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Sunday, May 23, 2010

Why 'no' is the only answer Israel will ever hear

I don't know why we should even bother. 

Proximity talks?  What the hell is that about anyway?  'We'll talk in one room while they talk in another?'  How can anyone conceive of two states peacefully sharing a border if the leaders of those states can't peacefully share a conference room?  IMHO, Israel should simply say 'thank you very much... call us when you can bear to sit in the same room with us'.

But as if the ludicrous concept of proximity talks wasn't enough to make even the most optimistic observer laugh, several senior members of the 'moderate' Fatah party have recently gone public with declarations that if these doomed proximity talks don't lead to peace (i.e. to the realization of 100% of whatever the Palestinians are demanding), then they will return to armed struggle and turn back the clock to 1947 and U.N. Resolution 181 (yes you read that correctly).

Here are some of the problematic quotes:

"...there is a need to create and endorse new struggling tools, such as the popular resistance, and to increase our efforts in the international arena to isolate and punish Israel, prevent it from deepening its relations with the European Union and attempt to expel it from the United Nations.”

~Nabil Shaath, Fatah Central Committee member~

"... the PA should not repeat the mistake of the past, when it engaged in a 'deaf dialogue' with Israel for 18 years after the signing of the Oslo Accords.  

~Abbas Zaki, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Member of the Fatah Central Committee and former Palestinian envoy to Lebanon~

"...the Palestinians may also demand the implementation of United Nations Resolution 181, which was adopted in 1947 and recommends the division of the British Mandate of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, with the Jerusalem-Bethlehem area being under special international protection."

~Abbas Zaki, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Member of the Fatah Central Committee and former Palestinian envoy to Lebanon~

There are so many problems with this kind of talk that I don't know where to begin... but I'll try:

1.  'Popular resistance' is not a new struggling tool.  It is terrorism; and while much older than the so-called Palestinian people... it was refined into an art-form by them. 

2.  The more efforts are made to 'isolate and punish Israel', the less reason we have to make concessions.  When a country is forced to the negotiating table after being isolated and punished, it is called surrendering.  We will never do this for the simple reason that we don't have to.

3.  Expel us from the United Nations.  Please.  I'm serious.  You'd be doing us a favor by removing the shackles of this corrupt and obsolete organization from our hands. 

4.  The Palestinians may consider the eighteen years following the signing of the failed Oslo Accords to have been spent in a 'deaf dialogue'.  But this is likely due to the residual hearing loss caused by their own 'work accidents' and suicide (homicide) bombers.

5.  Implement U.N. Resolution 181?  Puleeze.  Talk about wanting two bites at the apple!  Someone should tell these jokers that they and their supporters rejected 181 (better know as the Partition Plan) and therein lies the root of their problems.  The Jews were the only ones willing to abide by that pitiful U.N. resolution.  The Arab response to this legal international instrument was to try to take by force what they couldn't get through diplomacy.  We all know how that turned out.  Israel keeps looking forward while the Arabs keep moving backwards.  Up until recently the Arabs 'only' wanted to go back to the 1949 armistice lines.  Now, it seems they want to turn the clock all the way back to the 1947 partition plan lines!  No country in the history of the world has ever won an unprovoked, defensive war and then given the aggressor a complete do-over.  Why should we be the first?

6.  As to resolution 181's requirement that Jerusalem come "under special international protection"...the Palis should be careful what they wish for.  If we were to place Jerusalem under 181's terms, they would find that this 'protection' was stipulated to be a very temporary measure... one that was to be revisited in the form of a local referendum after 10 years time.  Then, as now, the overwhelming Jewish majority in Jerusalem would have voted in such a referendum to bring the entirety of the city under Israeli sovereignty. 

But all this is just so much talk that will come to nothing.  Wiser people than I have correctly (IMHO)pointed out that the Palestinians will never be able to make peace for the simple reason that they will never be offered a better deal than they could already have had in the past by simply saying 'yes'.  And after all the senseless wars, bloodshed and terrorism, no Israeli government will ever offer them close to the fantasies they have constructed for themselves.

Posted by David Bogner on May 23, 2010 | Permalink

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The problem here is that the Palis think they have a "landsman" in the White House, and so can demand anything short of throwing the Jews into the sea. And Mr. Obama has done precious little to discourage that mindset. Quite the contrary.

Posted by: psachya | May 23, 2010 5:58:42 PM

While I agree with everything you posted about this, the problem - other than what psachya mentions - is that Israel's public profile continues to suffer. And the campaign for deligitimisation and demonisation, in all aspects, continues unabated. For example, I see Haaretz tonight is reporting the apparent success of the BDS (boycott, divest and sanction) movement in Italy. And then there's the Gaza convoy. What chance of some favourable news coverage of that? It seems from the Israeli side to all be about reaction rather than action to this propaganda war. We should be proactive. And we should be smarter. To put it another way, we need to be setting the agenda.

Posted by: Ellis | May 23, 2010 11:18:00 PM

The times, they are a changing...

My son just had a friend of yours, Yuri, as a Shabbos guest and he pointed the way to your blog, which I have, indeed, read before as I am a fan of Seraphic Secret.
From my admittedly far off Ivory Tower of Minnesota, your passionate analysis seems correct.
My simple food for thought is that, based solely on History, the Arabs called Palestinians are never, ever, ever, going to accept anything that has to do with legitimacy regarding the State of Israel. It's like waiting for Osama, the Dead and Dessicated Ooze, to apologize for 9/11.
Ain't gonna happen.
Unless - the Arabs surrender or Israel continues the unpleasant task of severely beating them and forces them to... surrender.
If the Arabs called Palestinians actually surrendered; laid down their arms; and sued for peace on whatever terms Israel allowed, then they would be able to "get" whatever they wanted.
And that would mean that the Arabs and/or Muslims could then peacefully protest every single Israeli "injustice" in massive numbers - which would probably lead to the demise of Israel as a Jewish State (out of Jewish "guilt" and liberal sympathies for our little semitic cousins...)
Which is why, IMHO, it's never going to happen.

Nonetheless, there are some pretty remarkable "signs and wonders" that are going on right now - such as the Obama administration and all that that entails.
It is neither good for the US nor Israel for the President of the United States to make "building homes for Jews in Jerusalem" the sole motivation for excoriating the Prime Minister of Israel over Israeli policies.
Something about those who bless the Jews, and those who curse the Jews...

IMHO, everything is going to change in a very short period of time...
I just pray that we all come out of it okay.

Posted by: Moishe3rd | May 24, 2010 12:32:02 AM

You are awarded the "versatile blog" award. Details over at my blog.

Posted by: rickismomr | May 24, 2010 1:58:43 AM

Found this post quite insightful. For another interesting viewpoint try reading 'Son of Hamas'

Posted by: Madscot | May 26, 2010 11:53:32 AM

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