A Zionist Approach to a Palestinian Solution

 

There are so many rumors and misconceptions that one normally has no idea where to start. Perhaps taking a broader look and see what are some of the realities which even many of Israel’s detractors know are valid but are want to ever admit as to admit anything which shows Israel in an acceptable light, let alone a good light, is simply untenable as if we start to recognize those things Israel has attempted to do and offers made to try and reach a fair deal which meets almost every last demand made of her, where would such admissions end? Israel must be demonized and all unfair treatments must originate because of Israel existing at all. The reality is the pro-Arab Palestinian supporters refuse to admit, believe or allow any facts which might place Israel as having made any concessions ever to meet Arab demands because Israel must be drawn in the most unfavorable light and in hateful pictures and framed as pure evil on the brink of committing genocide at any moment. The Six Day War and its second attempt six years and a few odd months later known as the Yom Kippur War where Israel was attacked on the most solemn of days in the Jewish calendar, our Day of Atonement where virtually every Jew is in Synagogue and that particular time even two-thirds of the IDF soldiers and officers were on leave and Israel took precious hours before she was capable of repelling the assaults which from Syria were well on their way to Tel Aviv rolling across the Galilee while the Egyptians were dashing across the Sinai Peninsula and had surrounded and captured a whole division at the Suez Canal guarding the border from the Six Day War at half strength at best and completely under manned and easily overpowered. Israel turned the tide and was half way to Damascus from the Golan Heights, the previous armistice line and across the Suez Canal and advancing on Alexandria and Cairo when the world finally decided to protest the fighting. While Israel was being slaughtered and destroyed the world sat silent but once Israel had obviously turned the tides and within a few hours became the side advancing and approaching the aggressors’ capitals and major cities the world could stand the fighting no more. Despite the fact that had the tide not been turned nobody would have sparked the slightest objection but the world including the Soviet Union, Britain, France, the United States, the rest of the Security Council as well as the General Assembly, the Arab League, NATO, and a plethora of other groups, nations and associations as well as every human rights and anti-war group finally had to end this atrocious situation which could not be stomached; Israel must be prevented from spreading more violence and destruction, their advance is an affront.

 

Israel heeded the demands and even retreated back to the armistice lines from 1967 despite now holding both sides of the Suez Canal. She surrendered control of that vital waterway and once back where the Suez Canal was the border Israel did not press that she should share in its management as the forces of the world demanded that Egypt must control the Waterway even if one side was Israeli held. The entirety of nations sided with Egyptian control denying Israeli use of the Suez Canal as that was to be the normal and accepted fact of things. Israel was not to be permitted free access to the Suez Canal even if the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) occupied one side of the waterway. That is the world’s idea of fair and balanced. When time came to make peace with Egypt Israel offered Egypt every inch of land they had controlled but Egypt admitted that she had been occupying Gaza and that Gaza actually belonged to Israel and Egypt returned Gaza to Israeli control. Is Israel credited with returning the Sinai Peninsula to Egyptian control as part of their peace agreement? It does not appear as Israel is still denigrated as being an aggressor whose desires are to steal Arab lands at every corner, well, I guess if it has to be mentioned, except that one when Israel returned the Sinai but that was only done because Israel knew they could not defend those longer borders, yes, that is what we will tell ourselves, Israel had no other choice tactically. Never mind when Egypt had the advantage of the greatest surprise attack possible they still were routed by Israel who knew she could not defend that border? That does not appear to match the historic picture. But Israel must never be credited with doing anything noble or decent, Israel must be denigrated and trodden into the mire and never allowed to clean herself. Israel must be vilified at every opportunity thus Israel returned the Sinai because she was weak and unable to defend it must be the reality we sell the world, Israel was not being magnanimous after all, what could the Sinai provide Israel? The Sinai only has all of Egyptian oil wells and would present Israel with several multiples of size and depth and would allow Israel to defend her waterway to the Red Sea and on to the Indian Ocean and Asia and the Pacific coast of the Americas. What would Israel want with all of that? Those who are Israel detractors cannot admit the obvious as to do so would allow for that first crack in their arguments which are made of the most fragile of structures that are crafter out of lies, deceit and pure hatred, anti-Semitism, anti-Israelism, anti-Zionism and nothing more.

