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Imagine:
Israel signs a peace agreement with PA’s president, Mahmud Abbas, then a month later Hamas and Fatah form a unity government, where the new PA prime minister, a Hamas-affiliated leader, proclaims his desire to see Israel overrun by his people while letting the remaining Jews (those who survive the onslaught and the massacres) retrace their steps back to their “homes” in Europe (overlooking the fact that about 50% of Jews in Israel originated as refugees from Arab and Muslim countries). Isn’t it better to have this Palestinian unity agreement now, before “peace” becomes a dated piece of paper, rather than later, when Israel must violate a “peace” agreement with an eye to defend itself? As long as the US and the EU chose to ignore Hamas as a key Palestinian segment that must be taken into account in any peace agreement considerations, they advocated a distorted view, blaming Israel for laying landmines on the way to peace. Once the militant Palestinian terrorist segment, Hamas, cannot be disregarded, a middle-eastern reality will emerge, and a new realization will take effect—the Palestinians (a title that includes Hamas) will be the ones deemed responsible for the failure of the peace process. The unjustified pressure applied on the Jewish state by the US and the EU will fade away as soon as Hamas becomes an integral part of an official Palestinian entity. Consequently, Israel should not abandon the peace negotiations but rather let Hamas do the obvious; let Hamas break the peace process; let Hamas represent the true face of the Palestinian authority; let the world hear them, notice them, understand what the Jewish state is facing on a daily basis. History has made evident that peace and relaxation of tensions between adversaries has a stronger chance of bonding when leaders on the opposite sides are branded by their hawkish rhetoric rather than their dovish character. Nixon and China, Begin and Sadat are examples of tough-minded, combative leaders making tough calls in the name of peace. Their leftist opposition would be supportive of their daring peace-making move; their political allies at home would be, by and large, supportive of their leader, and the residual extreme right minority would be left stunned and unable to register any significant resistance in an effort to undermine the adhering peace process. Consequently, if Israel is to make peace with the Palestinians, Hamas will have to add its signature to the agreement to make it long-lasting. This must be a condition that Israel must strive for should peace become more than just a thin piece of paper. If this is too much to ask, then let’s not pretend that Palestinian Arabs are capable of drawing up a peace agreement with the Jewish state in Israel. We finally have an exposed reality check. Isn’t it better to deal with an adversary who admits to his true intentions rather than one who pretends to love peace, but harbors genocidal ambitions? Isn’t it better to have an Iranian president like Ahmadinejad who provokes world’s contempt rather than a smiling face named Rouhani, who harbors identical aspirations but pretends to vouch for peaceful nuclear energy? Isn’t it better to play poker when you know what cards your opponent holds rather than an opponent who hangs on to a full house but makes you believe he has nothing? Isn’t it better to deal with a Palestinian entity that tells the ugly truth about its true intentions rather than one pretending to seek peace? Let’s face it. Hamas is a real significant segment of the Palestinian Arabs. If Israel is to make peace with the Palestinians, Hamas must be involved in the negotiations. Otherwise, any peace agreement between Israel and the PA is bound to become unstable; it will never last beyond the next Palestinian popular or democratically elected government. It will be extremely problematic to protect the Jewish State against rockets launched out of another country with which there is a peace agreement. It will be considerably more justified to fight and defend against a documented enemy. Let’s not fuss about the PA and Hamas joining in on a unified government; let’s get used to reality before stepping into a world of make-believe; Let’s hope that the Palestinians’ camouflaged face is about to become unmasked. Let’s be patient and await world leaders’ reaction once they witness the teeth of that Palestinian jaw trap. It’s about to happen, and it’s about to become a turning point, reversing Israel’s deteriorating image in the world. Just wait and see.
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http://garybaumgarten.blogspot.com/2014/04/podcast-israeli-commentator-offers.html
Does Israel have an expiration date?
