Are These Two Demands From Israel in Peace Negotiations That Extreme?

Everybody claims that the Palestinians are the side which is ready and desirous of making peace. Their demands are well known or at least everybody claims to understand and believe that their demands are justified. The problem claimed by so many around the world, especially throughout the Western nations. They believe that the Israeli demands are the problem and that Israel is being too demanding and are occupiers of lands which actually belong to Arab Palestinians. I am aware that almost nobody who believes these assumed truths would accept any evidence I could provide proving their beliefs are incorrect and based on propaganda issued by the Palestinian leadership and repeated by the sycophantic leftist media which has condemned Israel as being colonialist occupiers who unfairly conquered the land of Israel and forced out indigenous Arab Palestinians. Another canard is that Israeli Jews are European refugees who arrived solely after World War II and Israel was only founded and that idea arose from guilt over the Holocaust. Never mind trying to persuade you by presenting truths such as the Balfour Declaration of 1917 or the San Remo Conference of 1920 were the most important documents, votes and treaties made through negotiations which included the victorious allied powers which defeated the Ottoman Empire or that these debates included King Faisal, the leader of the Arab and Islamic world, who attended many of the negotiations and conferences after World War I and who accepted the return of the Jewish people to their natural homelands even quoting the references in the Quran that stated that the Jews had been granted the lands between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea by Allah as nobody will accept such. So, why do we not discuss the two most important of Israeli claims which are as basic and simple of demands one could ask that the Palestinians refuse to accept.

One demand Israel makes of the Palestinians is equivalent to the Palestinian demand that the Israelis recognize the Palestinian Arabs existence as a people deserving of their own state, the Israelis demand the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people. Mahmoud Abbas and every other Palestinian leader responds exactly the same, there will never come the day when they will ever recognize Israel as anything other than occupied Palestine and that the Jewish people should return from where they came, Germany, America or wherever in Europe they came from. The big lie behind this rebuttal is well known and recognized by the Arabs as it was their leaders who caused half of the Jewish population in Israel by the middle of the 1950s as they chased, persecuted or otherwise forced the vast majority of their Jewish populations to flee often with one suitcase each forfeiting the remainder of their property and their homes and businesses. There were approximately eight-hundred-thousand Jews who sought refuge in Israel between 1948 and 1958 from Arab nations across the Middle East and North Africa which resulted in equal representation of Sephardic Jews from Arab nations and Ashkenazi Jews from Europe by 1960 and the two populations still share a near even percentage of Israeli Jews in the modern era. Should the Jews be forced to return to the nations from whence they came into Israel, the question is will those Arab nations not only allow the Jews to return but also provide them with their previous homes and also return their businesses and other forfeited property? Such is not only unlikely but an absurdity to even consider as they would be more likely to simply murder the Jews rather than accept them back as citizens. What is odd is there are those Jews who actually long to return to their former Arab homes and regret the fact they can never return.

