Murdered Diplomacy: How the Israel-Palestinian Conflict Has Been Transformed
Much of the media, “experts,” and Western politicians will no doubt blame Israel — and especially the Netanyahu government — for the absence of a diplomatic miracle. Though in fact, Israel’s stances have now been rendered irrelevant in this regard.
During the next four years there will not be any serious Israel-Palestinian peace negotiations, and it won’t be Israel’s fault.
In real terms, whatever they say publicly, the U.S. and European governments seem to have recognized this fact; President Barack Obama clearly understands it, too. What they fail to understand is their own responsibility for this outcome.
This is a very important point to understand.
The ridiculousness of claims by believers in “linkage” — that the Arab-Israeli or Israeli-Palestinian conflicts are the core issue in the region — are increasingly obvious. With revolutions and civil wars everywhere, Islamists fighting nationalists and democrats, and Sunnis fighting Shias, the conflicts involving Israel are clearly secondary at most.
Thus, telling the Palestinians that they now have a state is a way of escaping this dilemma.
You’ve got what you want, goes the message, so go away and leave us alone to deal with the important stuff. In short, this step kills the peace process, but those who did it no longer care. And it is one more case where — despite damage done to Israel — Palestinian leaders rejoice over a “victory” which ensures they are worse off than before.
We also argued that this step would lead to constant Palestinian lawsuits in the world court against Israel as aggressing against another state, and would make the Palestinian side intoxicated with the belief that it could do whatever it wanted to do; now comes an official statement from PA leader Mahmoud Abbas to that effect. From his regime’s official news agency comes the following:
PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVES TO THE FOREIGN MINISTRY TO REQUEST THE WORLD STATES TO USE THE ‘STATE OF PALESTINE’ INSTEAD OF THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY
President Mahmoud Abbas issued directives to the PA foreign ministry to circulate to the Palestinian embassies worldwide directives according to which they should use the ‘state of Palestine’ instead of the ‘Palestinian National Authority’ in compliance with the UNGA [General Assembly] resolution on upgrading the status of the state of Palestine to a non-member observer state, and to seek recognition of the statehood from states that have not yet done that.
The international community (IC)has effectively destoyed it’s own credibility and the rule of law. After all who now will accept international guarentees for their security in exchange for tangible assets? The Taiwanese, vietnamese, serbs, africans? That the IC has betrayed Israel is nothing new (see straits of Tiran). That they are blatant about it, is. the precedents thery are setting will come back to haunt us all. Lawfare is about subverting the law not enforcing it.
Israel must remain steadfast in it’s goals and interests. The arab spring is freezing over. As prof Rubin states these regimes will need time to consolidate their power before they can start another war. This is time Israel desperately needs to assimilate the Hareidim and insulate their economy and military from outside pressures.
And how do we insulate our economy and military from outside pressures? That’s the million dollar question.
Convince the world it has more to lose by siding with the Muslims against you, than you against the Muslims. Announce that certain hostile moves by the “international community” will be considered intolerable and shall be met with extreme retaliation. Speaking of the economy, I’m not worried at all. The principles of economic science apply to a collection of disinterested individuals, not to a nation, unified by religion and a long history of persecution, fighting for its survival. It all comes down to whether the Israelis are motivated enough to make the necessary kind of sacrifices should Israel be pushed into a corner.
Speaking of “lawfare,” I just posted this elsewhere:
The only possible kind of “international law” is when several nations consent to follow certain rules in their dealings with one another, for the common benefit of all (at least in the long term). When, on the other hand, several nations band together in an attempt to dictate their will to a third party, it’s not international law, properly speaking, but international alliance.
The notion that a transnational bureaucracy can impose its rulings on an unwilling national government, moreover rulings that are in violation of past treaties to which that government is party, is nothing more than a fabrication of anti-Israel propaganda.
Indeed.
Power does come from the barrel of a gun. Or a Nuke.
Memo to irascible Ayrabs: Israel’s nukes will definitely work, and they ain’t going quietly into the good night.