I know. I may be scorned by some, merely for asking, but there are those who keep reminding Jews and Israelis that “it all depends…” whereas the Palestinians, the Iranians and almost all Muslims are strong believers in the expiration date prophecy, as they continue to populate the “Definitively YES!” column of the above question. And that is the main reason for the impending failure of the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. If the Arabs believe that Israel is due to expire in some foreseeable future date, then any peace accord will only yield a protraction of that final solution. A peace agreement will lead to relaxation of international pressure on Israel; it will weaken and possibly end the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movements, and it will bring about a reversal of the creeping isolation of the Jewish State. Peace between Israel and the Palestinians would run counter to that expiration date hallucination, and hence, the Palestinians want to see it sidestepped. How do the Arabs come about this insight into their version of the future? Although a nuclear Iran is the most prominent and explosive threat casting its dark shadow on Israel’s future, it is not the one the Arabs are counting on. They base their doomsday premonition on two potential developments, destined to stimulate a disintegration of the Jewish State. The first Jewish State’s killer is the ticking population time bomb. In the absence of peace between the Palestinian Arabs and the Jewish State, the combined Arab population in Israel and the West Bank, even without counting in Gaza, will become the most significant population segment under Israeli government’s jurisdiction, assuming the present birth rates continue unabated for the next decade. In fact, in December 2012, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics predicted that the combined number of Arabs in Israel and in the Palestinian Territories will be equal to the number of Jews by 2016 and exceed it by 2020. The Palestinian Authority is aware of these extrapolations. They know that In the absence of a peaceful two-state solution Israel has a choice between either being a democracy or preserving its Jewish character, but not both. In other words, the above logic states that if Israel rules over a Palestinian majority in the West Bank, then either these Palestinians become Israeli citizens with full voting rights, a fact which would undermine the Jewish character of the state, or they become second class citizens, a fact which would undermine the democratic moral fiber of the state. When adding the number of Jewish, anti-Zionist, ultra-religious Haredim segment, whose current birth rate is as high as or even higher than that of the Palestinian Arabs population, (it is not uncommon among Haredim to have ten children per family), Israel may be heading towards a violent implosion. This is so, because the Haredi segment prefers Torah study to work; they shun military service or any other national service, while at the same time, taking advantage of the Jewish State’s welfare policies designed to support the poor and the multi-children families. If current trends continue, then, twenty years from now a democratically elected Knesset (parliament) and the government will be controlled by anti-Zionist moochers (Haredim and Arabs), and a democratic Jewish state may not be able to sustain itself. It will implode. A second existential threat is a world-wide Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) imposed on the Jewish State once it becomes clear that the Jewish occupation of the west bank is permanent with no hope for change. If the US elects a president whose views are consistent with the world’s immoderate political Left, viewing Israel’s claim on Judea and Samaria as an illegal occupation—this is not an impossible nightmare. We have seen and we still witness presidential candidates like Rand and Ron Paul, Ralph Nader, Pat Buchanan, Jessy Jackson—then the BDS movement may gather considerable strength and may even be led by a hostile American Administration. The only way Israel may be able to convince the Palestinians that a peace agreement between them and the Jewish State is worth pursuing, is convincing them that Israel will never expire, that the population time bomb is about to be defused by employing aggressive government programs to change its course, and by telling the west Bank Arab residents that under no circumstances they will be part of an Israeli state. Their choices are either to be part of a Palestinian state or continue to be occupied by Israel. And that this choice is for them to make. In addition, Israel needs to make clear that BDS has no chance of ever gaining momentum by launching an all-out war intended to devastate this movement. In addition, Israeli positions and actions must deliver an unmitigated reading that time is not on the Palestinian side. The more time passes before a final peace agreement is signed the more established facts on the ground would make it harder for Palestinians to meet their aspirations. They need to hurry before their own expiration date becomes an inevitable conclusion. Can it be done? It must be done. Otherwise, peace will never take root, and Israel will continue to face threats to its existence—not only from Iran, but even more so—from within its own borders. If you believe what Palestinian leaders are saying in public and in private, you ought to be convinced that the American-sponsored peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) are being manipulated by the Palestinians with the aim of pulling off short-term political gains for the present Palestinian leadership, rather than engendering a long-lasting peace between them and Israel.Abbas and the rest of the Arab countries have recently reaffirmed their outright objections to several key issues, fundamental to a lasting peace, as part of a two-state solution. These issues include the recognition of Israel as a Jewish State rather than a Muslim land with some Jews living in it, and giving up demands for the right of return of refugees’ descendants to Israel.
The Palestinian Arabs know that the Israeli government will not sign on a peace accord for a Two-State solution as long as these issues stay open, because peace will never take root, and conflict between the two states will intensify as long as the Arabs soldier on claiming rights and entitlements to the Jewish state. As Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has stated in its April 1, 2014 bulletin, Fatah spokesman, Ahmad Assaf, announced that the Palestinians have blackmailed Israel to release prisoners (a.k.a terrorists with blood on their hands) by threatening to take Israel to the international court of the UN unless Israel released 104 prisoners. Senior PA leader, Nabil Shaath has claimed that “due to the prisoners we have not stopped negotiations.” Others have also made clear that the PA conditioned peace negotiations with Israel on terrorists’ release from Israeli jails. That was their sole purpose in coming to the table. Had the Palestinian Authority been interested in peace with a Jewish state next door, they would have embraced peace talks without any pre-conditions simply because once there is genuine peace between Palestinian Arabs and Jews, both would have their own state (where and how would have been worked out) and incitements against Jews would stop; terrorists would no longer be regarded as heroes; many of them would be released anyway since violence would lose its glamor, and the Palestinian Arab population would reject terror from within. Dream on. Nice try, but no cigar. The absurdity of the peace negotiations situation, where Palestinian Arabs are able to benefit not by reaching out for peace, but merely by showing up, can be highlighted by comparing it to a hypothetical situation where the Taliban tell the US that if the Americans set free the al Qaeda terrorists in Guantanamo, including the ones responsible for planning the 9-11 attack, they will sit down and negotiate peace in Afghanistan. We all know that showing up for the negotiations is meaningless unless it’s driven by a true desire for a just peace. We all know that once the Americans leave Afghanistan the Taliban—just like the North Vietnamese in the 60s—will try to take the whole country over by force, regardless of any piece of paper they sign or don't sign. It’s time to call the PA’s bluff. Peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs cannot come into existence as long as the PA gets rewarded merely for showing up. The only reward the Palestinian Arabs should be reaping out of the peace process is peace itself. And if that outcome proves to be an insufficient incentive for them to join in, then it is proof that they are not sincere about reaching a peaceful end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. It proves that the whole peace process is exploited by the PA purely as a manipulative tool designed to gain short term benefits. It is not a peace process; it is a con game, successfully played by the PA. |
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