The snippet below was written by Elior Levy and published by Y-Net.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that on August 13 Israel will release 26 Palestinian prisoners it has been holding since before the signing of the Oslo agreement.Has Israel given up on its very reason to be?
Palestinian media outlets published Erekat's comments on Saturday. He was quoted as saying that the 26 prisoners will be released in the first of four phases that will see a total of 104 inmates freed by Israel as a gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of the official resumption of direct peace talks. Israel refused to release all detainees at the same time, Erekat added.
From the end of World War II until the present Israel went through extraordinary lengths in order to track down former Nazis because those Nazis were responsible for the slaughter of Jewish people and, yet, somehow - against all reason - the Netanyahu administration is allowing captured anti-Semitic Jihadi murderers out of Israeli prisons.
These are people who, out of a genocidally racist agenda, have murdered innocent Jewish Israeli civilians. These are people who should not be let free, but who should remain in prison for the rest of their lives because their crimes were heinous. How is it possible that someone like Benjamin Netanyahu, whose brother was the only Israeli soldier killed during the famous raid on Entebbe, would do such a thing?
Is it possible that he agrees with Tzipi Livni that “nothing can stop true believers”?
{Which, by the way, is definitely among the stupidest remarks to ever come out of the mouth of any politician anywhere.}
Does he honestly believe that this hideous act will lead to something that resembles peace?
Is this some sort-of concession to the Obama administration as a quid pro quo for standing with Israel against Iran's nuclear ambitions? And, if it is, just why in this world would the American administration need a pay-off for standing up for its own national interests? This, of course, assumes that Barack Obama considers a non-nuclear Iran to be in America's national interests; a notion which, as of this moment, is entirely unclear.
There is something very, very sick about this recent deal. Unlike the FresnoZionist, I did not oppose the release of prisoners for Gilad Shalit, but at least with that deal Israel received something in return. Shalit was, in fact, released by Hamas - much to everyone's astonishment - despite the fact that it looked as if he was walking out of Treblinka, he was so skinny and pale.
But what does Israel get in return for releasing this batch of murderers? Netanyahu gets to enjoy some quality time with Arab dictator Mahmoud Abbas. The allegedly oppressed and persecuted "Palestinians" need to be bribed to even negotiate about the size of the negotiating table, as Caroline Glick put it.
I never thought that this kind of thing was in Netanyahu's character because I thought that he was stronger than this. Apparently, I was wrong - which occasionally happens.
I consider this to be a crucial error because it sends all the wrong messages to all the wrong people. It tells the Arabs that given sufficient pressure Israel will fold even to the extent of betraying its own people by releasing the very murderers of those people. To the EU and the UN, which hold Jewish lives to be more or less worthless, it says that the Israeli government also holds Jewish lives to be more or less worthless. To the hostile American administration under Barack Obama, it says that Israel is compliant and will do what it is told.
And what all that adds up to is abject failure.
There is no gaining peace through weakness. There are no successful negotiations via capitulation. The message that Netanyahu is sending is that Israel will get down on its hands and knees in order to beg mercy from implacable enemies who have never shown the slightest indication that they will give any mercy.
The Jews of the Middle East suffered thirteen centuries of second and third-class citizenship under the boot of Arab-Muslim imperial rule from the time of Muhammed until the fall of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Directly after that the great Arab majority - which outnumbers Jewish people by a factor of 60 or 70 to 1 - launched a war against the traditionally oppressed Jewish minority in that part of the world that continues to this day.
As a Jewish non-Israeli, therefore, I begin to wonder what the purpose of standing up for Israel is, if Israel refuses to stand up for itself?
Martin Sherman, of the Jerusalem Post and the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies, is calling for Netanyahu's resignation or removal from office.
He writes:
It is difficult to overstate the gravity of the ramifications of the Netanyahu government’s decision.Furthermore, it should be noted, that Israel will get no love or appreciation for this terrible concession. The Arabs, for religious reasons, will not decide that Jews are worthy to live among them in freedom and will continue to incite genocidal hatred toward us. The Europeans will still consider Israel to be a racist, imperialist, colonialist, apartheid, militarist, racist regime.
It sends an unequivocal message to the Palestinians, the Arabs and the international community that no position articulated by Israel need be taken seriously. For Israel has proved that no matter how outlandish, outrageous, macabre or scandalous the demands of its adversaries, the Jews will eventually submit – irrespective of how resolutely they feign opposition to them initially.
And Barack Obama will continue to lead from behind in the delegitimization of the Jewish State.
In my opinion, this was an exceedingly counterproductive move because peace will need to come through strength.
It will not come through weakness.
You will not stop standing up for Israel, even if it refuses to stand up for itself. So why do you imply it?
ReplyDeleteNot that the Palestinians and Arabs are unclear that Israel can and will stand up for itself.
