Time Has Come for Israel to Change the Discussion

The time has come for Israel to make a declaration which will alter for all time the debate over the formation of any Palestinian state. Quoting the rights provided the Zionists, and thusly Israel, to make claim under the promises contained in the Churchill White Papers, the Balfour Declaration, the League of Nations dispositions under the Mandate system, and confirmed by Article 80 of the United Nations Charter, Israel is exercising their rightful claim to all the lands west of the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Israelis willing to make a one-time offer of a concession releasing their proper claim to Area A and negotiate final borders which will come to exist within points in Area B. This offer will be open for six months from the date of this offer after which Israel, should the Palestinian leadership refuse to negotiate, will also annex all of Area B and leave Area A to be utilized for a Palestinian State along with the Gaza Strip to be formed at the Palestinian convenience. Whatever the borders are defined on said date six months from today will denote the defined borders for the State of Israel and will be defended as such. Any Palestinian living within these areas annexed into the state of Israel will be allowed to apply and after completing the required steps be allowed to become citizens with full rights as Israelis.

I realize that there will be an immediate outcry from the rest of the world and Israel very well might face sanctions imposed by some nations. Does any Israeli honestly believe in their hearts that such will not eventually become the reality at some point when the majority of the world’s countries call for replacing Israel with a Palestinian state? Mahmoud Abbas, the world’s imposed on Israel as a partner for peace, has made it clear that he and the Palestinian leadership, be it Hamas, Fatah, the PLO, the Palestinian Authority or whomever, will never surrender their right to use force to liberate all of Palestine from north to south and from the river to the sea, every square millimeter without surrendering a single square inch. There is no amount of land short of all the lands which will satisfy the Palestinians and those who support them in their pogrom to remove the Jewish existence within their holy Muslim lands. We have seen where the world stands when the United Nations overwhelmingly granted the Palestinians their coveted statehood. The near unanimity with which the world voted to remove Israel from possessing any position in the debate over Palestinian statehood should be heeded as the threat that it truly was. That was the shot across the bow warning Israel that the world is fully willing to give away all of Israel if that is what the Palestinian demand with future claims. The only path which will allow Israel to continue going forward to remain a nation among the nations is if Israel takes the initiative and defines unilaterally these are our borders and all who would cross these borders or attempt to take our lands will be met with the full determination of the state of Israel defending its rightful borders. Once Israel has made such a proclamation, then the world can begin to adjust and accept that reality as long as Israel makes their claim from a position of unity and honest determination standing strong and united.

It may come to pass that it will be necessary to limit those NGOs which are predominantly reliant on foreign funding from operating freely in the immediate aftermath of such a declaration. There is one easy way that this can legally be performed even in a democracy with freedom of speech. The Knesset would need to pass legislation directing the Supreme Court to forbid the funding to enter Israel from any country which imposed any form of boycott, divestment or sanction or other deleterious reaction to Israel’s legal application of promises given them by the world bodies in good faith and completely backed by the Geneva Accords rules of annexation of lands gained during a defensive war. As the Sage Rabbi Hillel famously stated, “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?”

Israel waiting for the world to realize the genocidal intentions of the Palestinian leadership and the Muslim world’s use of the Palestinians as the method by which they will be allowed to eradicate Israel is a foolish and perilous game that leads to only one end, the end of Israel and the Jewish People. The world will not intervene as all too many in the world support this very aim and enthusiastically cheer for its fruition. The sooner that Israel and Israelis realize and grasp the truth that our friends are few and far between, at least as far as friends who would be willing to stand with Israel and defend her from those intending evil and destruction, then the sooner Israel will enable their defense by placing a line in the sand and determinedly stating here is where we stop and will refuse to back from these lines. The sooner that Israel declares the borders, beyond which they will refuse to shrink, the larger the land of Israel will be. And until Israel declares such borders, she will remain vulnerable and will continue to be pushed into smaller and smaller land until there is none. After the Six Day War in June of 1967 the world would have accepted Israel retaining the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, Judea, Samaria, and the Sinai Peninsula as they all recognized that Israel was defending herself from overt aggressions by all her neighboring countries and beyond. When Israel annexed all of Jerusalem there was no outcry and it was not controversial. Now Israel is being demanded to return to the pre-war borders surrendering half of Jerusalem including every single holy site within the Old City, the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. What will tomorrow bring? Are Israelis and their leaders willing to continue to talk and surrender to demands from those who cannot be mollified? What will the reaction be when the United Nations decides that Israel must return to the original planned divisions proffered on November 29, 1947? That will be the next claim by the Muslims and their steel glove perched on Israeli borders, the Palestinians. And the world will cheer and proclaim that it is only fair that this be granted. Israel cannot wait or rely on the world’s kindness as the world has no kindness for Israel and the hatreds are only growing. Make the stand now as waiting means death and the end of our dreams.

