Monday, May 30, 2011

President Obama's New "Peace" Policy and Israel's Very Existence

I was deeply distressed to hear President Obama’s recent remarks calling for Israel to return to its 1967 borders as a “starting place for peace negotiations” with the Palestinians.  It has been the policy of the United States of America to defend Israel’s right to exist and to allow it to maintain a country which it is able to defend by NOT returning to the 1967 borders.  Indeed, as recently as 2005 President Bush promised Israel once again that, in exchange for other concessions, the United States would continue to NOT ever press Israel to return to those indefensible borders.  President Obama broke that pledge and dramatically changed U.S. policy in the process with his foolish and ill-considered announcement a week and half ago for Israel to return those captured lands which it won while defending its very existence against multiple Arab armies, yet again, during the 6-Day War in 1967.

The irony of all of this, and what many that disparage the “evil Jew Zionists” will repeatedly fail to acknowledge, is the fact that directly after the Six Day War the Israeli government did indeed offer to return the Golan Heights to Syria, despite the canon emplacements that Israel’s enemies placed there which look down on the Galilee and Tiberius.  Israel also offered to return the strategic Sinai peninsula to Egypt (Something that did come into being when President Carter finally brokered peace between Egypt and Israel in 1979).  Finally, Israel also offered to return the West Bank to Jordan. 

What did Israel want in exchange for the return of these captured lands?  All they asked for was an acknowledgement of Israel’s right to exist and to have peace.  At that time, all of the surrounding Arab nations responded to Israel’s offer by declaring that there was to be no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with them, and certainly no peace.  Israel kept these territories accordingly.  To return these lands to the surrounding hostile nations would return Israel to a nation where its international airport is only three miles away from the pre-1967 borders and the nation itself would be only eight miles wide at it narrowest point. 

For Israel, a nation that most of its neighbors does not even acknowledge as a rightful nation to this very day, and a country which leaders such as Iran’s President Ahmadinejad have vowed to “wipe off the face of the map” and “drive the Jews into the sea”, one can perhaps begin to understand the Jew’s hesitancy in wanting to sign their death warrants by returning these buffer lands that allow them the tenuous ability to defend their nation, and indeed their very existence.

The Palestinians have spent the last 64 years portraying themselves as the victims of the Jews.  These “refugees” have not been cared for by their Arab brothers.  The other Arab nations will not allow the Palestinian people to immigrate to their nations.  Indeed, the Arabs would rather have their Palestinian brothers live in poverty and squalor so that they can use them as a political club with which to beat the Israelis over the head with in world opinion. The Palestinian leadership has been corrupt and incompetent.  Indeed, today the Palestinian government has aligned itself with Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization whose only purpose is the destruction of Israel and the extermination of the Jewish people.
 
The United States financial support for the Palestinian people continues despite this, as we prop up a Palestinian people who wish us, “the Great Satan”, no good will either.  Indeed, many Palestinians were seen to be cheering in the streets during the horrific attacks on America on 9/11.  Further, billions of dollars that the U.S. has given in aid for the Palestinian people over the decades has been diverted to private bank accounts, particularly that of the now departed and Nobel-Peace-Prize winning terrorist Yasser Arafat’s reign.
 
The Arabs in general and the Palestinians in particular, point to how Israel treats them, and yet as Benjamin Netanyahu pointed out recently, over one million Arab citizens of Israel have been enjoying the same rights and freedoms that all Israeli people have enjoyed for decades.  The only difference is that the Arab-Israeli citizens are not required to serve a term in the Israeli armed forces, unlike their Jewish fellow-citizens.  They enjoy all of the other same freedoms otherwise.

Indeed, in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech before congress a week ago, after President Obama’s deplorable announcement, Netanyahu put things in to proper perspective when he said, Of the 300 million Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa, only Israel's Arab citizens enjoy real democratic rights. I want you to stop for a second and think about that.  Of those 300 million Arabs, less than one-half of one-percent are truly free, and they're all citizens of Israel!”

There are a few other passages in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech that bear repeating.  He drew a very clear picture of Israel’s dire situation when he stated, Now the threat to my country cannot be overstated. Those who dismiss it are sticking their heads in the sand. Less than seven decades after six million Jews were murdered, Iran's leaders deny the Holocaust of the Jewish people, while calling for the annihilation of the Jewish state.

Leaders who spew such venom, should be banned from every respectable forum on the planet. But there is something that makes the outrage even greater: The lack of outrage.  In much of the international community, the calls for our destruction are met with utter silence.   It is even worse because there are many who rush to condemn Israel for defending itself against Iran's terror proxies.”


