PM Netanyahu’s great speech to the GA
This is one of his best speeches. He keeps calling for “peace”. This is a brilliant strategy. Everybody wants peace. Thus he builds a consensus. Then comes Israel’s need for security. Who can argue about that. Let the politicians negotiate the details.
Meanwhile the Palestinians keep digging a hole from which they cannot extricate themselves. Obama, who’s he? Obama chose to support the weak horse and fell into the hole. Time for him to support the strong horse.
My dear friends, leaders of the Jewish communities of North America,
The history of the Jewish people has been marked by a paradox. We are at once both small and great. We are few in number but luminous in achievement. In the ancient world, the Jews were a small people on the foothills of Asia touching the Mediterranean. But in Alexandria some 2200 years ago, the Bible was translated into Greek, and the world has never been the same since.
“The Jews brought to civilization at least three big ideas: the idea of monotheism, the belief that all people have innate rights that transcend the power of kings, and a prophetic vision of universal peace.
“It is impossible to fully describe the revolutionary impact of these ideas throughout history, nor the poetic power of the Biblical stories that overshadowed much of the literature of the ancient world.
“As in antiquity so in modernity.
“Israel is one of the world’s smallest countries. But our success in science and technology, agriculture, medicine, and the arts belies our size. And on this continent, the Jewish community accounts for less than 2% of the population, yet its creative accomplishments in every field are legend and legendary.
“In modern times, Jews everywhere have made extraordinary contributions to humanity.
“So, smallness and greatness have thus accompanied our people throughout nearly 4,000 years of our history. But our conspicuous achievements often masked our small size and the vulnerability that comes with being small.
“Being prominent but small, we often could not defend ourselves against larger foes who envied our achievements, despised the ideas we championed, and periodically sought to expel or even annihilate us outright.
“The rebirth of Israel did not eliminate such attacks. But it fundamentally changed our ability to repel them.
“In 1948, some 600,000 Jews, their backs against the sea, fended off the assault of much larger enemies sworn to our destruction. We were aided by many of our fellow American Jews. You gave money, arms, and most important, tremendous moral support.
“You helped Israel absorb waves of immigrants, you spearheaded the historic struggle to free Soviet Jewry and you have tirelessly worked to strengthen the American-Israeli alliance which is a cornerstone of Israel’s security. Today, you support Birthright, Masa and Nefesh B’ Nefesh – these are programs that promote Aliyah and strengthen Jewish identity, thereby ensuring that our numbers are not further diminished and dwindled by the forces of assimilation.
“Strengthening Jewish identity can no longer be a task exclusively for the Diaspora.
It is increasingly the responsibility of the Jewish State. Over a decade ago, I was proud to be the first Prime Minister to allocate state funds to bolster Jewish identity outside of Israel.
“And I assure you that in my second term, I intend to do even more.
“The result of our joint efforts has been a stronger Israel. And only a strong Israel can achieve peace. But even a strong Israel is still a small Israel. And a small Israel demands a secure peace. Peace in our land, the peace of Jerusalem, our eternal capital, is one of our oldest longings, expressed in our Psalms and our prayers.
“Peace between Israel and our Arab neighbors: the first and immediate result would spare our children the horrors of war. It would spare our children the horrors of war. It would spare our grandchildren the horrors of war. What a great gift.
“Peace could usher in a new age of economic progress for the benefit of all. We have already signed peace agreements, two of them, with Egypt and Jordan. And we are eager to achieve peace with all our other neighbors, especially with the Palestinians.
“I believe there is no time to waste. We need to move towards peace with a sense of urgency and a sense of purpose. I want to be clear. My goal is not to have endless negotiations. My goal is not negotiations for negotiations sake. My goal is to reach a peace treaty, and soon.
“But to get a peace agreement, we must start negotiating. Let’s stop talking about negotiations. Let’s start moving.
“This past June at Bar-Ilan University, I put forward a vision of peace that has united the vast majority of Israelis.
A Jewish State
“In this vision of two states for two peoples, a demilitarized Palestinian state would recognize the Jewish state.