The second demand made by the Israelis is that any agreement reached with the Palestinians result in an end to hostilities and an end to claims issuing in a permanent peace. This may seem to be an obvious result of any agreement except part of the continuous endeavors to incite violence against Israelis in general and the Jews in particular is the theme that the Palestinian leadership will never ever agree to an end to the violence and terror war against the Israelis until all of Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea has been liberated and cleansed of its Jewish population. This insistence that any peace treaty not represent an end to their terrorist war against Israel is part of what Yasser Arafat defined as the liberation of Palestine in stages. Arafat defined the first stage as a long term series of negotiations where he would demand from Israel concessions whenever the Europeans and/or the United States react to enticements and Palestinian demands to restart the peace talks. Once Arafat and the Palestinians gained these concessions they never returned them nor permitted Israel to take them back even as it was Arafat who always forced the negotiations to break down. During the negotiation the Palestinians would make offers to entice Israel to make return offers and once the Palestinians broke off the negotiations they would insist that the next round begin with everything Israel had offered in the last round be the starting point for the next round plus demand that the Western powers force even more concessions from Israel. This lesson was learned well by Mahmoud Abbas, Arafat’s protégé and second in command since the founding of the PLO in 1964 where there cause was the elimination of Israel replacing it with Palestine as there were no occupied Palestinian areas since the Six Day War had yet to occur, where Israel gained possession of the Golan Heights, Sinai Peninsula as well as the West Bank, historically referred to as Judea and Samaria, integral parts of ancient Israel lands. Mahmoud Abbas has continued this tactic and it has been used to the point where Israel has been pressed into concession after concession by supposed allies, even those United States Presidents who were awarded the title of Israel’s best friend ever in the White House falling in line with the round after round of forcing Israel into ever deeper compromises and surrendering bargaining chip after bargaining chip. The result is Israel has been left with no bargaining chips other than her survival and still the Palestinians demand concessions or no peace talks. The Palestinians have never been held to a single promise or concession as they simply insist they never made any such offer and threaten to walk out of any talks which back the Western sponsors away from holding them responsible for any act or promise they have ever committed and then backed away from fulfilling. Much of this has been further facilitated by the leftist media which blames Israel for every breakdown in the negotiations and carries the Palestinian’s water for them in every situation as they are threatened with no longer being granted access to Palestinian areas to gather news and pictures and are always mindful that they are dealing with terrorists who might turn against their reporters. Whatever the reason, the Israelis have reached a point where even the moderate leftists have realized that the game has been fixed and they are tiring of the constant hounding and hatred from European backers of the Palestinians and are noticing the United States starting to rival the Europeans in their political lack of will to side with Israel and even the loss of any fairness on university campuses where often Jewish students are attacked simply for their wearing anything which displays their Judaism and thus they are accused of supporting Israel making them legitimate for assaults. This is all part of why the Palestinians can never make a lasting peace, their promises to their people that the revolution against the Jews will never end until all of the lands are freed and the Jews destroyed and the spoils being split amongst the Palestinian people. Is there any wonder why Israel has reached the point that they are not all that anxious to return to the peace talks and refuse to make any new concession as what can they give now, Tel Aviv, the Negev, Haifa or what?

Beyond the Cusp

The Lessons of Carthage, a Teaching Moment for Israel

Any serious study of military history will include the Punic Wars and the lessons which should be taken from the entire series of events and their resultant outcomes and ramifications into the future. The first peculiarity of the Punic Wars is the fact that there were three wars between two of the greatest powers of their time and definitely the strongest forces around the Mediterranean Sea. The initial Punic War was fought as Rome attempted to settle islands in the Mediterranean Sea which were already part of the Carthaginian Empire which was largely based on trade with a strong emphasis on water based trade routes. This resulted in Carthage having a very powerful naval forces which was capable of placing superior numbers of ships with skillful and experienced crews against superior ships of Rome which were only defeated due to their lesser numbers and less experienced crews. Still the Romans managed to severely damage the Carthaginian naval power. Much of the First Punic War was fought in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea with negligible land based fighting except for the battles for control of Sicily which resulted in a Roman crushing land based victory. In the interim period between the first two wars, the Romans seized the opportunity of the troubles and violent conflicts within Cartage taking not only Sicily but also seizing Sardinia and Corsica.

The Second Punic War included the one item almost everyone remembers, the crossing of the Alps with elephants by the Carthaginian General Hannibal. Hannibal’s victories across the northern lands leading to Rome were brilliant victory after victory for his forces defeating the Roman legions. The cost of these battles and the loss of his elephants and almost all of his siege equipment meant that Hannibal was unable to execute the coup de grâce by taking Rome itself. The eventual defeat of Hannibal’s armies came when the Roman Commander Quintus Fabius Maximus utilized a strategy of engagement without fighting. He would position his forces as if preparing to engage Hannibal who would organize his forces and attempt to engage at which point Quintus Fabius Maximus would retreat with his legions into the countryside. The main actual engagement by Quintus Maximus forces were reserved to inhibit and prevent any scrounging by Hannibal’s skirmishers denying Hannibal of the necessities to feed and resupply his troops with necessities which eventually forced Hannibal to retreat. Also forcing Hannibal to retreat home was an offensive by Rome by sea placing troops in Africa threatening Hannibal’s capital and homelands which assisted in his decision to give up his conquest of Rome after fifteen years of mostly success against Roman forces but never quite being able to score that final knockout as the Romans continued to field legion after legion as they were able to replace lost troops seemingly without end. Before peace was finally agreed Hannibal had fallen in battle leading to a void in the leadership of Carthage and a power struggle which forced their suing for peace which Rome accepted also being weary of war and the necessity for tending the homelands and the demands of the people for peace and restoration of order and infrastructure.

