Saturday, December 9, 2017

The Trump Nudge

Michael Lumish

{Also published at Elder of ZiyonJews Down Under, and The Jewish Press.}

Perhaps Donald Trump gave the Arab-Israel conflict the nudge that it needs.

It is fascinating to see the various objections that many pro-Israel Jews have for United States recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Some people oppose the move primarily out of disdain for Trump or because they consider Trump so toxic that he will inevitably poison what otherwise might be a good move. Many Israelis, needless to say, find the whole thing insulting. They know where their own capital is, for chrissake, and they don't need anyone else to affirm it. And everyone, of course, is concerned about violence and one Palestinian-Arab has been killed as I write during this first "Day of Rage."

One of my favorite arguments, however, represented only by a deranged minority, actually considers Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as antisemitic. Imagine that. The idea is that Trump only made this move as a cynical gesture to the Christian Evangelical base. American Evangelicals - or so goes the story - merely appreciate Israel as a vehicle for some crazed eschatological, End-of-Days scenario wherein Jesus will return and show Adolph Hitler and the Catholic Church just how best to deal with the Jews.

It is pure nonsense, of course, but interesting to ponder in a warped kind of way.

And, finally, there is the prominent idea among the politicians and intelligentsia - and the EU and the PA and the UN and the US Department of State and, say, Swedish people - that this will kill the "peace process." I do not know about you, but I increasingly have come to suspect that the purpose of the "peace process" is not so much about peace as it is about the "peace process."

We are coming on twenty-five years since Yitzhak Rabin foolishly shook the hand of that rotten old bastard, Yassir Arafat, and somehow it did not fall off.

In any case, the Arabs are going bonkers, as we are seeing in the streets of eastern Jerusalem and elsewhere, and people will be killed out of Koranically-based religious mania.

{And make no mistake, the entire conflict is grounded in Koranically-based religious mania. Does anyone believe for a single second that if somehow Israel was an Islamic country that the rest of the Islamic world would be so perpetually vexed at its existence? Of course, not.}

But, so long as the Arabs believe that they have a reasonable claim to the City of David they will never stop pushing and they will not stop sending their children into the streets with knives. So long as they believe that Jerusalem is up-for-grabs then they will consider the whole shebang up-for-grabs.

Two of the biggest mistakes that Israel made, historically, were giving up control of the Temple Mount to the Waqf and inviting Arafat back from Tunis for that insidious handshake. The stupidity on both counts was monumental.

Most Democrats and progressives now believe that the Arabs are fighting for "social justice."

They are not.

Jews lived as second and third-class non-citizens under the boot of Arab-Muslim imperial rule for thirteen centuries. It was never better than Jim Crow was at its worst, but lasted far longer. And when Jewish people finally gained their freedom, the Arab world waged bloody war against Israel, in various forms, from 1948 to the present.

The Arabs are not fighting for social justice. They are not fighting for a Palestinian-Arab state.

They are seeking to repair the historical continuance of theocratic-imperial domination over the despised Jewish minority, who many believe murdered their prophet.

This is about religious bigotry, not land.

This is about the crudest form of Koranically-based race hatred imaginable and it has been ongoing since the time of Muhammad.

Arab-Muslim kids in the Middle East far too often receive fear and loathing toward Jews with their mother's milk.

Anti-Defamation League statistics on antisemitism in the Middle East show that the most liberal countries are hateful toward Jews into the 70th percentile, while in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority that number rises into the 90th percentile.

And what this means - as the Palestinian-Arabs never cease to remind us - is that we are facing an implacable foe with the very worst intentions and with what they believe is a divine calling to wrench Jewish control from historically Jewish land... and to do so even within living memory of the Holocaust.

Now, that is quite some brew.

Given the ugly truth above, I increasingly lean in the direction of Daniel Pipes on this question.

I believe it is necessary for Israel to decisively defeat their Palestinian-Arab enemies. And what that means is making it very clear to them that continued efforts to ruin Jewish lives will be met with very sincere consequences.

As for just what those consequences should be, I can only leave to the Israelis.

14 comments:

  1. ***** Articles about Pro-Israel Arabs and Pro-Israel Muslims from Aish HaTorah: *****

    Mr. Abdullah Al-Hadlaq a Kuwaiti Writer says Israel is Legitimate:
    www.aish.com/jw/me/Kuwaiti-Writer-Israel-Is-a-Legitimate-State-Not-an-Occupier.html

    How Mr. Kasim Hafeez became a Muslim Zionist:
    www.aish.com/jw/me/Muslim_Zionist_and_Proud.html

    Why Mr. Noor Dahri is a Muslim Zionist:
    www.aish.com/jw/me/Why-Im-a-Muslim-Zionist.html

    Mr. Walid Shoebat an Ex-Muslim-Pro-Terrorist is Now Pro-Israel:
    www.aish.com/jw/me/48900422.html

    Farhana Rahman is a Female Muslim Zionist:
    www.aish.com/jw/id/A-Muslim-Zionists-Message-of-Hope.html

    Dema Taya an Arab-Muslim Female Defends Israel on Arab News:
    www.aish.com/jw/me/Muslim-Woman-Defends-Israel-on-Arab-News-Channel.html

    Dr. Qanta Ahmed a Female Muslim Defends Israel:
    www.aish.com/jw/me/The-Accidental-Muslim-Zionist.html

    Sarah Zoabi is Proud to be a Muslim Zionist:
    www.aish.com/jw/me/Sarah-Zoabi-Proud-Muslim-Zionist.html

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  2. Replies
    1. Yup.