“Now, what do I mean by a Jewish state? It is a state in which all individuals and all minorities have equal individual rights. Yet our national symbols, language and culture spring from the heritage of the Jewish people. And most important, any Jew from anywhere in the world has a right to immigrate to Israel and become a citizen.
“I want to make it clear: Any Jew, of any denomination, will always have the right to come home to the Jewish state. Religious pluralism and tolerance will always guide my policy.
“What does a Jewish state mean for the Palestinians? They must abandon the fantasy of flooding Israel with refugees, give up irredentist claims to the Negev and Galilee, and declare unequivocally that the conflict is finally over.
“Yet, even after we achieve peace it may take years for the spirit of peace to permeate most levels of Palestinian society. Therefore, any peace agreement we sign today must include ironclad security measures that will protect the State of Israel.
“Here comes that paradox again.
“Israel is powerful but small. No matter where our final borders are drawn, Israel will remain exceedingly small. I am not sure you know how small Israel is. The United States and Canada are each roughly 400 times the size of Israel and the Arab world is 500 times the size of Israel. Egypt alone is roughly 40 times larger and even a small country like Jordan, our neighbor to the east, is almost four times as big. Israel is bigger than Rhode Island, but that’s about it.
“Small countries are not necessarily insecure. Belgium and Luxemburg are small but they today are not insecure. Yet if their neighbors included radical regimes bent on their conquest and destruction with terror proxies firing thousands of missiles on their people, believe me, they would feel insecure. Anyone would.
“Because of our small size and the radical and violent neighborhood in which we live, Israel faces security threats like that of no other nation.
“A few facts to drive the point home.
“A few days ago, the Israeli navy interdicted a ship carrying hundreds of tons of rockets and explosives from Iran bound for Hezbollah via Syria. Last week, Hamas tested a rocket with a range of nearly 40 miles.
“Now, for a large country, that might not be too consequential. But in tiny Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah now have the power to reach Tel Aviv.
Demiltarization
“Israel’s security therefore requires that any territory vacated in a future peace agreement must be effectively demilitarized.
“An effective demilitarizion of Palestinian areas is an essential component of peace recognized by successive American presidents. I want to assure you Israel is willing to make great concessions for peace. But there can be no concessions on Israel’s security. We have to ensure that weapons do not flow into the Palestinian areas in the West Bank, which overlooks Tel Aviv and surrounds Jerusalem.
“We cannot permit another Gaza or South Lebanon in the heart of the country. What we want is a durable peace, a peace that can be defended. We fervently hope that such a peace will hold, but we must be prepared to defend ourselves in case it doesn’t.
Goldstone Report
“The UN report on Gaza, which falsely accuses Israel of war crimes for legitimately defending itself against real war criminals, in effect seeks to deprive us of the right of self-defense. This report must be firmly rejected.
“We are proud of the Israeli Defense Forces. We are proud of our sons and daughters who are defending our country every day. We know that our army, Israel’s army, is as moral as any army on earth. In supporting the IDF and rejecting this report you’re sending a message to terrorists that they cannot get away with firing on civilians while hiding behind civilians.
“And you do something else. You support peace. For only an Israel that can defend itself is an Israel that can take further risks for peace.
“I thank President Obama for resolutely opposing this twisted UN resolution.
“I applaud the overwhelming vote last week in the American Congress condemning this biased report.
“I know there are many Canadian friends with us here today. I wish to extend my thanks to Prime Minister Harper for his staunch support for Israel’s right of self-defense.
“Last week, I watched a joint exercise of the IDF and some 1400 American soldiers to improve Israel’s defense against incoming missiles. I salute these American soldiers, and I thank their President, their Commander in Chief, President Obama for his commitment to Israel’s security. On behalf of the people of Israel, I send my condolences to the American servicemen and women who were killed at Fort Hood last week.
“My friends,
“My government is working to advance peace and we are not just talking.
“We have removed hundreds of security checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank. I personally extended the hours of operation on the Allenby Bridge and I’ve removed bureaucratic hurdles to Palestinian economic development.
“These efforts, along with measures taken by the Palestinian Authority to improve security, have spurred an unmatched boom in the West Bank and has made life better for ordinary Palestinians.
“For the first time in years, businesses, banks and industry are sprouting. Restaurants, theaters, and shopping malls are overflowing. Thousands and thousands of Palestinian jobs are being created.