Then we come to the Third Punic and final Punic War. This was the most unequal engagement as Carthage not only never recovered fully from the Second Punic War and had also faced skirmishes with Numidian raiders during the intermediate years. Rome, in keeping the peace, was assigned by treaty as the enforcer for resolving any conflicts and had been favoring Numidia over Carthage which alienated the people of Carthage. Rome also desired to avoid any potential for conflict in the future and when it became obvious that Carthage was again building military capabilities, Rome started making increasingly difficult demands under threat of war. The final demand was for the Carthaginians to destroy Carthage the city and move it inland and away from the coast ending their naval capabilities. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back and Carthage refused and Rome had their war to end all Carthage wars. Rome defeated Carthage after a three year siege of the city of Carthage before finally breaching the city walls. The reputed result according to some descriptions from poetic history described the ruins or the city of Carthage was there was no stone or brick left standing upon another and the lands surrounding the city for miles was salted and unable to be productive for the future. Needless to say, the destruction of Carthage was complete and Carthage remained silent through the rest of history and is a suburb of Tunis, Tunisia.

Israel could be said just fought the Third Gaza War against and answering to Hamas aggressions. The First Gaza War from December 27, 2008 to January 18, 2009 was also referred to as Operation Cast Lead in Israel and as the Gaza Massacre in the Arab world and by Hamas as the Battle of al-Furqan. The war was preceded by steadily increasing rocket fire into southern Israel reaching the major cities of Beersheba and Ashdod for the first time during the conflict. The war ended with an agreement partially arranged with outside assistance which included the United States. The Second Gaza War from November 14, 2012 to November 21, 2012 was called Operation Pillar of Defense (Pillar of Cloud is the literal translation) by Israel. The initial launch of the war was in response to the launch of over 100 rockets at Israel from within Gaza during a 24-hour period along with an ambush of an Israeli Jeep on the Israeli side of the Gaza fence. In both of these wars Israel was determined to have gained through military success and resulting from their military victory the Israelis gained a period of quiet from the rocket fire from within Gaza. The victory for Hamas was in media reports and propaganda war damaging Israel’s reputation across the globe. The main difference between the two sides is most stark when you understand what their respective goals are and what they are willing to sacrifice in order to attain those goals. Israel simply desires peace and quiet and an end to rockets launched into their civilian areas and attempts on infiltrations in order to murder and kidnap Israelis, either civilian or military personnel, with the kidnappings to be used to trade for the release of terrorists held in Israeli prisons with emphasis on the release of those whose crimes included the largest numbers of Israelis murdered, almost universally the Israeli casualties are civilians from these attacks which are almost never launched against the IDF. Hamas desires media coverage which paints Israel as monsters that kill indiscriminately and are willing to place as many Gazan civilians in compromised locations in order to maximize the numbers of Gazans injured and killed so that the media has pictures to transmit to the world and they complement these with press releases claiming Israelis target only civilians. The Hamas accusations ring hollow and are closer to projection of their acts onto the Israelis than it is valid and truthful but the media is largely glad to paint Israel in the worst light possible. Further, media in Gaza are subjected to censoring by Hamas minders and often threaten journalists who report damaging truths sometimes ejecting them and placing them on a ban lists never permitted to report from within Gaza in the future.