Netanyahu continued,So peace must be anchored in security. In recent years, Israel withdrew from South Lebanon and Gaza.  But we didn't get peace.  Instead, we got 12,000 thousand rockets fired from those areas on our cities, on our children, by Hezbollah and Hamas.  The UN peacekeepers in Lebanon failed to prevent the smuggling of this weaponry.  The European observers in Gaza evaporated  overnight. So if Israel simply walked out of the territories, the flow of weapons into a future Palestinian state would be unchecked.  Missiles fired from it could reach virtually every home in Israel in less than a minute.”

He summarized his remarks before our congress by stating,You see, our conflict has never been about the establishment of a Palestinian state. It has always been about the existence of the Jewish state. This is what this conflict is about. 

The Prime Minister is right.  Further, with the current and seeming perpetual mindset of the Palestinians and most Arab peoples towards Israel and the Jews, a true and lasting peace will NEVER be established.  See the link for our good friend Free’s blog, John Galt for President, for the video of how this mindset is inculcated into the children of the Arabs and Palestinians.  How is peace ever to be brought forth when the Palestinian children are taught that Jews are swine and dogs, basically subhuman? 

I strongly suspect that the only peace that Israel will EVER find, the only peace that the Palestinian and Arab people will ultimately respect and honor, will come when America fully supports Israel’s right to protect itself by retaliating in a war in which they unequivocally and unconditionally destroy the surrounding Arab armies; when they do not negotiate with those they have unquestionably vanquished in war; when Israel dictates from that position of strength and power what the terms of surrender for the Arab and Palestinian people will be. 

Attempts at negotiation and Israel returning land for peace have not worked and indeed have only encouraged more terrorist attacks upon itself.  Such actions are not seen as tokens of mercy or goodwill by the typical Middle Eastern Arab.  Indeed these acts are seen as signs of weakness; a weakness that can be pressed and exploited.  Only through the horrible conclusion of an overwhelming war can Israel achieve a final lasting peace.  To continue on the path of the status quo is entirely fruitless and ultimately puts Israel’s very existence in jeopardy.

 The former Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir, said it well, "There will be no peace until they love their children more than they hate us."  She was right.


HT to Carrie for providing much of the research material for this article.

6 comments:

Carrie said...

"Other Arab nations will not allow the Palestinian people to immigrate to their nations. Indeed, the Arabs would rather have their Palestinian brothers live in poverty and squalor so that they can use them as a political club with which to beat the Israelis over the head in world opinion." This is the crux of the matter. Arab leaders are demogogues who use religios fervor to divert their people's attention away from their own greed. They prefer to rouse the people to anger against an outside enemy so attention will be focused away from the squalor and illiteracy of their citizens, problems they could eliminate if they truly cared about their people. The Nobel Peace Prize is an unfunny joke, given to whomever is in politically correct favor at the time. Arafat was so corrupt that he diverted the $ meant for Palestinians; his wife and daughter now live in splendor in Paris on the backs of their poor. Thank you, T. Paine, for always telling it like it is. Your blog is honest and so well-done. Love you for bringing the truth to your readers and I hope your audience grows huge. C

S.W. Anderson said...

The Palestinians are planning to go to the U.N. seeking to isolate Israel and get action on creating a state without Israel's input or agreement. Obama spoke up in an effort to head that off and get both Israelis and Palestinians off the dime and bargaining.

Obama's proposal, as a starting point for negotiations, isn't new a new idea and doesn't spell certain destruction for Israel. There's a lot of politically motivated drama-queen theatrics being perpetrated by the political right in the U.S. now. The GOP really would like to peel off most of the Jewish vote by being more pro Istrael than the Israelis. Those theatrics are being echoed by Netanyahu for political effect back in Israel. None of it is helpful to arriving at a workable peace deal.

Obviously, Netanyahu is going to start off saying the '67 borders are unacceptable. He wants to start any negotiations seeking much more than he knows he'll ever get. That's how it's done.

You might get a better perspective by reading:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2011/05/obama-further-explains-1967-borders-starting-point.html

Darrell Michaels said...

First, Carrie, thank you so much for your kind words and support. It is greatly appreciate, my friend!

Second, Anderson states, “The Palestinians are planning to go to the U.N. seeking to isolate Israel and get action on creating a state without Israel's input or agreement. Obama spoke up in an effort to head that off and get both Israelis and Palestinians off the dime and bargaining.”

