to peacemaking.

What would be some signs of such a societal consensus developing among Palestinians? First, the investment of the vast international aid showered on the Palestinians in economic development projects rather than in salaries for multiple security services. Second, tearing down the refugee camps, which have been maintained for sixty years as festering sores producing a ready source of terrorists.

Third, ending the anti-Israel incitement in the official Palestinian media. When Palestinian leaders no longer feel the need to declare three days of official mourning for arch-terrorists like George Habash, or a national celebration in honor of Dalal Mughrabi, the planner of the Coastal Road Massacre, or to praise the heroism of Samar Kuntar peace will be closer.

Unfortunately, Palestinian civil society failed to develop under Oslo. The Palestinian economy worsened and the population was whipped into greater paroxysms of anti-Israel hatred and a death cult of suicide bombings. The Hamas takeover of Gaza and the division of Palestinian society into two has made peacemaking even more impracticable.

A return to the lawyers' obsession with obtaining signed agreement seeks to finesse the hard work of creating a viable Palestinian civil society. It places too much emphasis on the signatories of the agreement, no matter how weak they may be, and too little on those purportedly being bound. Such efforts are not only doomed; they are counterproductive. They would return us to Oslo's pattern of concrete and often irreversible Israeli concessions in return for unenforceable and infinitely recyclable Palestinian promises. And they convey to the Palestinians the wrong message – one that they need to do nothing but wait for pressure to mount on Israel.

Partly in recognition that past Palestinian undertakings have not been worth the paper they were written on, various proposals are circulating to reassure Israel that a large scale withdrawal from the West Bank would not just repeat the experience of the Lebanese and Gaza withdrawals. One such idea is the suggestion previously advanced by the new National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones that NATO troops be stationed in the West Bank.

But such suggestions fly in the face the lessons of recent Israeli experience. If we learned anything from the Lebanese and Gaza withdrawals, it is how limited is our scope of response to attacks from evacuated territory. Israel has remained passive while the Palestinians in Gaza went from launching Kassams at Sderot to shooting longer-range missiles at Ashkelon to now threatening the vital port of Ashdod. The presence of NATO troops, including Americans, would add another severe constraint.

The experience in southern Lebanon since the 2006 war also demonstrates that international peacekeepers cannot be counted on to hinder the buildup of the arsenals of our enemies. And even if they had the will to do so, NATO troops would lack the on-the-ground intelligence gathering capacity that has been the key to dramatically reducing terrorism from the West Bank.

At the end of the day, then, the divergent reactions of American and Israeli Jewry to calls for intensified American involvement in Palestinian-Israeli peacemaking derive from the latter's recognition that its first moral imperative is survival.

EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT PEACE BUT PEACE IS NOWHERE IN SIGHT

Israel has attempted to have peaceful relations with its neighbours, forever it seems; after each war of Arab aggression, and all times in between, only to be rebuffed with the infamous Three No's – No Peace, No Negotiations and No Recognition of the State of Israel.

Even today, with all the talks of "peaceful negotiations", the Arabs still refuse to recognize our rights in our ancient homeland – Eretz Israel!

Some of our people even fail to see that our so-called "peace partners", are the very ones involved in Israel bashing at the U.N. and elsewhere at every opportunity!

All the foreign imposed so-called "peace initiatives", do not bode well for Israel's security. They are based on groundless Arab demands, with no consideration for Israel's security.

Today, more than ever, Israel needs leaders with moral courage and clear vision, like our former leaders Ben-Gurion, Begin and Shamir who could see clearly through the hypocrisy and subterfuge of foreign imposed solutions.

In 1982, the then U.S. President Ronal Regan, attempted to impose on Israel a similar "peace initiative" after consulting with Arabs, but not with Israel!

An angry Begin, after explaining in detail why such a "solution" would endanger Israel's very existence, wrote to the President:

"Mr. President, you and I chose to call our countries 'friends and allies'. Such being the case, a friend does not weaken his friend, and an ally does not put his ally in jeopardy"

There is nothing to stop our leaders today to repeat the words of our former Prime Minister Menachem Begin z"l to the future President of the U.S. Friends do not compel allies to commit national suicide!