 

Camp David Talks on a Break as President Bill Clinton, Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Ehud Barak Stroll the Grounds of the Complex Located Ten Miles North of Frederick, Maryland

 

 

Then there were the offers during the final weeks of the administration under President Bill Clinton where Yasser Arafat walked out of the talks in Paris in disgust, that we can admit, but why disgust. Yasser Arafat felt betrayed and trapped so he fled. He knew that the end of his objections had been breached so he had his car and driver running and waiting in the front of the hotel to make good his escape. The reality hit him and he felt the walls closing in as President Clinton demanded an early morning meeting for the signing of the agreement, the very agreement Arafat had demanded just the night before that had to be why President Clinton was so excited that he called an early morning meeting with both sides to be in attendance. The trap had been set and was about to be sprung, the trap set in motion by Arafat’s own demands and words, that the worst of traps when one’s own words made the trap. The late afternoon President Clinton had met privately with Yasser Arafat and demanded politely as was his way of disarming even the arch terror master who invented aircraft hijacking, suicide murdering bombers and a plethora means of death and destruction was now asked the question no Arab Palestinian ever cares or is willing to answer, namely, what would you accept to make peace. Yasser Arafat was trapped by that wily master, President Clinton had done the unthinkable, the unprecedented, he had demanded to know what would seal the deal of Arafat and he would have to give an answer. What could he demand that the Israeli Prime Minister could never accept, what would guarantee rejection. Yasser Arafat knew he had to sell a lie because President Clinton would never in a million years accept his demand that Israel be destroyed, its Jews turned into slaves to serve the Arabs, which would never be accepted by President Clinton. What would President Clinton accept and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barack would have to refuse. Yasser Arafat took a gamble and demanded all of the West Bank and whatever part of Jerusalem or land swaps, things we can only guess but he gave his word, his worthless word to President Clinton who probably walked him back from the extreme demands but not so far that Arafat feared the worst, Israeli agreement. But the breakfast meeting gave away the worst possible situation, President Clinton had also pressed Barak to meet those demands Arafat had agreed were acceptable, what to do, run, that must have made Arafat feel like a trapped rat and all he could do was flee with Madeline Albright, the United States Secretary of State, waddling and shuffling as fast as he little body permitted calling after Arafat to come back and fulfill his promise, but the car was running, the door open and the driver behind the wheel, the getaway went off as required by the dire situation, peace with Israel the alternative.

 

Madeline Albright and Ehud Barak Press Conference in Israel Discussing Peace Process and Camp David Talks During Meetings Before Start of Talks Between Prime Minister Barak and Yasser Arafat

 

 

Perhaps President Obama who claimed he wanted to have his Presidency reflect the best of the former Presidents, the Presidencies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and perhaps in the back of his mind also James Madison, Teddy Roosevelt, and William Jefferson Clinton and even once I believe even Ronald Reagan might have snuck in there in a moment of weakness, weakness from President Obama, what am I thinking. Actually, should President Obama desire to make the world remember him for making the impossible possible and actually reach an agreement between Israel and the Arab Palestinians led by Mahmoud Abbas then there is a suggestion I would love to place in his ear that might just make such a deal achievable. President Clinton had the right idea, don’t press Israel, just sit down with Mahmoud Abbas, mano-a-mano, one-on-one, in a place where two men can ignore the bothersome world of political gamesmanship and discuss real problems and find real solutions and work with Mahmoud Abbas, President Obama by himself with Mahmoud Abbas by his self and allow that gifted oratory which was supposed to swoon the rest of the world and give it all President Obama can with lilt and tenor voice with whispers and exclamations of dire demands and hammer out an agreement which President Obama honestly believes that Prime Minister Netanyahu might be persuaded to accept and get the one item President Clinton miscalculated on, get Abbas to sign the offer such that if Netanyahu signs the document as well then there is peace. Let the Arab Palestinians finally once again tell the world in writing what it will take for peace to be achieved. If Abbas is honest he will hand President Obama a map without any Israel on it and everything between the Jordan and the Sea as Palestine and President Obama will have his answer, this is a war to the last soul and nothing less. But if Abbas signs an acceptable agreement which has even the most remote possibility that Netanyahu will accept, then President Obama will not only have earned that Nobel Peace Prize but made himself eligible to be the only man in history to win the Nobel Peace Prize twice and he will deserve such. What about it President Obama? Great risks is what makes great men, risk not gain not, risk it all and maybe gain the accolades you know you deserve but have been denied, take this chance, take the offensive and ask Abbas what he will agree to for peace and what he is willing to give up. Unfortunately, I honestly suspect that Mahmoud Abbas heard from Yasser Arafat about the Clinton entrapment and has been warned against being even remotely reasonable and Abbas will demand everything right down to that last piece of sand on any Tel Aviv beach and the furthest tip of a pier in Eilat and the furthest heights of Mount Hermon and all seven hills of Yerushalayim, nothing less. Then President Obama, himself, should be obliged to tell the world of the intransigence of Mahmoud Abbas and how when faced with the opportunity to make reasonable requests and have the State he claims to desire, refused to accept any State of Israel. As that is the truth, then the world needs to hear it and the truth will set all the world free from this folly which simply continues to take lives needlessly. We know Hamas’s answer, every Jew on the planet dead, that is their idea for peace. Let us see if Abbas is any less the lunatic and desires a state or simply desires the slaughter of the Jews as many suspect. Prove one side or the other and then be honest before the world. Is that too much to ask, because if it is, then we need to find some world leader willing to go that extra mile and find that path which President Clinton found and once again risk taking that otherwise untrod path one more time and seek a real answer, a real truth and a real peace.

 

Beyond the Cusp