Not this time.
Not with Benny at the helm.
If the entire PA disappeared from the Earth, who would genuinely miss them?
Not me.
I would cry, “Good riddance”.
And mean it.
Originally there was an Arab-Israeli conflict which all of a sudden, at a certain point became an Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after the Arab invented a fraudulent and fake identity “The Palestinians” which never existed before. This was brilliant because the Arabs with 21 states and territories stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Atlantic ocean, and immense wealth from oil revenue, a population of 250 million people, standing armies of millions of sodiers could never breng the world to support their “cause” and pretend they were the “victims” in their aggressions against the thinny Israel. By replacing Arabs by “Palestinians” the real victims of Arab aggressions Israel became the aggressors of the poor, deprived Palestinians etc. And it worked! It worked because “the world” never really wanted a Jewish state to begin with and only waited for the appropriate time (since a few decades now) to start a process of gradual delegitimazation of the Jewish state and correct what more and more people consider to have been a historic mistake. What is revolting is that Israel and the Jews themselves let it happen, adopted themselves the fake semanitics and accepted the fantastic narrative which nowedays falsely characterizes the conflict.
Very good summary, Michael. The West loves victims and hates survivors. And because of anti-Semitism, the West will invent victims, thus the ‘palistineans.’
The West is really fickle, too-turning away from Christianity as they eagerly await becoming Islamicized.
All very true.
As for the Israelis, part have fallen for the endlessly repeated lie, and others thought that by recognizing the made-up Arab-Palestinian People we could get to a peace agreement and solve the conflict. They thought this new model is a better alternative to the old model where the entire Arab nation just wanted to destroy us, and that by limiting the problem to an Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reaching a peace agreement with the Pal-Arabs we could solve the entire conflict and have peace with the entire Arab world. The fundamental mistake was to trust the good will and sincerity of the Arabs in general and the Pal-Arabs in particular. The insane part was that we decided to trust the good will and sincerity of none other than Yasser Arafat.
And now Egyptian Muslims are demanding the “right of return” to occupied Spain. I say giving a state to the Arab-Andalusian People is long overdue.
“The fundamental mistake was to trust the good will and sincerity of the Arabs in general and the Pal-Arabs in particular. The insane part was that we decided to trust the good will and sincerity of none other than Yasser Arafat.”
Even without goodwill and trust there was a more fundamental misunderstanding. What we thought was that the Palestinians would act in their own best interests which we assumed was a Palestinian homeland and state similar in purpose to Israel as the Jewish homeland. That was totally wrong.
Just last week I read that Israel was willing to let thousands of Palestinian refugees from Syria take up residence in the West Bank. The PA refused and they are stuck in Jordon or Syria still.
The Palestinian identity is not based on a tribal, ethnic or religious continuity. It is based on what they see as a historical humiliation and injustice which will only be rectified when the Jews are gone. It relates only to the physical ground that is now “occupied”. The entire ethos is based on actual dirt, not any lofty principle.
It does not matter how long it takes anymore than it does to the devout Christian awaiting the second coming. All will happen in it’s time.
So what can Israel do? There is some justification for fig-leaf diplomacy for political reasons but Bibi is not interested in that. He may think that expanding will force the Palestinians to accept reality, which I doubt, or he may have just given up on any long term peace for now.
Netanyahu is ready to participate in the charade, but not at any price. The Arabs (and Obama) have all kinds of preconditions for the Arabs to agree to negotiate. They are not willing to come to the table without preconditions, nor are they willing to accept any Israeli counter-precondition (recognizing Israel as a Jewish state). I mean, Abbas demanded for starters to stop any type of construction activity in all the settlements as a precondition for negotiations, even though it was never part of any agreement, and including settlements that according to every American road map and every previous negotiations were supposed to be annexed to Israel as part of land swaps where the Arabs will get land from within the green line. Even though this demand is absurd Netanyahu agreed to a 10-month moratorium. But still Abbas refused to negotiate for 9 months. In the last month he agreed to hold one session every two weeks. Then the moratorium expired and Abbas demanded to extend it as precondotion for continuing the negotiations. Netanyahu said he will extend it if Abbas would recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Abbas refused. The world was supposed to understand from that and from all their other actions that the Arabs simply reject a Jewish state in any borders, but the world supposedly didn’t understand it.
