Time to Stand Up

Mike L.

{Originally published at the Times of Israel.}

White House: Israeli settlement plan 'counterproductive' 

"We reiterate our longstanding opposition to settlements and east Jerusalem construction and announcements," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said...

"While the Palestinians are doing everything possible to keep the two-state solution alive, including with our vote in the United Nations, yesterday, the Israeli government is doing everything possible to destroy it," Erekat stated. 

The Obama administration has learned absolutely nothing over the previous four years and continues to justify Arab-Palestinian racism against Jews by agreeing with them that the Jewish people must not be allowed to live, and thus build, even in certain areas of Jerusalem, forget Judea and Samaria.

What is "counterproductive" here is not that Jews are normal human beings who therefore build housing for themselves, but the criminalization of that which is considered perfectly normal behavior for everyone on the planet other than Jews.

What's perhaps most disheartening about this scenario is that "progressive" Jews take the lead in demonizing those of us who live where neither Mahmoud Abbas, nor Barack Obama, want Jews to live.

I say, enough of this sickening charade. The reason that there is no peace is not because Jews build housing for themselves in Judea, but because the Palestinians are racist to the core, even to the extent that huge numbers of them believe that Jews are the devil that must be destroyed. The Hamas charter calls specifically for the genocide of the Jews, in the name of G-d, no less, yet the Obama administration still supports Hamas.

I think maybe it's time that Israel should withdraw from the UN because the UN is, itself, counterproductive toward the well-being of the Jewish people. Furthermore, we should tell the US government that Israel no longer needs the annual 3 billion dollars that it provides to its own war industries through weapons donations. Israel is fully capable of providing for itself the war materiel that it may need and should not rely on the United States because when it happens, as is now the case, that we have an unfriendly president in the White House, that president can act in ways that are counterproductive to the well-being of the Jewish state.

The US just stood with Israel in opposing the Palestinian bid for upgraded status in the United Nations, but this was not because Barack Obama is a strong and supportive ally with Israel. We've seen over the last four years that he most certainly is not. The US stands with Israel despite Obama's hostility because of the overwhelming support of the American people, particularly the Evangelical Christians, who are much despised by western progressives.

It seems to me that this is the moment for some bold actions on the part of the Israeli government. Announcing further building is a good step in the right direction, but it is a small step. The Jewish state of Israel, and the Jewish people, more generally, need to free ourselves of these shackles. We need to free ourselves from the Oslo Delusion, first and foremost. There will be no negotiated settlement because this is not what the Palestinians want. What they want is victory and they believe that if they keep the pressure up on all fronts they can get that victory. Israel needs to show them in no uncertain terms that this is simply not the case.

We need to free ourselves from the United Nations because the UN exists for precious little other reason than to harass the Jewish state of Israel. Despite twenty Israeli formal letters begging the UN to take some action against the rocket fire coming out of Gaza, they did nothing and they said nothing. Through their silence the world community, via the UN, gave its passive assent to Hamas's genocidal practices. Israel should thus withdraw from that heinous body.

And, finally, the state of Israel should free itself of this president of the United States. I'm sorry, but the Obama administration does not get to tell Jewish people where we may, or may not, be allowed to live on ancient Jewish land. It's racist. It's anti-Semitic. And it should not be tolerated, certainly not by Jews.

This does not mean that Israel should isolate itself. It shouldn't and the fact of the matter is that Israel has greater economic and diplomatic ties to the rest of the world, today, than it has at any point in its history. Those ties should be cultivated and expanded, but that does not mean that all ties should be. There comes a point in all of our lives where we need to stand up, say "NO," and then walk away.

We, as Jews, Israeli and diaspora united, must find the cajones necessary to stand up for ourselves because if we do not, no one else will.

That much is certain.