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BloggingBy Michael B
5 months ago
In a perfect world all matters would either be good or at least we would be making serious headway towards that end. Men would work and make enough money women would raise caring sensitive children, there would be little to no crime, and happiness would reign supreme. Unfortunately we don't all cherish the same things. For some of us we are not quick to forget the past and move towards a future of compromise and trust. Others of us though maintain hope no matter what, and push a certain ideal reality based on that hope. Specifically I am taking issue right now with the peace camp. Its seems that no matter what the Arabs do and say we know they know what they really want and what their true intentions are. I mean who doesn't want to prosper and live a healthy long peaceful life? Who would rather live in misery without any hope of a brighter tomorrow? The sad truth though is the Palestinians that's who. The left will tell you it is just Hamas which is an obstacle to compromise Fatah can be reasoned with I mean after all didn't they sign the Oslo Accords with us? I know! They actually say this. It does not seem to matter that they didn't keep to it nor ever had any intentions of keeping to it. It also doesn't seem to matter that they took our olive branch of hope and peace and turned it to one of the bloodiest horrific times in our nations history. From suicide bombers, shooting attacks, and rockets at schools nothing was out of bounds for them. Despite our military supremacy it wasn't til we built walls set up road blocks and bombed the crap out of Gaza have things quieted down. A few weeks ago there was a Fatah council meeting. It was touted in the news as a major achievement of bringing factions together for the first time in twenty years. The people that got together wore suits and not Kefiyahs. The people that got together had after all signed treaties with us and as a result collected billions of dollars of foreign aid. So hope again was in the air. Will they talk about compromise? Will they talk about perusing peace, will they decry terrorism and all the very things we know keeps any idea of peace a concept at best a sad joke at worse? The Arabs to their credit were very honest in what they thought and what the plans in fact are for the future of Fatah and by extension the bulk of the Palestinian Arabs. No to compromise on Jerusalem, No to compromise with the right of return, no to the recognition of Israel, and now the kicker we in fact killed Arafat with the help of exotic french poisons! Now one might think as a member of the left this would be a crushing blow. I mean if the "moderates" aren't willing to compromise what hope do we have with Hamas and the extremists? Have no fear dear reader one must never underestimate the intellectual gymnastics and the power of hope, and its effect on the delusional left winger. First of all they will say why do the Arabs have to recognize Israel are they suddenly Zionists? I mean we are here aren't we. Somehow it is missed that recognition of Israel means giving up the right of return and the future ability to rewage war with Israel. Secondly they will tell you that their words are simply language not actually the will of the people which is a separate factual concept. Really truly unequivocally they want what we want. An end to the conflict and hope for a future free of pain death and destruction. Or is it conceivable that maybe just maybe they actually say what they mean and mean what they say. If I were an Arab I would feel so frustrated by this in a sense. It's almost as if we treat them like stupid children who don't know what's good for them and it is our role to be patient and to teach them. If your child throws a fit you don't kick him out of the house right? The reality of the situation is that they don't want peace and an end to the conflict. The conflict keeps their problems our fault. The conflict keeps the same corrupt murderous leaders in charge. The conflict keeps the rest of the world breathing down our necks, while at the same time they continue to pump millions into the Palestinian enterprise being the biggest part of the Palestinian GDP. So getting back to hope how do we maintain it how do we go about not losing it? The left will tell you we need to get rid of the settlers and then there will be peace. It doesn't matter that this technique has been proven to only bolster the terrorists and make them less likely to compromise. Oh and never mind the uprooting of all the lives of these Israeli citizens who are the last of the living Zionists left in this country. If you press a member of this crowd with these statements they get very defensive. What do you propose! Whats your answer? Do you want to kill them all (Arabs), do you think the world will let you push them into Jordan, do you want to live by the sword for the rest of your life? In honesty these are fair statements without easy answers. The best answer I have is as follows: In the absence of the right choice the wrong choice is certainly not a better decision. We need to do whats right for us. We need to make sure that we are doing our best to keep our citizens secure. The idea of Jews not being able to build in Jerusalem is insane. The moment we adopt the worlds opinion and minimize our claim to this country it will be the beginning of the end and one day not that far off it will come down to Tel Aviv as well. As far as I know there are still some Arab houses out there in the sunny Merkaz that will one day need to be liberated as well. |