Of course, the world understands it very well. It’s not like Western leaders didn’t get reports about what’s going on in the Pal-Arab media and education system and what Pal-Arab leaders say in Arabic. They know the Arabs will never accept a Jewish state and therefore there will never be a peaceful resolution to the conflict. But they’re determined to create a Pal-Arab state at any cost because of their various interests in the Muslim world — it’s not just oil, but also export markets, global influence (Muslims control at least 56 states), territory, growing Muslim communities with electoral power in the West and elsewhere, the European fantasy of regaining their status as a great global superpower by joining with the Near East, and appeasing the Muslims in the hope of avoiding more major terror attacks. Since they want a Pal-Arab state at any cost and they know it’s impossible to get it by peace as the Arabs will never accept a Jewish state, they create the right atmosphere to force Israel to withdraw without peace. For that to happen they need to blame Israel for the failure of the “peace” process and demonize it too. And that’s exactly what they’re doing.
As for the Pal-Arabs acting in their own best interests — that’s a mistake the West makes repeatedly in its understanding of foreigners — the West assumes it knows what’s their best interest and never stops to think that maybe others define their own best interests differently. For instance, great many Muslims dream of reestablishing a caliphate and renewing the might and glory of the ol’ Islamic empire in its golden age, but the West assumes they all just want to get a good job and make lots of money, give good secular education to their children so they could get a good job and make lots of money, and get a nice TV set where they can watch American Idol. But this is just not how many Muslims define their own best interests. Devout Muslims might just feel contempt for such materialism.
The really big loser in all this of course is the US. The Oslo accords were pushed by the Americans, guaranteed by them and touted as the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem. Now their credibility in international negotiations is in tatters. How ironic that it was Bubba who was responsible for the accords and now it is Hilary who was SoS during their demise.
Israel is nothing more than a criminal front for the Rothschild criminals. It is a rouge/criminal state and Jews are nothing more than parasites. The sooner Israel is destroyed all along with it’s Satanically evil infestation of Jews, the better!
Whoo hoo! We got a good ol’fashioned Jew-hater! Hey buddy, get with the program! Don’t ya’ know that hating Jews is no longer fashionable or acceptable in polite society? It’s now those pesky evil Zionists that are the root of all evil.
I KNOW! Isn’t it so refreshing to have an honest-to-goodness, old-school Antisemite show up? Other than Stormfront, Illuminati-Conspiracists, KKK annual meetings, and a handful of doddering old Nazis, they’re a rare breed! Now it’s all: “The Zionist Entity” this, and “Evil Zionist Agenda” that… *sniff* … forgive me for getting all sentimental about the honesty of the unabashed, vociferous Jew-hater.
Unfortunately DD it’s becoming fashionable and acceptable again.
“A rouge state” ? Hilarious…
Oh no, not a Rouge State. Rouge like the blush on Bar Rafaeli’s cheeks?
Just terrible.
;D
I would love to meet you, Paul, baby. I’m an octogenarian atheist but when confronted by your type of anti-semite then I turn into a very physical Jew and go about changing the map of sick faces like yours.
paul pace, how lucky you are to have a typewriter in your prison cell. too bad they couldn’t find space for you at the mental institution. they’ve always had apace for you before this.
Perhaps it is wise to be happy secular “Babylon ” is in charge for the purpose of taming the Christian people and Islam people.
Judgement begins in the house of The Lord and secular Babylon can be used by God to tame the Christian and islam people.
Why the Christian included with the Moslem? Give them power and they do no better than Assad in Syria and even worse then him.