There is a level at which Israel will not join in being like their adversaries. That is what makes Israel a force for good.
It's fine to state disagreement with the policy of releasing criminals, but no one knows what will result.
For example, I read that Israel will offer 86% to the PA.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/170310#.Uf1deW0a408
Maybe getting the PA to the table to make this offer will allow Israel to use it as the parameter for the unilateral action of declaring those borders.
Maybe Israel will declare at the UN that it has made every effort and now feels entitled to act as a sovereign state over that territory, pursuant to the UN Charter.
So long as the Arabs and especially the Palestinians act as usual, with the honor mentality, there will be an opportunity to shame them, to create more momentum against their privileged status as the victim.
When it comes to rolling over, look at the European states. In comparison, Israel, when it must, will stand its ground, as the flotilla and Gaza actions have shown.
You will not stop standing up for Israel, even if it refuses to stand up for itself. So why do you imply it?
DeleteFrustration? Disgust? Horror?
A terrible sense of injustice?
But you are right, School, I am not going to stop standing up for Israel, but I have to say that there is a part of me that is beginning to very much resent this dynamic.
The reason that I try to stand up for Israel is presumably for the same reason that you do. We are a tiny minority and if we do not stand up for ourselves no one else will.
You know that it is true.
Israel makes concession after concession, decade upon decade, and all it gets in return is bile and threats and rocket attacks upon its citizenry.
So long as the Arabs and especially the Palestinians act as usual, with the honor mentality, there will be an opportunity to shame them, to create more momentum against their privileged status as the victim.
You are considerably more optimistic about this potential than am I. You seem to think that the Arabs are overplaying their hand and that the Europeans and progressives will wake up to this scam.
I'm just not seeing it.
I'm not saying that it is impossible, but the Europeans and the progressives will not stop seeing the Jews of the Middle East as the aggressors until we place the conflict within the context of the long history of the Arab-Muslim persecution of the Jewish people in the Middle East.
The problem that we have is that virtually no one is doing so.
We need to make that context central to the discussion.
Do you agree?
Whether the Europeans and 'progressives' wake up to the scam, or not, is completely irrelevant, in my opinion.
DeleteMy hope is that Israel uses this opportunity to its fullest, and that when Mr. Abbas, The Dictator of Maybe Half the Palestinians, screeches "no!" once again, his supporters can be shown for the fools that they are, and the Israeli government can also use that opportunity to take the unilateral action we all know needs to be taken in order to finally bring this stage of the conflict to a close.
Let's finally take "no!" for an answer.
All of Jerusalem, and its suburbs, remain in Israel. All Jewish neighborhoods within close proximity of the demarcation line are brought to within Israel's final borders.
The Palestinians could have had much more, but they chose to blow it each and every time.
So it's time to finally let them deal with the wreckage of their own decades of mistakes, and hopefully we'll maybe even stop funding their doing so. There's an idea, eh?
It is not exactly optimism, but taking the situation as is and making it work for the better, rather than the worse.
DeleteThere are some that will never open their eyes. There are others who can see but need a push in the right direction.
States in Europe are starting to feel what Israel does. That will continue.
People all over are getting tired of Palestinian victimhood.
Part of changing the dynamic that then makes the Jews the indigenous and rightful owners of the land who have been deprived and persecuted by the Muslim world is to allow people to understand that Palestinians as victims is a hoax and, further, that they usurp resources better applied to other suffering.
I would rather follow this course than to blame Israel for trying to make peace. And I know that Israel will not hesitate to act with hard power when that need arises.
Jay,
Delete"Whether the Europeans and 'progressives' wake up to the scam, or not, is completely irrelevant, in my opinion."
I agree with every word in the comment you wrote above except the very first sentence.
The perceptions of the conflict by the Europeans, as a group, and the progressive-left, as a group, is significant. It's not the only thing that matters - so I do not want to overemphasize it - but it still very important for reasons having to do with diplomacy, trade and economics, and military cooperation.
The current phase of the long Arab war against the Jews of the Middle East is primarily delegitimization.
School,
"People all over are getting tired of Palestinian victimhood."
Are they?
I hope that you're right, but I do not know that you are right. In fact, it seems to me that the trend has been going in the opposite direction for quite a number of years now.
Remember, it's not just about the rise of Palestinianism, per se, but of the rise of political Islam, more generally, and the fact that the two are intertwined.
We have an EU that cannot bring itself to declare Hezbollah a terrorist entity, despite the fact that they blow up Jews on buses in Europe, and we have an American administration that favored the rise of the Brotherhood and that supplies weaponry to Islamists.
I am simply not at all certain that you are correct.
If they could get a state, watch how fast people would run from them. Except for those who have nothing else to do but hate Israel as an outgrowth of the West.