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World AffairsPolitics & OpinionsBy Michael B
6 months ago
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Who wants to fly over Saudi Arabia? Recently President Obama and his administration have been slowly trying to coax certain Arab countries into making concessions to Israel. An example of one of these concessions is allowing Israeli planes to fly over Saudi Arabia en route to somewhere else or who knows maybe even to Saudi Arabia itself. There are several others like trade agreements or diplomatic relations being floated around the Arab world as possible “soft” concessions necessary to be made in order to jump start the peace process here in Israel. To date there hasn’t been much success in getting the Arab states to move at all on this front. I am confident though that President Obama will pull of some victory down the line of getting some small gesture on an Arab Government in this direction. Trust me though it will not be anything huge and it won’t be said very loud to that governments people. So the question will arise ok now what. Let’s say for arguments sake we are allowed to fly over Saudi Arabia, does that mean that we have to commit national suicide by giving into whatever demands the Palestinians are holding onto, be it right of return or exclusive control of East Jerusalem free of Jews? Is it just me or have we not already offered them everything else short of that? So if these are our red lines as they should be the point of talking peace right now is a waste of time and dangerous. Yet for the holy grail of dialogue we continue to play our side of the game. Due to the security barrier more efficient monitoring and an overall assault on the terrorist infrastructure violence coming from Arab populated areas of the “land” of Israel have gone down. Their economy has gotten better and as a result gestures were made to ease movement by removing road hindrances like checkpoints and barriers of other kinds. One might say as a result life here in Israel has gotten a little bit more “peaceful”. There are no suicide bombers, shooting have gone down to a few random episodes and the only real resistance we see are kids throwing rocks at cars here and there. On other fronts Hamas is still licking its wounds and trying to restore their power amongst the people of Gaza. As a result the rockets have slowed down to a trickle. Now don’t get me wrong there should be no rockets at all yet improvement is improvement. On our Northern Front Hezbollah boasts as being as strong as ever but at the moment they aren’t firing their rockets either. As for the Syrian border there is a cold quiet. We know they hate us and want to avenge their defeats yet they fear us enough not to provoke us directly. So in getting back to the peace talks I again as the question what do we stand to gain versus what we stand to lose? If we give in to the Palestinians then we relinquish our G-d given right to the land of Israel and we make our defensive ability weaker and a whole lot more vulnerable. Let’s not also forget the last 20 years of peacemaking and where it led us here in Israel. Even the most left wing Israeli knows that the right of return would end us democratically. We also know that pulling thousands of Jewish Citizens out of their homes all 600,000 of us including of course East Jerusalem is not only highly unfeasible it’s national suicide as well. Even if the rest of the world could push us to that place civil war here would break out as a result. So we are back to square one. What’s the point of hoping that the rest of the world will accept us as a country if we make the mistakes that causes that very same country and its independence to be taken away from us? I personally am content to keep the Golan and its 30,000 Israeli inhabitants and maintain my right as an Israeli to live in all parts of the land of Israel including I dare say the holiest city of the world Jerusalem. Even if it means not being able to fly over Saudi Arabia. |
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Law and SocietyMiddle EastBy Michael B
6 months ago
In thinking of what it means to have sovereignty and independence one has to imagine at the very least that a country and its people which has survived 61 years and several wars would be prideful about building in their own capital. Yet there is strong international condemnation and certainly amongst the left here as well who see the establishment and the right as fascist war mongers who want nothing more then to do horrible things to an innocent unassuming population (also none as the "Israeli" Arabs). When in doubt one should look towards the law as guidance, so lets see who actually owns the land? oh wait the land is in fact owned by Jews the same way much other land is owned by Jews on both sides of the green line. Just because something is bad PR doesn't mean we don't have to enforce a pesky little thing we call the law. If the Jews own the place then its theirs. Do we prevent Arab citizens from buying apt's in west Jerusalem? If Jerusalem is undivided and we mean it then that's that. If not then 200-300 thousand Jews living in post 67 Jerusalem myself included are in the same boat! Hey anyone still interested in Zionism? |
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