But in the future that appointed day and hour perhaps the three faith people of Abraham will join in together in becoming holy before God when all their enemies are defeated by the Babylon secular
What grace and mercy people of faith in the True God they have been given under the umbrella of secular Babylon to on a personal basis become close to God without torture or death threats
Israel is Babylon secular. Were they picked by God to stand at the eye of the raging fires in the Middle east. What courage it takes to remain there . Yet this lord of the rings I watch and here Gandolfs voice say: Flee you fools
But i believe secular Babylon USA will not let you down I pray
What will the next period in the history of this conflict be Barry? If my guess is right then this is the Muslim Brotherhood’s plan: they have succeeded in taking almost complete control of Egypt, the most important Arab country, and they will continue to build up their strength there and accept all the F-16s and M1 battle tanks that Barack Obama wants to send them. Nor will they do one thing to provoke Israel in the short term because they know that if they go at Israel alone then all those tanks will mostly end up as rubble in the Sinai desert. Instead they will focus their foreign policy energy on doing whatever it takes to put Muslim Brotherhood elements in power in Damascus while not entirely alienating a potential anti-Israel ally Iran in the process. And, if they gain control of Damascus, the next target will be Amman.
Jordan has always been the key to defeating Israel with that incredibly long border. A Jordan ruled by a truly anti-Israel entity like the Brotherhood, especially if unified with Brotherhood rulers of Damascus and Cairo would mark a new stage in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Arabs were never that unified in the old days of interstate conflict from 1948-73. Have fun Israel when the US withdraws from the Middle East because you will truly be alone.
to the pragmatist what can you do by delay the inevitable with the iron dome but for the faith believer fire comes down from heaven(having nothing in common with secular power) and devours all the enemies. This is the fire of faith that transforms humans to become what called wants them to be. Then Israel has a very very thick ring of protection from the real enemy far more dangerous than Al qaida
But for the believer there are far more important issues as we see in the book Of Daniel 9: 24-27 When the Temple of God comes down from Heaven with the Holy of Holies what human being can be so worthy so this transformation is not fake but the believers know this is from God yet dark days come to steal faith and how Daniel 9 is interpreted for our day it is all about faith believers becoming worthy of gifts from heaven
getting back to the pragmatist holding on to the edge of the cliff with his fingers and a force pulling at him from below he say: Flee you fools
Actually Jordan joined the wars against Israel in both 1948 and 1967 and the Arabs were quite unified back then.
Yes Pnina, Jordan did join at a superficial level, but never more than that as the Hashemites were in those days seen as almost as alien to the region as the Jews were. The Arabs were only unified in their rhetoric. Nasser spent a whole lot more of his time and energy plotting how to assassinate King Hussein with letter bombs, gassing Yemenis and Saudis, and on his rivalry with Damascus and the Shah of Iran than he ever did trying to destroy Israel. Read Michael Oren’s ‘Six Days of War’ to get a general feel of how ‘unified’ the Arabs were back then. I warn everybody that the destruction of Israel and its removal from the Middle East is the Brotherhood’s primary goal followed by the rapid expansion of Islam as in the days of the first khalifas and they will stop at nothing to achieve this.
In Israel the Jordanians are considered the best Arab soldiers (they were trained by the Brits). But the next war is going to be different in several ways. One is that in the past the Arabs had inferior Soviet weapons whereas now they have also American weapons. Another is that most of the past wars were between conventional armies, and even if they used terrorism there wasn’t anything as effective as rockets and missiles with which they could cover all of Israel. In the next war there will probably be an exstensive use of such to attack the civilian population and strategic targets continuously. The third difference is that with America changing sides the West might refuse to supply us with weapons, spare parts, ammunition. That was also true for the 1948 war, but back then nobody had weapons as sophisticated as today. The Arabs didn’t have such air forces, all those American tanks, missiles, unconventional weapon etc. I still think the abandonment of the West is our biggest problem.
The West has in the past supported Israel with its great resources. But the key resource is and always was the willingness to assume responsibility and act on the basis of principle, as Harry Truman did when he put his weight behind the creation of Israel. The West’s military, political and economic support of Israel is a measure of its moral strength. Thus the present moral travails of the West are the source of its abandonment of Israel at this very moment.