DeleteThe double standard of the "advocates" of human rights is not unnoticed, even among themselves. The Palestinian cause is sucking up the air deserved for others. This may not be the norm now. But there is no reason why it should not be.
I hope that Israel offers 86%, then uses that to declare borders and take away the false Palestinian grievance.
No doubt there is the larger Islamic slant involved, especially for Europe and involving Christians. They are in the line of fire. Much of the environment in Europe is colored by the fear of violence.
Overall, the fight between Muslims will claim most of their energy and is far from over. Because it seems they are incapable of letting anything go.
Information that exposes the reality becomes more prevalent and more grow aware of the dynamics all the time. It may have to get worse to wake up the most ignorant, but the edifice for these relativistic and critical theories is crumbling when confronted by the harsh reality that the violence and aggression will not subside.
August 13th is still 10 days away. I'm not saying it won't happen perhaps Netanyahu gambled that since the Arabs will blow off the talks anyway, 26 is not, nationally, a huge price to pay. On the other hand since Obama and the CIA are overtly working against Israeli interests in Syria by leaking strikes against missile facilities to the New York Times, they should be coupling these talks to a temporary halt in intelligence sharing.
ReplyDeleteAll in all though the talks will amount to nothing, everyone agrees so continuing this sham should be at least for some other productive purpose. Maybe Livni can tell Kerry that the 26 mass murderers will be deported to Washington DC.
If the released murderers are exiled, I actually think its virtue.
ReplyDeleteSpending their days in Israel's Club Med prison isn't punishment - its an extended vacation.
Israeli "justice" has always been a grotesque joke!
I would hope School's potential scenario comes about.
ReplyDeleteThough I do not support this prisoner release (like you, I did support same in the Gilad Shalit situation), I would like to think that this can be used to put reasonable people in the position of finally having to accept that it is not Israel which is the intransigent party here.
Those who don't accept that obvious fact will never be on our side, and they'll expose themselves for exactly what they are after The Dictator of Some Palestinians once again refuses any sort of deal to end the 'oppression' he clearly doesn't want to end.
As always, it's somewhat uncomfortable for me to weigh in on Israeli security issues as an American, and I don't want to say it's 'worth it' to release dozens of terrorists back onto the streets (even if they don't return to terrorism, none of these heinous people deserve to ever enjoy freedom again), but if that's what it takes to go the unilateral route after these 'negotiations' fail once again, then I suppose in the end it could potentially possibly maybe (enough qualifiers for ya?) turn out to at least be something which led to a positive outcome.
(I'm hoping there's a bunch of stuff going on behind the scenes here to which you and I and everyone else are not privy)
DeleteIn terms of what? The moment these 'palestinians' get a country you think everyone will cheer and embrace the Jews and stop demanding we all die? Here is what will happen:
DeleteEvery Arab nation expels every last 'palestininan' at gunpoint if need be to 'return' to their homeland. The 'palestinians' who are there already will turn them away as 'illegal occupiers'.
Pressure will build on Israel to manage the situation for them. The EU will scream that their so called 'right of return' is a fait accompli and will demand 4 million 'palestinians' be not only allowed into Israel but permanently put on the dole. This will trigger a regional war.
The 'palestinians' will be crammed into their 'state' to become a bona fide humanitarian disaster. Counter intuitively, Hamas will take as many in as they can because no one cares what they do to their own whereas the western media has more contacts with Ramallah.
The usual parties in the UN will of course declare the Gaza scenario a 'concentration camp'.
And so on and on. And realistically, even if I am completely wrong on every point and 'palestine' becomes a paradise on earth, the west, the EU and UN will scream even louder for the Jews to capitulate based on the assertion they're just friendly teddy bear vegan hippie peaceniks and the big bad blood fanged Jews are evil meanies.
See there is only one goal - the death of Jews. That's the only point and the only direction they head in. A state, not a state, 2 state 3 state, doesn't matter in the least. Those are just options along the way.
The Jews will not be embraced, but it is the embrace of the Palestinians that needs to end.
DeletePalestine will be like the other Islamic states, no paradise, but Israel will be able to make demands on it that are not available presently.
And the so-called right of return will be dead for all intents and purposes.
Thematically, in the way that Arab states all experience their own horrid misfortune, oppression and degradation in similar ways, yes they will be like all the others. But even here they suffer a distinct disadvantage. They're already more than a hundred years, socially behind everyone else. The other Arab 'states' began to form during WW 1 and have had all that time to stumble forward. The 'palestinians' have existed in a state of permanent infancy for 60+ years where the west has told them nothing is their responsibility, noting is expected of them, no wish of theirs is ever to be discounted as long as there's someone else to blame and someone else to executed on that dream for them. There is simply no way for their society to make up ground at this point.
ReplyDelete