ONLY A STRONG ISRAEL BEHIND SAFE AND SECURE BORDERS WILL SURVIVE IN THIS HOSITILE AND VIOLENT NEIGHBOURHOOD.

____________________________________________

What's Wrong With This Picture?

The "Palestinians" in Judea and Samaria threaten those who would sell their property to Jews with death! The Jewish people – in other words – may not buy property in our own land!

The only way such transactions can take place is through third parties. This often leads to litigation as the previous owners of the property always deny selling to Jews!!

This in fact happened in the case of what the new owners call Beit Shalom in Hebron. The previous owner, an Arab, denied selling to Jews, creating litigation and possible eviction.

Our inept leaders still proceed with the so-called "peace" process as if oblivious of the true nature of their "peace" partners!

Despite the fact that the Arabs are not conceding any of their outrageous demands for which they have no legal basis, our present leaders continue to make concessions which allow the "Palestinians" to create facts on the ground, such as deploying Fatah/PLO "forces" throughout the areas which Arabs could only "occupy" in a final agreement.

But there is no final agreement!

Now the emboldened Arabs are demanding that all Israeli residents be removed from Hebron. The very presence of the Jewish people in Hebron is "a serious provocation"(!!), according to PLO spokesman, and "unless the government removes them from the city there will be a big explosions"!!

A spokesman for Abbas accused the IDF of collusion with the "settlers", and said the "settlers" "constitute a real danger to the Palestinians and their lands"!! "Their lands".... "collusion".... ?!

Is that why our failed government decided to evict in extreme haste, and with brutal force the people of "Beit Shalom" one day after the PA called for removal of all the "settlers" from Hebron?!

As stated again and again, the Arabs have no rights to Judea and Samaria, including Hebron, or any other part of our land, except for residency.

WHEN WILL ISRAELI LEADERS FINALLY CONFRONT THE OUTRAGEOUS ARAB PROPAGANDA AND THE OUTRAGEOUS DEMANDS OF THE FICTICIOUS "PALESTINIANS"

Guest Comment:
The first moral imperative is survival-the primary overiding lesson of oslo is there is no shortcut to peace. jonathan's short and cogent article places the emphasis where it belongs-on the society with which israel can allegedly make peace
unfortunately,it appears many american jews and our governmental do gooders just can't grasp the most basic concept-they are to genuine peacemaking what bernie madoff was to prudent investing. neither a peace process nor a peace agreement equates with peace. choose life
.

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The IDF’s Minorities in Numbers and Pictures

In honor of IDF Diversity Week, we present diversity through numbers and pictures. Each year, more and more Muslims, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and immigrants from around the world take on the responsibility of defending Israel.

MUSLIMS:

Muslim Arab Israelis are not required to draft in the IDF, but there are many who volunteer. In 2013, there were over 200 Muslims serving in the IDF and over 300 in the reserves.

Bedouins:

Bedouins are nomadic Muslims who were in Israel when modern borders were set in place and are now considered Israeli citizens. They are not required to draft but a growing number choose to enlist. In 2012, there were over 1,400 Bedouin Muslim soldiers doing regular IDF service and almost 1,500 in the reserves.

Read more:http://www.idfblog.com/2014/02/27/truth-idf-numbers-pictures/#more-34027

Are you aware that in 2013, Middle class taxes go up-significantly?

In January of next year, the federal income tax rate for middle-class taxpayers is scheduled to rise from 25 percent to 28 percent, and the payroll tax is scheduled to rise from 13.3 percent to 15.3 percent… This drives the marginal tax rate based on the aforementioned three taxes to 48.12 percent. Add in state and local property, corporate, excise, and other state and local taxes, and the percentage of each additional dollar that is taxed hovers around 50 percent… When half of each additional dollar earned is taxed away, taxpayers experience a disincentive to start businesses or expand existing ones. This leads to fewer jobs being created.