“I think we can do a lot more to improve the reality on the ground, and we will. I intend to do a lot more.
“Prosperity can help advance peace – but only so far. To truly resolve the outstanding issues between us, we must begin and complete peace negotiations.
“We should not place preconditions for holding talks. Such obstacles to talks were never set in the 16 years of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue. From the day my government was sworn in seven months ago, I have been calling for peace negotiations to start.
“I said I would go anywhere, anytime to advance peace. And no Israeli government has been so willing to restrain settlement activity as part of an effort to re-launch peace talks. So I say today to the leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas: let us seize the moment to reach an historic agreement. Let us begin talks immediately.
“I know there are many skeptics. I am not one of them. I believe that peace is possible. I know how committed the Israeli people are to peace and how committed I am to make peace. But I need and we need a determined Palestinian partner as well. A partner willing to shoulder the risk and burdens as we are.
“I believe that with good will and with courageous leadership on both sides, and no less important, with the continued support of the United States, peace can become a reality. We can surprise a skeptical world.
“Achieving peace is a great challenge facing Israel. At the United Nations in September, I spoke of another great challenge: preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability. The Iranian regime tyrannizes its own people, sponsors and supplies terrorism, and openly pledges to wipe Israel off the map. Imagine how much more dangerous this regime would be if it had atomic bombs.
“The responsible members of the international community must unite to prevent this grave threat to the peace of the entire world.
“I support President Obama’s continued efforts toward these ends, and I appreciate the firm position taken by the leading European countries. We must not succumb to the Iranian regime’s deceit and cunning. We must stand together to stop Tehran from realizing its nuclear ambitions.
“In addition to achieving peace and preventing a nuclear Iran, there is a third momentous challenge before us – reducing the world’s dependence on oil.
This would help cleanse our world after more than a century of industrial pollution.
“It would help our economies by decreasing our dependence on depleting resources. And it would end the massive transfer of wealth to some of the world’s most odious exporters of terrorism and fanaticism.
“Here’s the question: can we dramatically reduce our dependence on oil?
“Remember, sometimes, one or two inventions can change centuries of habit. For many centuries, salt was highly valued for preserving food. Caravans of camels carried it across the deserts, and it was nearly worth its weight in gold. The salt trade helped build economic empires, and the world’s dependence on salt showed no signs of slackening.
“But then came two inventions: canning and refrigeration. Virtually overnight, salt lost its immense value. The same thing may happen to oil. Scientific and technological breakthroughs could dramatically reduce the world’s dependence on petroleum. And Israel could play an important role in making that happen.
“You know, of course, about our high-tech companies and venture capital funds, our engineers and scientists, our patents and our Nobel laureates. In biotech and agro-tech, in solar energy and desalination, and in many other fields, Israeli innovation is transforming the way we live.
“Two perceptive writers recently wrote a book called, “The Start-Up Nation”. We are the start-up nation. Now we must use our minds to help achieve breakthroughs in the field of clean energy. For example, Israel could apply its unique expertise to the juncture of water and energy. The global need for water is rapidly increasing. Yet, a third of the cost of producing clean water is energy. Sea-water in abundance can be readily desalinated with solar power and channeled inland.
“Having mastered both of these technologies, Israel can make a decisive contribution to alleviating water shortages around the world, especially in the growing economies of Asia and the parched expanses of the Middle East.
“I am in the process of establishing a national commission that will bring together Israel’s finest scientists, businessmen and engineers. We hope to work with other governments and experts to dramatically reduce our dependence on oil in the next decade, providing an example to be emulated by the rest of the world.
“If we could cross the oceans, fly the skies, and reach the moon, we should be able to harness water, wind and sun to power our world.
“My friends,
“I know that these three enormous challenges – achieving peace, preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and developing alternative energies - seem daunting.
But I want you to remember another mission whose success seemed completely implausible when Theodore Herzl embarked on it over a century ago.
“The challenges confronting Herzl’s vision of a Jewish state were not less than overwhelming. Most of the world’s Jews lived in Europe and had no intention of moving to the barren land of their forefathers.