The recent conflict which actually could reignite at any moment as no peace has been signed and the two sides agreed ceasefire has recently been extended for an additional thirty days until the end of October in order that a peace can be negotiated, theoretically. The reason that such is highly unlikely is because the two sides have only been able to agree to meet towards the end of October and past performance has not indicated any great degree of agreement or cooperation between the two sides. Eventually an agreement will hopefully be reached and signed at a ceremony probably held on the East Lawn of the White House, with President Obama looming over the proceedings grinning like the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland and Vice President Biden wandering around trying to decide where best to stand, while the two parties, who are to sign the agreement, taking positions as far apart as possible without appearing too obvious, eyeing each other warily wondering whether the signing can be pulled off before a disagreement or wrong move is misinterpreted and the entire signing blows up into a shouting match with both sides accusing the other of perfidy and subversion. In the present Hamas threatens repeatedly to return to firing rockets if Israel continues to refuse to meet their every demand, but at least they utilize differing intervals which makes it less predictable and removes any chance for overwhelming boredom. This also is why there are many who hold doubts as to whether the ceasefire can ever lead to an actual armistice or will we wake overly early one morning in the darkness to the sound of the Code Red sirens and the raining of rockets upon our cities renewed. We can ponder on our way to the shelters, as long as it does not interfere with our hopefully quick enough haste as we all have a varying amount of time but all of them measured in seconds, whether the resumption was something an Israeli leader or IDF commander made to the press or did Hamas’s leaders Mashal or Haniyeh just have indigestion during the night and really did not wish to suffer alone. Such a situation is just one more reason that the Israeli leadership, both the military and the politicians though it is difficult to know which should garner the majority of the blame, could and should have taken the lessons of the Punic Wars and the additional carnage, deaths, and destruction heaped on the Roman populace all because their politicians and military leaders were unwilling to take the reins and saddle up and finish what had been started once and for all as they eventually were forced to do after two additional, unnecessary and extremely destructive wars.