Why is HAMAS Inside Tampa Schools?

Clare Lopez

Kelly Miliziano, who teaches history classes at Steinbrenner High School in the Tampa, Florida area apparently thinks it’s perfectly OK to invite a senior official of a HAMAS-affiliated organization into her classroom to discuss Islam with her students. According to local media reports, not only has this been going on for years, but in spite of the civil and criminal proceedings that could result from such reckless negligence, the Hillsborough County school superintendent, Mary Ellen Elia, and the chairman of the school board, Candy Olson, also expressed approval for students under their responsibility to be exposed repeatedly to guest speaker, Hassan Shibly, who is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the Tampa area.
More...

Did You Know... Ignoring the Call to Islam will Bring Jihad

‘Conquest through Da’wa [proselytizing] that is what we hope for. We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America! Not through sword but through Da’wa.’
-- Yousef al-Qaradawi , Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader The Arabic word ‘Da’wa’ means the “call to Islam.” But do not think that Da’wa is the same thing as an invitation to an optional holiday event. The classical Islamic doctrine of jihad mandates that enemies must be given the opportunity to convert to Islam or pay the jizya tax before it is permissible to attack them.
Clare M. Lopez

Who is being discriminated-facts tell the truth

Religious bias

Hate crimes motivated by religious bias accounted for 1,409 offenses reported by law enforcement. A breakdown of the bias motivation of religious-bias offenses showed:

65.4 percent were anti-Jewish.
13.2 percent were anti-Islamic.
9.5 percent were anti-other religion, i.e., those not specified.
4.3 percent were anti-Catholic.
3.8 percent were anti-multiple religions, group.
3.3 percent were anti-Protestant.
0.5 percent were anti-Atheism/Agnosticism/etc.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2010/narratives/hate-crime-2010-incidents-and-offenses.

On March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview

with PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here's what he said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

In March 1977, Zahir Muhsein, a PLO executive, said:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism."

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan."

The Arab Apartheid

Ben-Dror Yemini
In 1948, the Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition proposal and they launched a war of annihilation against the State of Israel which had barely been established. All precedents in this matter showed that the party that starts the war - and with a declaration of annihilation, yet - pays a price for it. Between 550,000 and 710,000 Arabs fled because of the war and a larger number of 850,000 Jews were expelled or fled from Arab countries (the "Jewish nakba").
Population exchanges and expulsions were the norm at that time, occurring in dozens of other conflict points and affecting about 52 million people. In all the population exchange precedents that occurred during or at the end of an armed conflict, there was no return of refugees to the previous region, which had turned into a new national state.
Only the Arab states acted completely differently from the rest of the world. Instead of assimilating the refugees, they crushed them despite the fact that they were their coreligionists and members of the Arab nation - instituting a regime of apartheid. So the "nakba" was not caused by the actual dispossession, which had also been experienced by tens of millions of others. The "nakba" is the story of the apartheid, oppression, abuse and denial of rights suffered by the Arab refugees at the hands of the Arab countries. (Maariv)

International Law and Military Operations in Practice - Col. Richard Kemp

"Islamist fighting groups study the international laws of armed conflict carefully and they understand it well. They know that a British or Israeli commander and his men are bound by international law and the rules of engagement that flow from it. They then do their utmost to exploit what they view as one of their enemy's main weaknesses. Their very modus operandi is built on the correct assumption that Western armies will normally abide by the rules, while these insurgents employ a deliberate policy of operating consistently outside international law. "

Lost Historical Moments

What Rabin’s last Knesset speech really said:repudiation of a Palestinian state

Rabin ruled out a fully sovereign Palestinian state :

“We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority.”

Rabin ruled out a total withdrawal from Judea and Samaria and thus a return to the pre-June 1967 borders :

“The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.”

Rabin ruled out withdrawing form the Jordan Valley:

“The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the broadest meaning of that term.”