“Few saw the clouds gathering on the horizon. Fewer still saw the need for action. But with a clear plan and a prophetic sense of urgency, Herzl helped the Jewish people overcome their tragic condition of powerlessness.
“His implausible idea gathered so much force that within a few decades our people emerged from the worst massacre in history to establish an independent state in our ancestral homeland. And then our small people then dedicated itself to the great task of building a modern Jewish state.
“In an understandable moment of frustration, Herzl lamented, “The tragedy of the Jewish people is that we do not believe in ourselves.”
“But Herzl did not lose faith. He said, “We are strong enough to form a state”. “We possess all the human and material resources for this purpose.”
“If we will it, he famously said, it is no dream.
“My friends,
“We have learned from history that if the Jewish people are united and determined, if we harness our hopes and our dreams, the hardest tasks are within our reach.
“We are a small people but a great people; a people generous enough to pave a path toward a lasting peace; a people brave enough to thwart the dangers that confront us; and a people creative enough to once again help steer humanity towards a better future for all.”
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This whole speech is just a bunch a political garbage, especially the portion above, which Netanyahu is very found of saying. First of all, an Arab terrorist state will not be “demilitarized.” The United States has spent hundreds of millions of dollars and several years training (and, along with Russia and a few others, arming) an Arab army made up of Fatah and PLO terrorists. Of course they are not officially called an “army”, they are called a “police force” or “security force”. (Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, the US General who is training the terrorists, calls them a “gendarmerie“.) However, you would have to be a fool to believe that it is not really an army. And it has already called for a third Intifada (i.e., jihad), of which Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton has said, in so many words, that they couldn’t be blamed if they did.
But, most important of all, Netanyahu, like most of the other Israeli politicians, calls for the division of Israel; the giving away of the very heartland of Israel, it’s very roots. Anyone who feels this way is in complete opposition to God, the very God who created and has kept Israel. Torah plainly states that the land cannot be sold nor given to anyone. It is not Israel’s right to sell it or give it away, it doesn’t have the authority to do it. This has been recognized by several of Israel’s Prime Ministers (those with courage and real beliefs):
Giving the land to the Arabs implies that they have a claim to it but they don’t. The Maccabees made this very clear: “We did not take a foreign land, nor the property of strangers to us, but rather the Land of our forefathers which had been conquered in the past by enemies with no justice. And we, when we had the opportunity, repossessed the Land of our forefathers.” (Simeon Hasmonian’s letter to Antiochus in Damascus). Giving it away makes a mockery of those IDF soldiers who have fought and died to keep it. Netanyahu should especially feel this way, given that his brother Yoni died for it. But what did he do? The first time he was elected Prime Minister he couldn’t wait to give away Hebron. Even his own mother cried and asked him “What did your brother Yoni die for?”
There has never been such a thing as a Palestinian people: “It is not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them, they did not exist.” (Golda Meir, former Prime Minister of Israel)
Anyone who supports the division of Israel cannot really be a true supporter of Israel.
Comment by LeeU — November 10, 2009 @ 4:05 pm
I suppose you don’t consider Sinai part of the Land of Israel? Or do you agree with the first time in Jewish history that Jewish settlements destroyed on the pagan alter of Peace?
You bombed with this quote!!! The Text is fine but the author should have his name erased for all time as Amalek, for he was the ultimate Jewish traitor.
Comment by yamit82 — November 11, 2009 @ 1:45 am
There are 3 irreconcilable realities that continue to clash.
1. The reality of wishful thinking is largely based on referencing Israel’s and Jews’ bibilical and historical inalienable rights to all the land remaining in the British mandatory territories after Britain gave 78% of that territory to the Iraqi Hashemites to rule over and a general sense that Jews and Israelis must never submit to the geopolitical anti-Israel realities that are inherently unfair.
It is this wishful thinking that defines Israel’s best interests and generates a vision for Israel’s future that sees Israel comprising all of the 22% of the remaining Britsih Mandatory Territories.