The irresponsible behavior of this administration regarding its duty of solidarity with Israel does not faithfully represent the many Americans who are strongly in support of Israel, as they are precisely those folks who are also concerned with the future of America. It is still possible that America recovers from this moral crisis after some years of flailing. In the meantime Israel is challenged to muster her own resourcefulness to take care of business more autonomously. Not knowing how to personally support Israel today, I persist in my study of Hebrew. I don’t really know how it can help, but I hope it does.
1. There is one and only one nation or entity in the Mid-East that is a free democracy.
2. There is one and only one nation or entity in the Mid-East that has been an unfailing friend and ally to the United States of America.
3. All the other nations and entities in the Middle East have sworn to obliterate every Jew in the Middle East.
4. For the last 4 years we have undercut Israel at every turn through our actions, our inactions, and public declarations by our leaders.
This is smart diplomacy?
If “Palestine” is a state, so are the Crips and Bloods in South Central LA. Let’s hand them guys a few million to buy guns with, why don’t we?
Obama may regret attacking Bibi now. The right will win the election but perhaps these attacks will drive likud voters to Bennet. Perhaps he would like that, as Bennet may be more likely to provide Obama with the pretext he needs to sever ties with Israel.
“the world never really wanted a Jewish state to begin with …”
I agree with all but the above from Michael Dar’s analysis.
I do not think the world went along with the Palestine=David, Israel=Goliath narrative out of malice (well, at least not the West). I think the West went along with it because the West is thoroughly ignorant about the mechanics/politics of tribal societies, and too lazy to educate itself properly. The nation-state is a Western concept; the tribal societies of the Middle East (and Africa !!) don’t correspond to it, but Western-educated leaders of these societies know how to talk-the-talk so the West will give them what they want: money, weapons, humanitarian aid, and above all, respect and recognition.
That it is certainly true for the common people who get all their disinformation from the media. Western leaders, however, get their information from various sources, including intelligence and Israeli reports (with evidence, not just claims). I just don’t believe that of all the people in power there isn’t even a single one who understands what’s going on here, that aaaaaaaaaalll of them, except perhaps Canadian Harper, have the exact same opinion. No, this is not a matter of everyone coming to the exact same opinion — that it’s all Israel’s fault — it’s not at all a matter of an agreed opinion, but of an agreed policy. It’s not their opinion, but rather their policy that it’s all Israel’s fault.
All past negotiations have been exercises in delusion by the Israelis. You don’t negotiate with rattle snakes programmed by nature to bite you and kill you.
The only way for a tiny state surrounded by vast numbers hostile to it is to have the power to completely exterminate its hostile neighbors and make it clear to them that if needed it will do so. At this point, presumably, Israel is in such a position – until Iran gets the bomb. That is why Israel must prevent Iran from getting it – and it can’t rely on the U.S. to help. Looking back, it becomes clear that Israel’s chances may be better without the U.S. as a partner. It has put out of commission the nuclear ambitions of Iraq and Syria. It has beaten back the Arab hordes several times (and it should have ignored the U.S. intervention and finished the job in Gaza a few months ago) It has rescued at Entebbe a planeload of its citizens as no other nation has ever done for its own people. Partnering with the U.S. can only give Israel another Vietnam or Afghanistan and it doesn’t need this.
The European Union stands arm in arm with the OIC for the “Palestinian Authority” and have been in cahoots with Islam since 1973 when DeGaulle said that Europe would stand with the Arabs. The EU has given the PA billions in aid and before 1973 was a friend of Israel. The media is ‘all in’ for Islam regarding the conflict in the Middle East and the UN has been taken over by the OIC, he Islamic 56 state cabal.
Now, America, with our Muslim-in-Chief will be backing the PA. Israel stands alone now, at least until we can get rid of Obama and his thugs and that cannot come soon enough.