Rabin ruled out uprooting settlement blocs, like the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza (which was subsequently uprooted by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon):

“The establishment of blocs of settlements in Judea and Samaria, like the one in Gush Katif.

AND

Rabin ruled out removing any settlement before coming to a full peace agreement with the Palestinians:

“I want to remind you: we committed ourselves, that is, we came to an agreement, and committed ourselves before the Knesset, not to uproot a single settlement in the framework of the interim agreement, and not to hinder building for natural growth.”

Rabin insisted on Israel retaining full security control of the borders with Egypt and Jordan, contrary to Israel’s relinquishment of the Philadelphia Corridor on the border with Egypt:

“The responsibility for external security along the borders with Egypt and Jordan, as well as control over the airspace above all of the territories and Gaza Strip maritime zone, remains in our hands.”

Correcting Oslo Myths-Part 2

3) Kuttab laments that the post-1993 Oslo process resulted in a Palestinian Authority "whose ministers and legislators are not guaranteed passage between Gaza and the West Bank ...."

Before free passage or other perquisites, PA leaders were obligated, among other things, to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, end anti-Israeli, antisemitic incitement in schools, mosques, and communications media, and resolve all outstanding issues through peaceful negotiations. They met none of these commitments, sometimes bolstering terrorism and greatly increasing incitement.

4) Kuttab complains that under Oslo the PA got "lightly armed police ---- but no real sovereignty over the land or contiguity between our communities in Gaza and the West Bank."

Oslo agreements repeatedly were revised, regardless of Palestinian non-compliance, until the authorized number of police grew from 8,000 to 40,000. Though they were to be the only armed forces in the territories, Israeli estimates early in the second intifada put the number of gunmen - police, "security services," terrorists, and armed gangs - at 85,000. Their armament reportedly included not only heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, but also anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

Sovereignty was to be negotiated in the envisioned 1998 "final status" talks - after a five-year period of confidence-building. Palestinian leadership chronically undermined the process. Palestinian terrorism made the 1993 - 1998 Oslo period more deadly for Israelis than the 15 years preceding it.

The United States doesn't have contiguity between the lower 48 states and Alaska and Hawaii; territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza Strip - that is, through the 20 miles of Israeli territory between them - was never promised and would destroy Israeli contiguity.

5) "Palestinians have been made to endure hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank, an eight-foot wall deep in our territories, and tight Israeli control over borders."

The security barrier is not "deep in Palestinian territories," but rather encompasses less than 8 percent of Judea and Samaria, and is mostly a fence, rarely a wall; the land in question is not "our [Palestinian] territories" but disputed territory to which, according to the authors of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, Jews as well as Arabs have claims; and there are no international borders, only the 1949 armistice lines with Jordan. Under 242, borders remain to be negotiated. As for checkpoints - like the security barrier and "tight Israeli control" - Palestinian Arabs precipitated these measures themselves. No terrorism and there would be no fence or tight Israeli control and few checkpoints - like before the first intifada.

Correcting Some Oslo Myths

1) In Oslo "Israeli, Palestinian and other world leaders promised that ... Palestinian sovereignty would be solidified."

No, they didn't. The 1993 Declaration of Principles and subsequent Oslo agreements outlined a process by which final status negotiations about the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reached. The process required an end to anti-Israel terrorism and incitement and a commitment to peaceful negotiations. The PA, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups, sabotaged the process from the start.

2) "The reality is that, in defiance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which states that it is inadmissible to occupy land by force, Palestinian territories are still under foreign military occupation."
Wrong again. Resolution 242 (1967) does note "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." It also affirms the right of every state in the area "to live in peace with secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." There were no "Palestinian territories." Jordan occupied the West Bank, Egypt controlled Gaza. Israel did not have "secure and recognized boundaries," so retention of some of those territories was possible under 242. Israel is not a "foreign" military occupier in the West Bank but, pending final negotiations, the lawful military administrator as a result of a successful war of self-defense.

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