http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/the-doormat-policy.html
If you behave like a doormat, and you regard yourself as a doormat and let others treat you as a doormat then you must be a doormat.
It is now clear that Israel is regarded by most of the world as a doormat over which political leaders, academics and the media can tread on their way to receiving the goodwill of the Islamic world.
Unfortunately, this phenomenon has been encouraged and supported by Israel’s own behavior. Last year, President Barack Hussein Obama set the tone for this policy of “tread on Israel on your way to Mecca.” In his sycophantic speech to the Islamic world, he treated Israel as a doormat on which he trod heavily hoping to receive the approval of the Muslims. Every time his speech denigrated Israel, he was applauded by the eager audience in Cairo.Following the speech, official Israel was subdued and submissive. A feeble, almost frightened, reaction was voiced rejecting the impudent comparison of the Holocaust to the “suffering” of the Palestinians. No official complaint, no message to the Jews in the United States to demand a strong condemnation from American political institutions of this immoral comparison, and no effective reaction to the humiliation of Israel and the Jewish people implied by it. Israel proved yet again that it is a wet rag.
From Obama we may move to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish premier who has put himself at the forefront of Israel’s abusers. With and without his encouragement, hatred of the Jewish state, easily deteriorating to open anti-Semitism, has been appropriated by the Turkish media. The Turkish premier also walks over Israel with his heavy boots, cleaning his shoes on it and hoping in this way to receive a ticket into the club of the Islamic world, as well as the support of his Muslim subjects at home. At the same time, he offers himself as a mediator between Israel and Syria. The mere fact that Israel has accepted this offer of “mediation” from a person who clearly espouses the Arab cause and is an interested party in promoting Syrian interests, is in itself an indication to the depth which Israel reached in the process of self-degradation. Instead of rejecting outright the Turkish offer and exposing the ugly face of this Turkish policy, Israel just lies down to be yet again completely humiliated.
What happened? Why do the Turks want so much to mediate between Israel and Syria? Any professional observer of the Middle East can see through the Turkish move: It is not the interests of Israel which they are after, but their own and those of the Syrians. These interests can be summed up in one word: water. This sudden love for peace is nothing less than an exercise to rob the Jewish state of its vital source of water. For Syria, the river Euphrates that flows into it from Turkey is its major source of water. The Turks use most of the water of the Euphrates to produce electricity, thus reducing the flow of the river and the water supplied to Syria to between 400 to 500 cubic meters a second. Syria, as a result, suffers from a severe water shortage. There is rationing of water in the capital Damascus and Syrian agriculture is almost devastated.
Bashar Assad cannot and dares not pressure the Turks for more water, but Erdogan has found an excellent solution for him. Used to the fact that Israel behaves like a doormat, the Turkish premier offers to supply the Syrians with Israeli water: the Sea of Galilee! What a wonderfully simple idea! Aren’t the Israelis so eager for peace? Haven’t they proved that they are ready to sacrifice their most valuable possessions for a piece of paper? Follow Sadat’s precedent; convince the Israelis to give up the Golan, and all the territory to the north-east of the Sea of Galilee and comply with the Syrian demand to withdraw to the pre-1967 line. The Syrians can then settle the Golan with some quarter to half a million Syrian peasants and supply them with the water of the Sea of Galilee.
This is the only reason for the joint “peace attack” of the Syrian president and the eagerness of the Turk to “mediate:” Once Bashar gets free access to the Sea of Galilee, let there be no mistake, he will pump its water and no agreement will stop him from doing so and no Israeli government would dare to “jeopardize the peace for a few litres of water.” Turkey will be praised for the achievement; Israel will be left without its major source of water but with the sewage of the Syrians flowing from the Golan. Oh yes, with a bit of luck some Israelis may be able to taste the humus of Damascus!
These are well-known facts, but the Israeli doormat is still ready to be stepped on by the Turk and the Arab together.
And now we come to Egypt where the doormat policy of Israel shows itself in its most humiliating form. Whenever the president of Egypt wishes to issue an order to Israel he only has to lift a finger and the Israeli premier rushes to Cairo or Sharm el-Sheikh. Israeli ministers are only waiting to be honored with the whistle from the Egyptian pharaoh in order to lie down at his doorstep. Not once have any of Israeli leaders rebelled against the Egyptian diktat, not once has any of them said “if you want to see us, come to Israel.” Not once has Egypt been challenged about not upholding a great part of the Israeli-Egyptian “peace treaty.” How embarrassing, how utterly degrading it is to see Israeli diplomats, media people, academics, ministers, artists and writers grovel in front of the Egyptian ambassador in Israel hoping to be invited to his functions whereas the Israeli ambassador in Cairo is treated like a leper. The Egyptian press frequently conducts a concerted anti-Semitic campaign, supported by most of the Egyptian intellectuals. Lies are spread about Israel and the Jews in all the media and everything passes without reaction, because Israel has long forgotten the meaning of national honor. The Middle East reads this behaviour very fast and reacts accordingly.
The same can be observed on the Palestinian side. The Hamas in Gaza kidnapped an Israeli soldier some three years ago. In a normal situation Israel should have made it impossible for any leader of the Hamas to sleep in his bed. It should have followed a policy of kidnapping each one of the Hamas leaders and putting him on trial. Instead of doing what any country with self-respect would do, fighting to save not only Gilad Shalit but also its honour as an independent state, Israel negotiates with the kidnappers who, knowing that they face a doormat and not a proud state, keep raising their price. It started with 400 and has by now reached 1100 convicted murderers responsible for spilling the blood of hundreds of Jews.
How different is the behavior of the Egyptians who recently lost one soldier, killed by the Hamas. They are threatening to turn the life of Hanieh and his associates into hell. They issued an arrest warrant against him; they demand the handing over of the killers of the soldier—and they will achieve their goal, because Egypt is not a doormat.
Understanding Israel well, the Palestinians sign agreements which they never mean to fulfill, because they have already learned that with Israel it is very simple to follow the policy (defined by Arafat): Grab and Demand. Take! Never give and always demand more.
After Israel left Gaza completely in 2005 it is impossible to understand why Israel continued supplying its Gazan enemy with food, water, money, electricity, medical equipment and medicine whereas the Egyptians, Arabs like the Palestinians, closed their border and shun them. It is impossible to understand why Gilad Shalit has not once been visited by a representative of the Red Cross whereas the Hamas murderers in Israeli prisons live in hotel conditions, with regular visits by the Red Cross and their families, televisions in their room and food of their choice as well as pocket money. Which country would accept a situation where in reward for its humane behavior, missiles rain down on its civilians? Only a country which has long accustomed itself to being a doormat. The so-called Palestinian Authority behaves accordingly, reacting to any offer of reconciliation with total rejection. The doormat Israel will always give more.
If Israel were to behave with self-respect, if it were to come to its neighbors with demands, not concessions, if it were to expose their lies on a daily basis, if Israel were to follow a policy of rejecting their demands without even considering them, if it were to stop saying that “everything is negotiable” when everything is not negotiable, if it were to reject outright any demand to free convicted murderers and terrorists, if it were to stop keeping these murderers in holiday resort conditions, if it were to make clear to the Arabs and the whole world that Israel is here to look first and foremost after its own interests; if it were to make it clear that its enemies will not be rewarded for their aggression in 1967 and 1973—that the Golan Heights are not for sale and the Sea of Galilee is an Israeli lake—if it makes it clear that it will never agree to conditions which will jeopardize its existence; if it were to do all this and much more in the line of self-interest and national honor, well then it would cease to be a doormat and gain the respect of others.
Professor Moshe Sharon is Professor Emeritus of Islamic History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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