This first wishful thinking reality is that of Israelis and diaspora Jews on the right or leaning right. The broad general positions in this regard are that Israel:
a. Should abandon any thought to negotiate for anything but Palestinian and Arab surrender;
b. Should move to intransigently lay down its position that no part of Jerusalem or the disputed territories will ever be turned over to the Palestinians for a state;
c. Moves forward vigorously to populate the disputed territories and annex them;
d. Should allow Palestinians in those territories to remain, but without a vote or completely equal rights and invite or pay them to leave the region;
e. Demands that all Israeli citizens pledge a solemn oath of allegience 1st to Israel including the oath to defend Israel. Those who refuse will be required to leave. Those who make that pledge and break it will be subject to various sanctions including stripping them of citizenship and being required to leave the country.
f. Should realize these goals borne of wishful thinking through tough resolute stands and by the use of force if necessary, be it against her Arab, Palestinian or Iranian enemies.
There are other more precise points raised, but the foregoing are a fair representative sampling of the broadly stated wishful thinking points advocated.
2. The realities on the ground that shapes PM Netanyahu’s thinking and that of past Israeli governments in defining Israel’s best interests and vision for Israel’s future within the Middle East.
These realities broadly stated are:
a. Israel has signed onto UNSCR 242, which recognizes Israel is in occupation of the disputed territories and that Arab ownership of those territories is a fact by necessary inference;
b. Israel has a history since 1948 of seeing the peaceful resolution of the conflict with the Arabs and later named Palestinians as one of land for peace and the geopolitical powers and world opinion have come to frame the conflict in the same terms.
c. World opinion has come to see that the Arabs/Palestinians too have inalienable rights to the disputed territories and Israel is no exception, save that Israel cannot go back to the Aushwitz armistice lines of 1948 and must therefore retain a certain amount of the land for its security needs. The world powers continue to push for the road map 2 state solution paradigm in its various permutations since the 1st 2 state solution paradigm was conceived in the 1947 UNGA Partition Resolution.
d. With the original road map 2 state solution going nowhere, the latest variation on this plan is to forget about the confidence building measures required by both sides to go from stage to stage in the road map paradigm and to jump ahead to a final and binding agreement that sees the emergence of a Palestinian state and from there, the parties will work out their differences. Again Israel is by its various positions giving some credence to this newest variation on the 2 state solution.
e. World opinion sees nothing wrong with supporting the Palestinians in their view that a Palestinian state be Jew free while also supporting Palestinians in their claim for a “right of return”. Israel too has conceded this so called “right of return”, though because she recognizes that to give Palestinians full expression to that right would demographically destroy Israel, Israel is only prepared to notionally and nominally recognize that right in any peace deal.
f. The Arab nations have for a number of well known reasons, succeeded in changing their tactics from all out war to destroy Israel to fighting for “inalienable Palestinian rights” to their own state in the disputed territories. Though valid arguments can be made that the Arab nations are using the Palestinians in a strategy to ultimately weaken and eliminate Israel, such arguments do not affect world opinion or register even with Israel’s so called friends for if it did, it would completely undermine the Western conceptualized vision of how peace can be best achieved between Israel and the Palestinians.
g. With anti-Israel world opinion since 1948, the new Palestinian Arabs have grown into millions of people, 1.5 million of whom are in the West Bank and 1 million in Gaza. The Arab nations, such as Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria will never agree to giving Palestinians in their “refugee camps” citizenship and continue to call for them to be restored to their own lands. Similarly, the Arab nations and the Palestinians will never agree to a population transfer out of the disputed territories.
h. Israel has fashioned her political system as a modern democracy that affords equal rights and freedoms to all its citizens including Arab citizens, some, if not many of whose allegiences are more for Arabs and Palestinians then Israel. Israel has thus enabled pro-Palestinian/Arab 5th columnists to remain in Israel and shows no intention on doing much if anything about it.
There are other points as well, but the foregoing will suffice to identify these realities on the ground. These realities clash with the wishful thinking reality first mentioned.
3. Finally there is the 3rd reality that clashes with the foregoing 2 realities and which for now and the forseeable future undermines the vision for peace that the 2 foregoing realities envision.
This 3rd reality is that the Arab nations surrounding Israel, coupled with the rest of the Middle East and Muslim nations that span the crescent from the north Western coast of Africa all the way to Pakistan number about 500 million people while Israel numbers about 5 million Jews.