There was unity, well as close to unity as is possible in Israel, as over 80% of Israelis in most polls desired, many demanded, the retaking of Gaza and putting an end once and for all with Hamas and Islamic Jihad ending the raining of rockets and wars fought every two or three years. The military was tasked with drawing up sets of plans and their relative cost, projected losses, estimates of Gazan deaths, time frame for length of each scenario and whatever other particulars the Prime Minister and his inner cabinet (war cabinet) had requested or desired. The leadership of the IDF had whomever is tasked with such planning to give them their estimates and the other particulars and also a briefing on the overall strategies and conceivable ramifications likely including reactions by the United Nations, United States, European Union and the rest of the alphabet of NGOs, alliances, compacts and even individual countries and gave them a short time frame, as it is expected by the Command level officers that such plans and their respective costs and eventualities have all been worked out and hashed and rehashed a million times adjusting them to the most recent intelligence and thus all that was required was the summation briefing to be prepared. This all happened in relative quiet and without alarming the public and the briefing for the Prime Minister and his Inner Cabinet was held and everything was probably ignored as I doubt that Prime Minister Netanyahu ever actually desired or would permit the retaking of Gaza as such would cause him extreme discomfort wherever he would travel after Israel did such an, as the rest of the world believes, unthinkable act of cruelty, wretchedness and inhuman brutality. The exercise of having the IDF command work up the briefing was to be able to use that as a balm to soothe the anger and grating disbelief when the backlash came from a public that is sick to death of the repeated wars and the incessant rockets raining down in ever increasing numbers and over increasing range culminating in timeframes measured more in months than years in a crescendo of thousand rockets per week before the leadership finally releases the IDF to take the offensive and silence the rockets at least temporarily. The decision reached was that the cost in lives, equipment, world image, reputation, perception and treasure was too great to bear. The cost analysis considered by the Israeli leadership very probably did not do a cost comparison which included on the ledgers in favor of ending this revolving door of off and on wars the cost of the future wars which if the government continues to balk from responsibility and retake Gaza will continue endlessly at ever shorter intervals of calm and have costs of which eventually will come the cost we cannot bear, the end of Israel under a rain of rockets no amount of Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow 1, 2, 3 or whatever and any other defensive systems. Sometimes the only real defense is a completed offense and if it makes Israel unpopular and denounced, at least we will remain alive which comes before what the idiots around the world think.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad et al refuse to take the responsibility for bringing devastation down on Gaza, making the lives of innocent Gazans horridly difficult. The only crime one can hold the Gazan civilians responsible for was electing Hamas to govern their lives. They may refuse any accusation that they knowingly elected a leadership which would bring these wars down upon them with all the destruction and misery they entail, but because they continue to allow the Hamas government to rule and have not taken any actions to demand new governance they have brought this upon themselves. Where that may sound cruel, it is not as cruel as the actions of the Gazans erupting with joy whenever Hamas realizes and murders Jews to feed the overarching and wanton desire of both Hamas and the rest of the terrorists as well as the majority of Gazans to murder Jews. For Hamas this desire goes further and aims at all of the Jews wherever they reside in their desire to eradicate them starting with Israel and then to continue on that path even if it costs the lives of every civilian who has not picked up a weapon and joined Hamas or Islamic Jihad. The responsibility is as Prime Minister Netanyahu has attempted to explain to a world which does not care to listen; it is the fault of Hamas and the rest of the rocket firing terrorist entities which control Gaza by threat of death. This was demonstrated perfectly and clearly after the first lengthy ceasefire was agreed upon when Hamas executed dozens of Gazans without any trial and without making or proving any charges simply claiming that these were Gazans guilty of not supporting Hamas by collaborating with Israel. Does anybody in the world, let alone in Gaza, honestly believe that the approximately dozen members from Fatah actually were guilty of collaborating with Israel? These were victims of Hamas chosen because they chose to side with Abbas and were no more guilty of whatever crime Hamas claimed than are the Hamas members who are arrested and at times executed in the West Bank in Ramallah by Abbas and Fatah which he commands. There can never be fair and open elections as long as the only candidates running must be vetted and approved by terrorist organizations which includes the West Bank as much as it does Gaza. The last elections which were held under international supervision had Hamas receiving the majority of the votes while Fatah, or the Palestinian Authority, coming in a distant second. This was part of the reasons for the eventual coup by Hamas taking control over Gaza from the Palestinian Authority after Mahmoud Abbas blocked election for the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority as he knew he would lose the election to Haniyeh and Hamas would take control and never relent and all future elections would result in larger Hamas victories. The same situation exists currently and simply because of the conflict Hamas brought down on Gaza. Where the destruction in Gaza should and would cost Hamas votes, Hamas controls Gaza and would control the vote counting, thus they win. In the West Bank Hamas is favored easily over Fatah as Hamas is now viewed as strong and Abbas as weak as he appeared to make statements which were seemingly controlled out of Washington DC and he appeared swayed by the United States and their pressures. This is partly true as his government depends on the billions of dollars they receive every year which originates in the United States though much of it takes circuitous routes to reach the Palestinian Authority while Hamas receives only indirect monies from the United States and will continue receiving these funds as they are actually diverted from UNRWA by Hamas. This is the unfortunate truth and we can expect that before any elections are held for the leadership of the Palestinian Authority either Hamas will be disallowed the right to have a candidate or Abbas will have retired to the French Riviera living comfortably on the billions he has stashed away and having a great view of the Mediterranean, something he has been denied seeing from his office in Ramallah. Just for truth in reporting, Haniyeh is a multi-millionaire and Mashal is a multi-billionaire; and who says terrorism doesn’t pay.

Beyond the Cusp

Abbas’s Brazen Hypocrisy Displayed and Nobody Cares to Notice

Whenever Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas speaks either to the press or to leaders of nations, NGOs, the United Nations or any other groups or individuals he will phrase everything in one of three basic references. He will speak of what he demands of Israel in order for any further negotiations to be held. He talks about how Israel will display their insincerity should they not meet making some sacrifice that he had demanded just to get him to the table. Or finally he will talk of how Israel is denying the Palestinian Authority of financial funding by some horrid conspiracy and how the rest of the world is obligated to pour more billions, if not trillions, of dollars or shekels or name your favorite currency and how it is urgent that those funds appear immediately or there will be Palestinians who will not receive their salaries. These are the only subjects which appear to excite Abbas. The one item he never speaks of except to tie it to demands for funds or demand Israel meet or grant concessions if they are serious about peace is peace or even peace at all. The one item everyone can be assured of is that Mahmoud Abbas is not about peace, he is about cash on the barrel and as much as he can divert to his and his closest fellow thieves accounts. Abbas is also about travelling the world and staying in the finest hotels, which is understandable as if you are going to pretend to be the leader of a nation that has a history going back nine-thousand years and are the descendants of, pending which version of history the Palestinian leadership is selling this week, the Canaanites or the Amalekites, two not quite civil civilizations which according to ever accounting of history completely disappeared leaving no survivors, you can expect to stay in the finest hotels.