      The kind of consequences that demonstrate a sincere intention to prevent the bloody murder of Jews in the future.

      A sincere deterrence policy.

      The kind of thing that will encourage adults not to send their kids into the streets with knives.

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  3. One big thing that could be done is to end the pay for slay program whereby Jew killers are paid for life. The Taylor Force Act was a step in that direction but evidently it has been so watered down as to be meaningless. Funny how only the US, of all the nations in the world has seen fit to address this problem. All the other nations happily pay the Pals so they can pay the Jew killers. So you know, it's not Israel that needs to act. And if Israel DOES act, all those nations will condemn Israel. And if a war erupts, those nations will try and shut down Israel before they can inflict a decisive defeat to the enemy. Sadly, it's not just the Pals that are the enemy, nor just the Arabs/Muslims.

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  4. You know, Mr. Trump deserves a guest post on this blog, because he did what you do best Michael- Acknowledge the Obvious, Lol!

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    Replies
    1. I think that you are right. Welcome to Israel Thrives. Please drive safely.

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  5. But these are all facts. Facts don't matter. None of this has ever had the least to do with facts; trying to argue your way around that is pointless.

    Here are some facts. Think back to Rhodesia in the 1960's and '70's. Think about what you think you thought about that time.

    Blacks had the highest standard of living for blacks, in Africa
    Blacks had the highest rate of participation in secondary and post secondary education for blacks in Africa
    Blacks had the vote - admittedly in a flawed system
    75% of the police force was black
    50% of the Army was black including officers, except for one special forces group the RLI or Rhodesian Light Infantry. But an even more elite group the Selous Scouts was fully integrated
    In Salisbury, the capital, blacks lived in some of the most exclusive neighborhoods
    Besides South Africa, Rhodesia was the only country that derived more than 10% of its GDP from manufacturing
    The Ian Smith government in 1969 proposed a slow transition to majority rule. It was rejected in favor of 10 more years of war

    This is not an apology for Rhodesia. It's a statement of facts. These are facts. Facts which never mattered to anyone but the Rhodesians. Because the battle wasn't about facts.

    Israel isn't about facts. It was never about facts and it never will be about facts.

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    Replies
    1. Whereas the "Palestine" narrative is built upon the counterfactual. One small step for man, a giant leap backward for mankind.

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    2. Point being, being armed with facts isn't helpful. Arguments about history aren't useful. Statements about the Biblical history of Israel aren't useful. Facts about terrorism aren't useful. The factual Nazi history of Arab violence isn't useful. It's the wrong approach.

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    3. Trudy,
      Assuming for a moment that all this is true, then what would be the right approach?

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    4. You have to appeal to emotion, you have to be a propagandist, an activist, a liar of sorts.And you have to pick one or two things and bang on a hundred million times. That is the tactic of the Arabs and it's quite effective. "occupation occupation", "right of return" and they say it a billion times. That is their first last and only response to any statement or question or fact. Just shout it and shout it and shout it. And it doesn't matter what you pick. It could be 'terrorism' or 'racism' or 'gay rights' or 'women's rights' or any of the 3 million things Jew haters get wrapped around the axle about. Pick one or two and spend every second of every minute of every hour of every day from every corner of the globe screaming it over and over and over and over millions and millions and millions of times. Anyone asks you a question, your only response is that one phrase.

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    5. I agree with you about that. But I wouldn't say that facts don't matter, and facts can appeal to emotion. Picking the right facts to repeat over and over is the way to go, I believe. I remember making this very point to someone over a rather hostile interview of an Israeli official on the BBC (more like an interrogation).

      I am reminded of the PLO propaganda campaign to use the phrase "illegal occupation" in every interview. The result is now that the world believes that an entirely legal situation is an "illegal occupation."

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    6. Jeff writes:

      "Picking the right facts to repeat over and over is the way to go..."

      The right facts include 1,300 years of dhimmitude.

      We need to bang it into people's thick skulls that the Jewish people lived under conditions generally worse than Jim Crow for a period far longer than did black people in the United States.

      We also need to bang it into people's thick skulls that this is not some conflict between a Great Imperialist Zionist Superpower versus the Land of the Ewoks.

      It is, in fact, a Koranically-based conflict pitting the far larger Arab and Muslim aggressor population against the Jewish minority in the Middle East.

      Trudy says:

      "you have to pick one or two things and bang on a hundred million times."

      Those are the two things that I would bang the crap out of.

      We need to expand the boundaries of the discussion in terms of both periodization and geographical area.

      1) The Arab-Muslim majority aggression against the Jewish minority is ongoing since the time of Muhammad.

      2) This is not a conflict between Israelis and Palestinian-Arabs. On the contrary, this is a war of aggression by the Arab majority against the despised Jewish minority in the Middle East.

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    7. Mike,
      As I finished writing my comment I was thinking of you and how you consistently hammer home those points.

      Take a look at today's article at UKMediaWatch to see how out of hand things have gotten.

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