How Can One Compromise with Those Holding Such Positions?

One of the leading representatives with Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, Jibril Rajoub, was giving an interview on Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen TV when he allowed the truth to leak out. Mr. Rajoub when queried as to whether the Palestinian would ever plan to return to negotiations with the Israelis replied that negotiations would be considered only if the Palestinian Authority’s preconditions are met. It was in further explaining what he viewed as the Palestinian Authority’s desire in place of negotiations that he stated, “Listen. We as yet don’t have a nuke, but I swear that if we had a nuke, we’d have used it this very morning.” Rajoub is the Deputy Secretary of the Fatah Central Committee and chairman of the Palestinian Authority Olympic Committee. This should make for some serious doubts as to the sincerity of any position including compromise with the Israelis the Palestinian leadership express in interviews given to western media outlets. As many other as well as we have pointed out, if only the world would take the time, investing some effort even if only to satisfy curiosity and translate what the Palestinian spokespeople express when speaking in Arabic translating and placing them in their reports with equal prominence they give their articles denouncing Israeli efforts at self-defense, the public would be well served in making an informed and balanced evaluation of the realities of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. Unfortunately, it appears that truth and honest reporting are the first two casualties in the mainstream media coverage of virtually all things concerning the Middle East and its relevance and importance to the current world struggles.

 

In another recent television appearance, another senior PA official, Sultan Abu al-Einein on Palestinian Authority TV stated about the recent stabbing murder of Evyatar Borovsky by a Palestinian terrorist recently released from Israeli custody, Salam al-Zaghal, “We salute the heroic fighter, the self-sacrificing Salam al-Zaghal. He insisted on defending his honor, so he went against the settler and killed him. Blessings to the breast that nursed Salam Al-Zaghal.” Such comments being broadcast on Palestinian, Lebanese, Egyptian and other Arabic broadcast media are far from being the exception, they are by far the rule. It is solely due to the willful negligence of our Western mainstream media that prevents such claims from being widely known and the hidden truth behind who are the true impediments to peace being more broadly recognized. When covering the Middle East much of the media either omits information or represents misinformation unchallenged as if it were fact. There is a near constant drumbeat claiming that the presence of Israeli communities on established Palestinian claimed land which prevents any possibility for peace and stands in the way of negotiations. What is not explained are the facts that the Palestinians not only claim the areas known as the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem but also the rest of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, the Galilee and all of the land that makes up Israel, every single square inch. The Palestinian leadership reserves the right to continue the resistance until all of Palestine is freed which is an actual declaration that the terrorist attacks must continue even after any peace accord which may be signed in the future. Whenever this fact is admitted in the Western media it is portrayed as belonging only to Hamas and Fatah and the Palestinian Authority are represented as being moderates who are willing to make peace. The unfortunate truth is that the Fatah, the PLO, the Palestinian Authority and the entire Arab League all hold fast to their claim to replace all of Israel with an Arab state and the eradication of any trace of Judaism as their only acceptable goal. Since the Khartoum conference of 1967 the entire Arab World has held to the Declaration of the Three No’s; No peace, No negotiations, and No recognition. Such a position does indeed make holding peace talks rather difficult.

 

The truths which are lost because of the ruse known as the Palestinian’s claim to reconstruct their ancient homeland called Palestine are that there never was in all of history such a place as Palestine, the British used the term Palestinian to describe the Jews who resided within the British Mandate, The Balfour Declaration addressed the rights of the Arab populations residing within the British Mandate, Transjordan (currently called Jordan) was created as the Arab State for those Arabs living within the British Mandate and required the Jews to relinquish their legal claim to 78% of the British Mandate, Israel was not required by UNSC Resolution 242 to relinquish any of the West Bank but to relinquish only those lands acquired as a result of the 1967 War that were not determined by Israel to be vital for secure borders. Of the lands under UNSC Resolution 242 Israel has already relinquished well over 75% of the area by returning the Sinai Peninsula to the Egyptians, and lastly the original conflict was never between the Israelis and the Palestinians but between the Arab World and Israel.