I dunno. Obama might be the just first sign that the U.S. is not the “rock solid”, unshakable friend we’ve come to rely on over the decades. If Obama can happen – twice – with a strong Jewish backing, what is the hope that this trend won’t continue in the future? I guess it’s a good thing that it’s this point in history that Israel discovered shale oil and gas under their feet, and is also close to making economical the desalinization of sea water. The more self-sustaining, the better. Sadly.
It was certainly a mistake to put all our eggs in the American basket. Israelis should have understood that with the end of the Cold War nothing is certain. At the time it was discussed in Israel, but since the shift didn’t come immediately people thought this alliance will continue. That was a fatal mistake. America always played both sides and there’s no reason for us to not play both sides too. We should have been more serious with China and possibly Russia rather than comply with American prohibitions re arm sales to China. What do we eventually get in return? A knife in our back.
DeGaulle/France 1967= Obama/USA/2013
“Only by making a deal with Israel can the PA get full possession of territory on the West Bank and define such a state’s borders and security arrangements. By refusing to negotiate with Israel or compromise, the PA guarantees failure.”
Are you joking? What will happen is that the world will unilaterally recognize their state and then force Israel to withdraw using boycotts, sanctions and arms embargoes in the midst of threats of war from Egypt and others. If Obama said Netanyahu doesn’t understand what’s coming and that Israel will face growing isloation he means it. The Euros also mean what they say. These are our options: Either we withdraw unilaterally or the West will force us to withdraw unilaterally. Why do you think they won’t do it? I don’t understand. Do they have anything to lose by doing it? They certainly don’t think so. The Cold War is over. They don’t need Israel anymore. We’re nothing but a pawn on their chessboard they can be sacrificed to serve other interests. Why do you think they won’t do what they threaten to do? I just don’t understand. Well, OK, also part of the German Jews thought the Nazi talk was just rhetorics.
There are only two kind of talks:
1) Talk you should never believe. That includes promises, interantional or other foreign guarantees, declarations about friendship and/or commitment to Israel’s security, nice sounding words like peace, solution etc. This kind of talk is only meant to lure and pressure you to do what they want. Making promises to Israel no one has any intention of keeping is just the ordinary diplomatic practice.
Like the peace keeping force in the Sinai that stayed there just until Nazzer told them to fuck off so he can deploy the Egyptian army there, which was exactly the thing the “peace keepers” were there to prevent. The international guarantees to disarm Hizballah if only Israel withdraws from Lebanon. Of course, after Israel did what they wanted Hizballah has amassed more arms than ever and nobody did a damn thing about it. Why should they? Any commitment ever made by the PLO, such as recognizing Israel’s right to exist, stopping the violence, stopping the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incitement — following the Oslo Accords the violence escalated into an unprecedented terror campaign that killed about a thousand Israelis, the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incitement increased rather than decrease, and every map anywhere in the PA, including textbooks in their education system, shows “Palestine” from the river to the sea with Israel nowhere to be found. Did anyone of the international guarantors of the agreements, particularly our Great Friend And Ally, the USA, say: ‘Wait a minute. The Pal-Arabs broke each and every of their commitments, so let’s stop for now until they cahnge their ways’? Of course not. Why should they? When they say peace they mean war. When they say land-for-peace they mean you will give the land and that’s all. When they say two-states-for-two-peoples-solution they just mean another Arab state. They don’t mean two peoples, nor a solution, nor peace or security. And they don’t care if Israel survives or not. Why should they?
2) Talk you should always believe. When they say they are going to destroy you, kill you or hurt you, you can take that to the bank — they will try to. When the Nazis said it they meant it. When the Arabs said and continue to say they’ll destroy Israel and kill us they always meant it and tried to, and they still do. When the Muslims, Arab or non-Arab, say the same thing they mean it. When the West says it will abandon Israel unless Israel do as told, and damn the consequences to Israel, they mean it. Why doubt they mean what they say? After all they only talk about solutions, security, peace and shit when they need to lure us to do something. Now that the Western public is sufficiently brainwashed and worked-up to approve of any step against Israel and whatever price to Israel, they have no reason to try and lure us with empty nice words and false promises. Now they can get to business and force us.