The other part of this reality is that intractable Jew and Israel hatred is rampant throughout most of this Islamic crescent and especially througout the Middle East and all levels of Palestinian society, which hatred spawns the intractable dream for Israel’s destruction, by war or any other means. This too is what drives the Palestinians to continue to make intransigent maximal demands that even Israel, so caught up in her desire for sustainable peace knows that such demands if given into will be suicidal.
In this regard, world opinion and Israel’s so called friends turn a wilfully blind eye to this reality as they push Israel towards a 2 state solution which many see as existentially weakening Israel. Israel, at least to a significant extent does so as well.
Perhaps the best or only interim solution for now is for Israel to use her might to maintain a status quo of no peace - no war and hope for game changing circumstances to arise that will allow a new peace paradigm to emerge that would enable Israel to achieve a sustainable peace that will further enable Israel to go from strength to strength and thrive far into the unseen future.
Comment by Bill Narvey — November 11, 2009 @ 3:33 pm
Bill I agree. A two state solution will never see the light of day, at least not in Israel, the Holy Land.
Using her might, first to destroy Hamas and remove them from Gaza if and when they send rockets into Israel.
No more softball. The same with Hezbullah, Israel needs to take out those installations in Southern Lebanon.
Israeli IDF needs to take complete control of all of Jerusalem and remove Islamic radicals.
Comment by rongrand — November 11, 2009 @ 3:55 pm
Narvey you forgot or discount the 4th reality”
Nothing short of a miracle explains that every time Israel is ready to cede Judea and Jerusalem, the Palestinians preclude the Jewish defeat. Arafat rejected Barak’s offer, which included just about everything the “moderate” Palestinians demanded, Olmert offered even more and was rejected. Now Hamas undermines Fatah’s efforts at chipping the Palestinian state out of Israel. Unless the wildest conspiracy theories are true and Israel’s security services are manipulating the Palestinians away from statehood, there is no other explanation: God doesn’t want the Jews to give the Promised Land away.
This chance is our last. The Almighty has created a situation in which the options are crystal-clear, and Jews need no crystal ball to see them. The entire Jewry outside of Israel has been annihilated—European Jews perished in the Holocaust, American Jews are lost to assimilation, and Arab Jews were uprooted and resettled into Israel. God tells us in the most straightforward manner that now we must decide: will the Jews live or die out? Zechariah’s prophecy is fulfilled: the two-thirds are lost, and it’s up to the Jews whether the last third will be refined as silver or burn out.
Jews, of course, have free will and can rebel against the divine injunction. Israel received every sign she could hold on to the Sinai: four wars with Egypt won, and the Yom Kippur war even extended Israel’s foothold. Jews nevertheless abandoned the Sinai; now we’re tourists there, and the Egyptians are the owners. Similarly, Jews can transfer Judea to the Arabs rather than the Arabs out of Judea. Such an act, however, would be equal to conversion. There is no practical difference between Jews’ converting to Christianity and consciously rejecting the commandments. Once the commandments are rejected, Jews can become anything.
Jews don’t live in the Land of Israel because of some stupid historical right. If Jews can return after 1,900 years, that is all the more reason Arabs can return after sixty years. Jews were sovereign on this land for perhaps four centuries; the rest of the time we existed as a protectorate. Muslims governed this land for much longer. Jewish national right to statehood? What nonsense! Ask the Chechens, Basques, Uighurs, or Bretons, and listen carefully to their reply: there is no such right. There is a single reason for Jews to conquer and settle this land: G-d has told us to do so.
Cleansing the land God gave us is a major commandment. It is arguably the major political commandment. Jews must drive away the inhabitants of the land. There can be no coexistence. Amalekites, Canaanites, or Palestinians would never be loyal citizens of a Jewish state. Cleanse first, build later. To build a Jewish state in a land populated by Arabs is impossible.
Everything else is commentary:
Comment by yamit82 — November 11, 2009 @ 5:59 pm
“It has no heart. It has no spine. Its mouth serves as its anus. It has a diffuse net of nerves instead of a brain. Is it a jelly fish or an Israeli politician? Pick one. Whichever one you picked, you were right.”