Beyond the Cusp

Plesner Committee Drafting New Tal Law Dissolved by Netanyahu

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday scrapped the Plesner Committee, tasked with drafting a replacement for the controversial Tal Law. The committee was in response to a ruling by the Supreme Court striking down the Tal Law removing the longstanding deferment for Hareidim from serving in the IDF or perform public service as other providing they were in full time Torah study, forcing a replacement be found by July 31. This initiated a response from Kadima party chairman, Vice Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz, threatening to quit the government if Netanyahu did not follow through with the committee’s recommendations. Mofaz was quoted saying, “I reject the announcement of the prime minister and pledge my full support to Plesner’s committee. The committee was formed by all the parties together, and its unilateral dissolution by the prime minister does not obligate Kadima (to comply. These recommendations are) the basis for any real attempt to fix the historic problem of the unequal burden. If the prime minister chooses not to go in that direction, the national unity government will end.”

This is likely how this story will be presented along with the seeming mandatory references to Prime Minister Netanyahu and his heavy handed, dictatorial style of leading his coalition. Never mind that MK Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beiteinu Party walked out of the committee over their refusal to even address a recommendation that Arab Israelis also be included in required IDF or public service the same as the Hareidim as both have similar deferments. Add that Habayit Hayehudi (Hebrew for “Jewish Home”) also decided that they were being shut out and ignored as they also believed that the committee should be at least looking at universally equal treatment under the new law. Shas and United Torah Judaism Hareidim religious parties’ representative Attorney Ya’akov Weinroth also withdrew from the committee though his motivations were considered suspect as he might have been insistent on a new version that would be a carbon copy of the struck down Tal Law. There was an obvious problem with the make-up of the Plesner Committee from the beginning and from this writer’s perspective it did not come down to as much the dictatorial imposition by Prime Minister Netanyahu than it was the attempts to dictate every iota of the new law by the Kadima leadership in the committee and Shaul Mofaz, the leader of Kadima who likely interpreted the mandate given by Benyamin Netanyahu as a license to lord over the committee and write whatever law he pleased while ignoring any input by other Parties’ representatives assigned to the committee. This may be the beginning of a fraying of the coalition as the nationalist and religious parties are not going to ever form a cordial relationship with the liberal members in Kadima. It might even get to a point where the strengthening of the coalition by merging Kadima will lead to Yisrael Beiteinu and numerous of the other current members will depart over the necessary catering that will be required to keep Shaul Mofaz and the Kadima Ministers content. Such an exodus would completely defeat the entire move of folding Kadima into the coalition and could lead to total collapse.

There is one result of dissolving the Plesner Committee which might turn out to be a blessing in disguise. This has presented Prime Minister Netanyahu with a golden egg in the form of Kadima Head Shaul Mofaz threatening to pull Kadima out of the coalition. The first and most obvious result would be to allow him to make good on his threat and continue with the narrower coalition that includes a more homogeneous combination of parties. But the most likely advantage would be for Prime Minister Netanyahu to call Shaul Mofaz’s bluff and once again announce that he plans to call for new election should Kadima depart the coalition. Such a threat would silence Shaul Mofaz as he is fully aware that with new election Kadima loses half of their seats in the Knesset and such a loss is not something Shaul Mofaz desires or could survive. Such an occurrence might very well cause a vote of no confidence by the membership of Kadima and a new election to choose a new party chairman. Sometimes it is best not to scream too loudly in public when the soapbox you’re standing on has broken boards and is about to collapse.

Beyond the Cusp

Latest Libel Against Israel Refuted

There have been a number of articles, especially by liberal bloggers, which have accused Israel of racism due to their repatriation of illegal immigrants with their home country. Since the majority of these illegal immigrants are of African origin, the claim is Israel is a Caucasian dominated country degrading the Africans within their border, inviting the inference that Israel is striving for racial purity. But let’s look a little closer at the historical records and find the reality that exists there. The initial item is that these are people who entered the country illegally who have no official standing. Many of these people willingly admit that they are financial refugees who came to Israel in order to live in a place with more jobs and other opportunities. Where such is a laudable reason for immigrating into a country and makes it worth the effort to pursue the legalities required to relocate to such a destination, it does not excuse anyone doing so illegally by not following the legal means for immigrating. It also must be taken into consideration that Israel allowed tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of refugees from the Sudan to remain in Israel with some having been there for over a decade. These people were treated legally under international law and provided sanctuary as they faced torture, discrimination or even death had they been returned to the Sudan which was a virtual war zone with certain groups being victims of horrific violence. Since then the southern areas of the Sudan has gained their independence as a new country, South Sudan, and it is now reasonable and safe to return these refugees to their homelands. The same is true for those who came from Eritrea and the Ivory Coast. All of those refugees from these countries have been declared safe for repatriation through legal means in the courts. Israel has even offered to give the returning refugees who willingly volunteer by a certain date some financial assistance to facilitate and ease their return to their homes.