 

Even should one look at the Oslo Accords one would almost immediately draw some interesting conclusions. The Oslo Accords drew three distinct areas within what is often referred to as the West Bank, and was historically referred to as Judea, Samaria and Benyamin (which kind of explains why those wishing to prevent Israel from claiming these areas had to rename them), into three separate areas, A, B, and C. Area A was given over to complete control of the Arabs under the auspices of the PLO and Yasser Arafat. Area C was given over to total Israeli control. Area B was jointly controlled by both the Arabs and the Israelis. This makes an obvious demarcation suggesting the intended solution originally was that Israel required all of Area C as their minimum needs to have basic security and the Arab population already, as it existed, was concentrated within Area A. This left Area B which held some concentrations of Arab villages and farms, some open lands, and some lands claimed by Jews who had their lands confiscated by the Jordanians after the 1948 war which the Arabs referred to as the war to eradicate the Jews and Israel calls their War of Independence, which gives some insight to the perspectives of the two sides. Since Area B was placed under dual control one might be led to think that these were the lands disputed between the two sides as originally observed when the Oslo Accords were enacted. It also would be prudent to believe that the negotiations should have been over where the border should be placed in order to fairly divide the lands within Area B. Instead we have muddied the original intents to the point that there have been discussions of granting the Palestinian Arabs a corridor across the Negev Desert so that their areas near the Jordan River have easy access without entering Israel to Gaza and the Mediterranean Sea, never mind that by doing such Israel is cut in two and is no longer contiguous, as long as the Palestinian areas are contiguous everything should be wonderful. There was a period when Mahmoud Abbas felt he had such a strong position he began claiming the entirety of Jerusalem as the capital city for the Palestinians. Fortunately, somebody managed to disavow him of such a felonious concept. All of this is a prime example of how far removed today’s perceived realities are from the original ideas of the Oslo Accords, let alone from the decisions, treaties, conferences, and even the White Papers which were all ratified soon after World War I and blessed by the League of Nations, the United States, Russia, and even the leadership of the Arab World, King Faisal. Sometimes time worsen wounds, not heals them.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Do Not Tell Me There’s No Intifada

The going line concerning the rocks, firebombs and attacks against Jews that have been escalating in Judea and Samaria has been that although such events are taken seriously and fully investigated, nobody would honestly believe that these incidents warrant being called an Intifada. After all, these attacks are nothing like the murderous times during the first half of the last decade. The problem with this line of reasoning is these are exactly the types and numbers of attacks which eventually built into the First Intifada in the years leading up to the 1990s. They are also indicative of the lead up to the eventual extreme violence which became known as the Second Intifada which studies have suggested could have been less severe with far fewer fatalities and other casualties had forceful intervention been taken earlier that was eventually called to resolve what became a desperate situation. The current denials will serve the exact same purpose that the evasions served in allowing the ramping up of violence during the previous Intifada. If those tasked with protecting the people and keeping order would step to the plate and act with serious purpose now rather than allowing the violence to become intolerable, then perhaps we can avoid the inevitable this time. We should have learned this lesson after the last episodic violence.

 

 

Of course it is all well and good for some editorialists or even some politicians to sound the alarm, but it will serve no good purpose if the warnings are not resoundingly given repeated calls by the people forcing the issue in the Prime Minister’s office and in his Cabinet meetings. Until the leadership decides to take action rather than trying to sell verbal bromides to calm the nerves of the populous the violence will continue to grow more and more intense until the people demand the necessary actions be initiated. It is not like what is occurring is a new experience which has never before been witnessed as all who were of knowable age remember the growing violence starting the fall of 2000 building until action was finally taken in 2005. Would it not be preferable to have action be taken as early in the process as possible and not allow things to go from bad to worse just in an effort to seek approval before acting? Waiting for the world to agree that the violence has reached a level where an Israeli response would be considered reasonable by the rest of the world is an act of insanity. The world will never believe that any act of self defense by Israel is justifiable so why waste time and allow the fatalities and grievous wounded numbers to grow to unacceptable levels before acting. The violence will not abate by itself and allowing the terrorist rock throwings, fire-bombings, stabbings, shootings, and eventually suicide-bombings to continue to climb is nothing short of inducing self-inflicted violence on the Israeli citizenry.

 

 

Hesitation before the use of force is understandable in any society which holds all lives to be valuable. Hesitation to use force to prevent further violence and threats to life and limb is counterproductive especially against a society which openly brags about their worship of death being superior to your love of life. In such cases those who value life will serve life best by intervening with sufficient force to prevent further threats to life by those who willingly serve violence. The world as a whole will never come to Israel’s defense no matter how reasonable the action or how dire the situation. Waiting for the approval of those who would just as well, if not preferably, desire to see as much carnage dealt to the Jewish population living in Judea and Samaria is beyond farcical and well into absurdity. It is actually even worse, such inaction is criminal and against the teachings of Torah. To quote Rabbi Hillel, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And, if not now, when?” Why, please why, are you waiting before defending the defenseless and, if not now, when?  