This is how it goes:
Netanyahu: “Let’s talk.”
Abbas: “I demand that every construction activity in the settlements, including building a new bathroom or fortifying a room to protect civilians from rockets anywhere we say is a settlement, will stop immediately as a precondition for negotiations, even though it was never part of any agreement.”
Netanyahu: “OK. I declare a 10-month moratorium on any construction activity in the settlements to get things rolling. Now let’s talk.”
Abbas: “NO!”
World: “Israel is responsible for the lack of negotiations!”
Western media and academia: “Israel is a racist, apartheid, Nazi state. The Zionists are Satan incarnated. They murder innocent Muslim and Christian children because they lust after blood. They starve the Arabs to death, even though we can’t quite show you any Arab who starved to death, but Gaza is the largest concentration camp in history. The Zionists kill Arabs to sell their organs. They are Khazaris who worship Satan. They are descendants of apes and pigs. Oops, sorry, no, that’s from the Holy Quran, I don’t quite know how it reached my teleprompter. I retract that — they’re not descendants of apes and pigs, but they do have horns. They bulit a Racist Nazi Apartheid Wall to torment innocent non-violent Arabs and to prevent peaceful Arab freedom fighters from staging peaceful demonstrations in Zionist buses, shoping malls, pizza parlors and discos. The Zionists are greedy and are too busy making money to bother about peace. They spread corruption in the land and even kill their own prophets. Oops, sorry, that’s too is from Holy Muslim scriptures, don’t know how it got here, though it might be true.”
Ten months later…
Abbas: “I demand Netanyahu will extend the moratorium as a precondition for negotiations, even though last time I demanded it and he complied I still refused to talk for 9 month and then for the remaining month only agreed to hold one session every two weeks.”
Netanyahu: “OK, I’ll do that if you’ll recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Hey, we’re allowed to make preconditions too, and it’s time the PLO prove they really mean peace because by now we find it kinda hard to believe.”
Abbas: “NO WAY!”
World: “Israel is responsible for the lack of negotiations!”
Obama: “I demand Israel will commit in advance to go back to the 1967 lines and give up in advance all its bargaining chips as a precondition for negotiations. The Arabs, on the other hand, don’t have to commit to anything or make any consession, or even comply with previous commitments.”
Abbas: “Then I demand it too!”
World: “Israel is responsible for the lack of negotiations!”
Western media and academia: “The Zionists control American foreign policy. The Zionists control the British Conservative Party. The Zionists control Hungary. The Zionists sent American, British and other soldiers to war for Zionist interests. The Zionists control empires and make them go to war for Zionist profits. Oops, sorry, that last one is from The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion, which is, of course, a despicable anti-Semitic forgery. We’re not anti-Semites! — how dare you?! This is just legitimate, reasonable, objective criticism of the Israeli government’s policies. For instance, for some incomprehensible reason the racist, fanatic, insane Zionist government is obssessed with poor innocent Iran that means no harm to anyone. The Zionists are the greatest threat to world peace. The Zionists are behind every war and revolution that ever happened anywhere in the world, such as the French Revolution and WWI. Oops, sorry, that last one is also from The Protocols. Don’t know what’s with those mixups today. Anyway, everything else is true. So what is your opinion, dear readers? Does the Zionist Entity have a right to exist?”
Western public (red in the face, waving fists in the air in unison): “NOOOOOO! Destroy the Zionist Entity! Eradicate the source of all evil! Down with America! Down with Israel! Wipe the Zionist regime off the map! Smash the Jewish state! Let the Sun shine! Kumbaya!”
West to Israel: “So, are you going to kill yourselves for peace of your own free will or do we have to make you? Come on, all we are saying is give peace a chance.”
“Two decades of fragile diplomacy are gone. Is anyone paying attention?”
For me, and a lot of people, the peace process is a sham and the UN a joke in very bad taste. The Muslims will never accept Jews holding Israel as long as the basic tenets of Islam are viable. I do not expect the Jews to vacate the premises. That means that a terrible war is coming and the particular path that is followed to get there does not particularly grab my attention.