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Some 900,000 Jews left behind $300 billion in assets when they were forced to flee for their lives from the Arab countries in the 1940s. They hold deeds for five times Israel’s size. (Independent Media Centre, Winnipeg)
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“I sincerely hope that when the president goes in for his annual check-up, the doctors at Bethesda will do a brain scan. Surely something must be terribly wrong with a man who seems to be far more concerned with a Jew building a house in Israel than with Muslims building a nuclear bomb in Iran.”
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“By 1920 the Ottoman Empire had exercised undisputed sovereignty over Palestine for 400 years. In Article 95 of the treaty of Sevres, that sovereignty was transferred to England in trust for a national homeland for the jews. The local Arabs had never exercised sovereignty over Palestine and so they lost nothing. Their rights were fully protected by a provisio in the grant: ‘…it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine…’. The proviso has been fully observed by the Israelis. Since 1950 the Arabs have built some 261 new settlements in Judea and Samaria — more than twice as many as the Jews, but you never hear of them. They fill them with Arabs from Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan and by the grace of God they become Palestinians. Allahu Akbar! The Arabs call Judea “the West Bank’ because they would look silly claiming that Jews are illegally living in Judea.” (Martin Peretz “Narrative Dissonance” The New Republic, June 21, 2009)
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Comment by yamit82 — November 11, 2009 @ 6:42 pm
GHETTO ISRAEL AND THE CREATION OF AN ARAB TERROR STATE
by Raanan Shalom Isseroff
http://www.think-israel.org/isseroff.ghettoisrael.html Read full article
Slowly, slowly, the Jewish government is giving away all the land in Israel until ultimately, it will give away Yerushalayim, Shomron, and the “Occupied” areas. This is no secret and is stated by the Israeli government and promised to the United States (See on the Internet the CIA’s “World Fact Book Site”[4] - a new country called: “The Country Of The West Bank)
Finally, they will give away Tel-Aviv and Ramat Aviv too, Haifa etc. This part they do not talk about.
ISRAEL’S CREATION OF A TERROR COUNTRY
A New Country Called: “West Bank”
Comment by yamit82 — November 11, 2009 @ 7:15 pm
#10 Yamit 82 - Ghetto Israel - The comparison had occurred to me in the past but I never mentioned it because it is too painful, too horrible, and I was afraid to offend other readers. Perhaps it’s not a bad idea to use shocking language, if that is what it takes to shake some people off their stupor.
One more item: The US vision is not two Arab terror states on Jewish land but one - united by a corridor between Ramallah and Gaza. That is what they mean when they say “Viable Palestinian State”. The heck with the viability of Israel, of course. Who cares about that.
There has been an understanding with the Israeli government not to mention the corridor while “peace talks” are underway. Hamas is gaining respectability, so it’s a matter of time until one day they’ll manage a marriage of convenience between the governments of the PA and Gaza, long enough to declare sovereignty and split Israel in two.
The Israeli government is apparently OK with the Arab corridor across the land of Israel.
And it does not end there, of course. In the spirit of the article you cited, the Arabs will demand more. What will it be next? Galilee? If the criterion for giving up eastern Jerusalem is that it’s “too Arab”, then there are other towns in Israel that should also be handed over to the Palestinian state because they are “too Arab”.
Comment by Aline — November 11, 2009 @ 8:40 pm
Narvey:
Reality states that military might in the absence of corresponding political, and diplomatic clout is not enough to withstand American and European pressure to alter the status quo.Israel can stall off the peace process for just so long.
Comment by h peskin — November 12, 2009 @ 12:30 am
No Peskin. Israel is getting a lot of help from the Palestinians. Yamit mentioned that. In my commentary over the years, I have often made the same observation.
Abba Eban’s words on the subject are often cited wherein he said that the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Intransigent Palestinian Jew hatred so often overtakes their senses that they reject fantastic offers by Israel and then counter with impossible demands that derails any meaningful discussions. Other times Palestinian Jew hatred moves them to violence and again that derails any meaningful chance at peace discussions.
Time and again, Abba Eban’s words ring so true. Israel has a number of times been saved from her own folly by the Palestinians not being able to stop their Jew hatred from scrambling their brains.
Comment by Bill Narvey — November 12, 2009 @ 2:37 am