 

 

 

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

 

Rockets Lighting Code Red Sirens Again

When the Americans think of rockets they think of their red glare lighting up the darkness. In Israel rockets sound off the Code Red warning sirens breaking the silence of the night sending everyone from great-grandmothers to infants carried in their parent’s arms running for shelters in the darkness. The memory of the Israeli Pillar of Smoke (improperly translated as Pillar of Defense by the Western press) offensive launched against Gaza has faded and the rockets have began to be fired daily, often even multiple times a day, into southern Israel once again. People’s lives had come to a stop, stores were shutting down on some of the worst periods, schools classes cancelled and some workers simply refused to leave their homes and go to their jobs as they feared to leave their children alone when the next rocket attack could come at any moment. The world ignored the incessant rocket fire into southern Israel as most of the rockets missed striking anything of vital importance and casualties were considered acceptable to all except those under attack. The only time the news reports covered these attacks were on the occasion where somebody was killed or hospitalized. The fact that many people were suffering various levels of shock and trauma necessitating treatment and children were having their chances for a normal childhood destroyed never seemed to bother the rest of the world, after all these were only poor Israelis. Much of the world was of the opinion that if things were that bad they should simply move somewhere safe, like maybe as Iranian President Ahmadinejad had suggested to the rest of the world, “Give a piece of your ground in Europe, in the United States, in Canada or in Alaska so that they can create their state.”

 

But once Israel took steps to end the constant barrages of rockets the world suddenly became extremely interested and took to acting. The world with the United Nations, European Union and led by the United States immediately called for restraint and calm and insisted that Israel not send any troops into Gaza as to do so would inflame the Palestinians who would then retaliate and that would simply continue the cycle of violence. Really now, would just continue the cycle of violence? What were the daily barrages of rockets if not the initiator of the cycle of violence? Just because the world only chooses to act when the target of any attack is the Palestinians but completely ignore the month upon month of Israelis being attacked with rockets day and night, unable to sleep comfortably just waiting for the Code Red signal to grab the children from their beds and hustle off to the shelter praying all the time that the siren gave them the full fifteen seconds warning and not less as that increases the chance of being caught out in the open, not the choice place in a rocket or mortar attack. Months of such terrorizing and the world says nothing but as soon as Israel actually does more than bomb an empty building or weapon storage shed the world get all up in a fuss. The only mention of the rocket attacks on Israelis might actually get a mention at the very end of an article describing in great detail the IDF bomb which caused what the world media loves to call overt damage beyond acceptable retaliation for the nuisance rocket attacks. Somewhere the world keeps a scorecard and it is apparently not allowed for Israeli responses to the terrorist rocket attacks upon Israeli civilian populations to do more damage than the rocket fire inflicts as decided by the most wise world appointed keeper of the score. Well, somebody had better awaken the scorekeeper as the rockets are flying out of Gaza and onto Israeli farms, kibbutzim, towns, and cities once again and the IDF will be responding.

 

The rockets have begun to fall more regularly these past two weeks. There had been a lull since the end of the air attacks by Israel during their last offensive which both sides were spared a ground offensive solely because Israel accepted the promises from United States President Obama, the Egyptians all with the added nodding heads of the European Union, United Nations, the world media and whomever else felt their approval was necessary. The media even promised once again to give coverage and monitor to assure the rockets would not go unnoticed again this time forward. Well, the rockets are flying and nobody is reporting once again and just as every former promise, this one too falls shattered by the silence. The rockets will continue to fly and nobody outside of those waking stricken with terror and fear sleeping with an ear out for the Code Red to sound. Nobody cares that Israelis are once again running for shelters at all hours of the day and night or that often the rockets are fired around 8:00AM and 3:30PM to coincide with the times the children are going to and from school. The silenced screams of young babies who not knowing why they have been grabbed from their crib, torn from under the security of a nice warm blanket and now whisked into the night where everyone is running and panicked yells are piercing the night giving them fright and worry that again the world is making no sense will remain silence as the world media does not see their screams are worth their noble mention as these are not the correct screams, the screams they wait are those for which awards are given reporters brave enough to report them. So the nights have their slumbers shattered and frantic parents herd their children out into the night whether under the light of a moon watching overhead or in the clouded night darkness they run and the world remains silent for there are no great recognitions for reporting these peoples plight. The wrong people, the wrong targets, the wrong plight, no, no reporting for yours are not the sympathy the media wishes to cultivate. Only when your government, the all-powerful IDF is called to stop your terrors will the real and special targets face harm and then the reporters will write of misery and broken lives. So, the silent rockets which receive no media mention are once again exploding within southern Israel and the world sleeps softly not bothered with these difficult facts, difficult as they endear no sympathy and thus are unworthy of being told.

 

Beyond the Cusp