I am not an admirer of Islam, while I do think that the Jews have obviously contributed much to the world. I am all for Israel to do whatever her people think is necessary for their survival vis-a-vis enemies bent on her destruction, but I just don’t have a strong opinion as to what particular tactical means they should employ. I do have a firm conviction that they are eventually going to have to kill a lot more people than they want to if they intend to survive in that place.
I am not indifferent to Israel’s fate, but I don’t think I can do much about it. I’m not indifferent to the fate of the world, but I don’t think I can do much about that either. I do try to draw people’s attention to how dire things are so that they might focus on the achievable.
What we do inside our own borders in nobodies business but our own. The time has come to implement the following-
1) All foreign embassies must be located in Yerushalayim or be vacated immediately.
2) Only Jews shall be permitted to vote.
3) Foreign reporters hostile to national interests should be deported.
4) All negotiations with the so-called ” palestinians ” shall cease.
5) Death penalty instituted.
6) Rock throwing shall be deemed attempted murder.
7) Any school indoctrinating students with anti-semitism shall be permanently closed.
Thats for starters.
This sounds to me like the same kind of thinking that came to poor poor Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon and his loyal friends were cursed with his panic of out of control paranoia which might have been justified by nightmare monsters he had dreams about so his good friend Daniel ended up in the Lion’s den and then Shadrach Meshach and Abednego ended up in the furnace fire forcing the True God to perform very great miracles that I believe led to the conquest by the Medes and the Persians
Perhaps reconsider Roger Cohen’s quest here the two state solution to prevent blight
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/18/opinion/global/roger-cohen-the-blight-of-return.html?hp&_r=0
then there can be two little Babylons protecting all their people and the little lamb holy ones can be nurtured by the armies of the True God in the invisible and the song sing
Two little babels sitting by the sea k-i-s-s-i-n-g . First came love then came marriage then the two came with the baby carriage-(nice to see cute Joel Osteen preaching yearly in the 2 babals by the sea. I believe this is John Kerry’s plan
Whatever you are smoking- you have had enough.
The Islamists already control 80% of Palestine. Too much already considering every inch belongs to us.
I agree with your #7…
Some of the rest is pretty much a recipe for a fascist state. Yes, it’s a problem that our enemies can vote in the Knesset and become Knesset members, but not all non-Jews are our enemies. Most of the Druze and Circassians, some of the Arab Muslims and Christians, all of the non-Arab Christians and all of the Samaritans don’t vote for the Arab nationalists and Islamists. Aiob Kara (Likud, a Druze) is a great Israeli patriot. Most of the Druze, Circassians, non-Arab Christians and Samaritans, and a minority of the Arab Muslims and Christians serve in the IDF. We have some Arab-Muslim diplomats who do a good job abroad. I’m not ignoring the fact most Muslim-Arabs and many other Arabs are hostile to Israel and Jews, but the damage they can do through voting is still limited. One of our biggest challenges is to remain a democracy even under such enormous stress. We’ve made it so far and we must continue because most of us want to live in a democracy. If we become fascist what’s the point?
President Mahmoud Abbas issued directives to the PA foreign ministry… to which they should use the ‘state of Palestine’ instead of the ‘Palestinian National Authority’ in compliance with the UNGA [General Assembly] resolution on upgrading the status of the state of Palestine…
“IN COMPLIANCE” ?!?
That is very cute. It’s also over-filled with its own sense of self importance. Yeesh.
“Our hands are tied” — we are only “complying” with that sacred order as set forth by the ultra-secular world order: namely the “directives” of the… PBUH UNGA.
I mean it’s so cheeky! “Please do not blame us. Nay, reward our virtuous adherence to that blessed UNGA statute. Were it not for that “directive” forcing us to implement this, we of course would not have broken a single Oslo-rule.” Honest!
–FF
The overwhelming probability is that he had no one on his staff with sufficient knowledge of English to understand the real purport of the statement as it was worded.