I am fully well aware of this fact and understand the politics of the situation. Basically the Palestinians can NOT establish their own state via a UN mandate as long as the United States still decides to support its ally and only stable democracy in the region, Israel. Since the U.S. is on the corrupt and incompetent UN security council and has one of the five possible over-riding and negating veto votes on any resolution brought up before the U.N., the reality of the Palestinians creating their own state through this option is a non-starter. (That is assuming that President Obama doesn’t intend to totally throw our friend Israel to the wolves and not veto any such resolution.)

I realize that such a veto would cause world controversy and create a lot of headache for Obama, not to mention lose him some of his reliable liberal vote in America, but if he were to act the part of a true leader, Obama would publicly announce to Fatah, Hamas, and the Palestinian people that a U.S. veto is precisely the result of any such resolution brought before the U.N. Further, Obama should announce that until Fatah and the Palestinian people reject and remove any Hamas involvement and influence in the governing of their affairs, all U.S. aid will be immediately withdrawn. Hamas is a known terrorist organization and is recognized by our State Department as such. Why in the heck would we continue to finance the Palestinians under such circumstance accordingly?

Darrell Michaels said...

(continued)
According to the link you sent, “Israel will face growing isolation without a credible peace process, Obama said, and the march to isolate Israel internationally and the Palestinians impulse to abandon negotiations will continue to gain momentum without a credible peace process. “ I say that is sadly correct, and really already is the de facto state of things, thanks to idiot politicians like Obama and corrupt Arab nations in the UN. That said, there is and has been no credible reason for the Palestinians to negotiate peace in good faith with Israel so far. Every time a tentative peace or cease fire is negotiated, the Palestinians are the ones to quickly renege on their promises. Meanwhile, the Israelis continue to give up land for peace and get stabbed in the back or homicide bombers in their shopping malls for their good will efforts. What have the Palestinians given up in negotiating peace with Israel thus far? Empty promises of not sending more rockets into their cities or homicide bombers into the midst of their people?

Heck, when Ehud Barak was the Prime Minister of Israel, he basically agreed to about 85% of the Palestinian demands, granted this was a deal that would never have been ratified through the Israeli Knesset, but regardless the terrorist Yasser Arafat STILL refused to accept the agreement. When asked why he would not accept such a ridiculously good deal for the Palestinian people, Arafat was quoted as saying because for him to do so would result in him “having tea with Mussolini”. In other words, he knew his own people would kill him for EVER negotiating a peace deal with Israel. The Palestinians don’t want peace. They want the extermination of Jews and the complete annihilation of Israel. Their alignment with Hamas is further proof of this statement.

Your assertion that this is all about U.S. politics may be the case… for OBAMA. It is about Israeli survival to them though. Further, I acknowledged that the 1967 borders were a “starting point” for negotiations in my post. That statement alone is inflammatory to both sides of the conflict and was irresponsible of President Obama to frame the discussion in such a way though.

If all of this is simply just a matter of domestic politics to you, sir, I would submit that perhaps it is you who need to read a LOT more to get a more balanced perspective on this volatile issue, my friend.

S.W. Anderson said...

Paine, if you weren't so preoccupied with bashing Obama, you'd just about have this right.

"Every time a tentative peace or cease fire is negotiated, the Palestinians are the ones to quickly renege on their promises."

There are repeated incidents where extremist Israelis and extremist Palestinians have aborted peace deals that were showing promise by ratcheting up the violence. The unfortunate fact is that there are people on both sides with vested interests in continuing the struggle forever.

Palestinian leaders who have wanted and tried to arrange a peace can't control their extremists. Israeli leaders are only somewhat better at holding restraining theirs

I think this sick situation is more widespread and intractable on the Palestinian side, but it exists on both sides. The the ones forever expanding settlements outside Israel's borders are nearly as responsible for the ongoing conflict in their way as Hamas and the others are on their side.

The U.S. can't change what the extremists on either side are doing, so if asked, I would've urged Obama to stay out of it.

Darrell Michaels said...

Mr. Anderson, I acknowledge and agree that there are extremists on both sides and that Israel is not totally without fault on this issue. That said, they are miniscule when compared to the Palestinian radicals.

Further, the Israeli trouble makers are seldom known and not sanctioned by factions of the Israeli government.

Now, particularly since Hamas is a partner with the Palestinian government, that is definitely not the case for the terrorists trying to disrupt the peace from their side of the fight. Often times it is a faction of government that is directly responsible for the Palestinian terrorists firing rockets or sending homicide bombers into Israel.

Therein is the difference, sir. It has nothing to do with trying to score political points and "bashing" Obama. It is just and warranted criticism of his words and actions, sir.