 

The latest examples of Mahmoud Abbas speaking only of demands and expectations he has of Israel and the rest of the world and never about what he and the Palestinians can do in the name of peace was on display as he spoke to President Obama this past week. He spent an inordinate amount of time repeating how if Israel did not release the final twenty-plus terrorist murderers that such defiance and promise breaking would be the final and absolute proof that Israel does not desire peace. Of course there was no mention about his statements for the past month where he repeatedly swore he was only remaining in the negotiations until the last set of terrorist murderers, he calls them heroes, are released and then he will walk out of the talks as he will have received what he demanded and thus there would be no more reason to continue the façade of negotiating with Israel. Then Abbas switched to answer President Obama’s query as to what it would take for Abbas to continue to negotiate where he had an answer at the ready. All he demanded is that Israel makes further releases of terrorists including two of the most heinous terror masters serving multiple life sentences for their planning and executing the murders of tens if not hundreds of Israeli civilians including infants as well as men, women and children. But Abbas was not finished; he also demanded that the United States once again force a building freeze on Israel which was of little surprise as he has been whining that Secretary of State Kerry should force a building freeze on the Israelis since the start of this round of negotiations. The incessant demand for a building freeze by Abbas eventually irked Secretary Kerry to the point he actually made a point of castigating Abbas in a news conference when asked how the peace talks were preceding.

 

There are two things which Mahmoud Abbas will never permit as long as he has breath within his body. The first is an election where he has to compete to keep his elected office as he is fully aware that he would lose and lose big. The second is agree to any peace agreement no matter how generous the Israeli offer which he has proven by refusing the offer from Ehud Olmert when he agreed to present the terms written and offered by President William Jefferson Clinton. Abbas not only refused that offer once but also refused to even consider the follow-up offer which President Clinton pressed the Israelis to allow as he was determined to reach a peace agreement no matter the cost before he left office a few weeks later. The one item that President Clinton, to his credit, would not present was the only item Abbas might accept, the end of Israel as a Jewish State by allowing the full so-called “right of return” for over five-million Arab refugees who are mostly descendants of those Arabs who fled Israel mostly at the behest of the Mufti of Jerusalem to further the ability of numerous Arab nations’ armies who were to attack and destroy the newly declared state of Israel in 1948. They failed.

 

Many wonder why Abbas refuses to even consider any proposal for peace and the answer is the same as it is for why he also refuses to hold elections. Mahmoud Abbas does not wish to die. There, I’ve said the supposedly unspeakable, well, at least not in polite society. He is aware that if he allows an election that Hamas is very likely to win and replace him and then remove any possibility that he might cause problems later. Abbas was further reminded that this would be his fate after Hamas took control of Gaza in a coup and dealt with many of the Fatah and Palestinian Authority leadership from Gaza by giving them a shove enabling them to reach the ground from the top of fourteen story buildings without using the stairs or elevators. Abbas really desires to avoid such an event in his future. The same exact motivation drives Mahmoud Abbas’s phobia against reaching a peace with Israel. He was given a taste of what peace with Israel would mean for his life expectancy when Hamas took control of Gaza soon after the Israelis withdrew all the Jewish residents and the IDF soldiers in the disengagement in 2005 under Prime Minister Sharon. The horrid display of barbarism from Hamas in ridding Gaza of any vestiges of Fatah or Palestinian Authority would frighten any sane human being, yet it also managed to frighten Abbas as well. Abbas is always full of demands but will never, on his life, accept any peace agreement and that would be till death does he depart.

 

Beyond the Cusp