 

There are others who have simply decided they prefer to take their chances ignoring the law and remaining in Israel. Almost all, if not every one, of these refugees passed through Egypt among other nations such as Sudan, Algeria, Libya, Somalia, Eritrea, Kenya, Nigeria, and likely others, on their way to reaching Israel. This begs a question, Why did these people refuse to choose any of these other places to flee as they were obviously closer to their start point and took less effort than crossing their entirety in order to reach Israel? I can answer why they refused to stop or even loiter in Egypt, they would have been shot on sight. Despite this truth, nobody is condemning these countries for their inhospitable treatment of these refugees, only Israel is the mean, evil country. You don’t believe me about the shooting them on sight? Well, search news stories for “shoot refugees Israel” and one of the first page articles you will find is titled >a href=http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1946861,00.html target=blank>Dangers Await Africans Seeking Asylum in Israel.</a> Reading the article will exemplify the difference between the two countries, Egypt and Israel. One cares for the refugees and the other eliminates the refugees. Yet, Israel is condemned for repatriation of refugees once the situation in their homelands have changed and become safe for their return while Egyptian border military shoot the refugees dead on sight. Which, if you were a refugee, would you prefer, death at the hands of an Egyptian Guard or being returned home when the international community and the courts deem the situation is safe? I know my preference is life.

 

While we are speaking on refugees being returned to their place of origin, are these illegal African refugees the sole immigrants Israel has ever sent back? Oddly enough, the answer is no. When Israel was accepting hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from the former Soviet Union it was necessary to send some of the refugees back to the Soviet Union. Despite the liberal terms and definition of who was legitimately a Jew, there were a fair number of refugees sent by the Soviets who were not Jewish by any calculations. Many of these refugees even admitted that the Soviets had sent them to Israel simply to be rid of them. This resulted in the eventual return of some of the Soviet refugees and nobody in the world made a peep about those repatriations. Why the big outpouring and crying now and the silence back then? And what about the other side of the coin? Israel has accepted African Jews from South Africa and has and currently is engaged in a large operation bringing thousands of Ethiopian Jews home to Israel as well as hundreds of near destitute Jews from southern India home to Israel. I guess bringing people of color to Israel is not mentioned as it does not fit the story line of mean white European Israel. This poses the question of whether these people condemning Israel on this narrowly defined story while ignoring tons of other real stories also ignore that nearly half of the Jewish population in Israel are not Ashkenazi Jews but are Sephardic Jews with Spanish, North African, and Middle East heritage. But I guess that has to be discounted as it does not fit the story of Israel the mean European Jewish State. Perhaps the reasoning is that those who are being brought into Israel at great government expense from Ethiopia and India and anywhere Jews are found do not count as they are Jews.

 

It does get ever so tiring hearing all these half truths and outright lies all made in order to claim one thing, Israel bad, Jews bad. Somebody will say that defaming Israel is completely different from hating Jews and that they know many good Jews. The problem with this denial is simply this; have you taken any other country to task similarly or is it only Israel (or the United States) with which you find fault. Is it only the Jewish State which transgresses the norms you hold dear and the rest of the world live exemplary lives.  When your sole target is Israel you do not have a political or social problem with Israel or Israeli actions, you have a problem with the Jewish State and only because Israel is the international representative of the Jews which raises your ire. Ignoring the fact that most of the countries bordering Israel and who reside in the neighborhood have radically more oppressive policies and treat foreigners with violence and contempt while Israel is the modern nation which operates under the rule of law and makes honest efforts to do that which is honorable and correct makes no difference, it is still Israel that cannot meet your standards. It boggles the mind to think about what would happen if for one week Israel actually acted in a manner as that which she has constantly been accused of acting and more like her neighboring countries would act against any Israeli in their midst. Exactly what would the world say then? Well, what would they say once they picked their jaws off the floor where they dropped in total surprise and amazement? Don’t worry yourself, Israel and her people after five thousand years of being the civilized people on the block and are not about to go carnal on their enemies now, though sometimes one wonders.

 

Beyond the Cusp