And so, now the Israeli government has dragged Jews from their homes in Gaza, homes that the same government had encouraged them to build. But to what end?
To please George W. Bush? Surely, not to bring peace to Israel. For every territorial concession the Sharon government makes, just brings total war a little closer.
One does not need to cite Scripture, in order to defend Israel's right to keep the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, but rather only the traditional laws of war. Since time immemorial, to the victor have gone the spoils, including land.
Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, had all massed tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks on Israel's borders in the spring of 1967, in their third attempt to annihilate the Jewish state, and drive the Jews into the sea. In 1948, the Jews of Israel had prevailed, and again in 1956. This time, Israel's victory was the most spectacular of all. In six days in June, 1967, she crushed the Arab armies, and seized land in the Sinai from Egypt; the Golan Heights from Syria; and East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank from Jordan.
At that point, there were no "Palestinians." But all of a sudden, Arabs who had had no problem being ruled by the Jordanians became "Palestinians," an "imagi-nation." Anti-Semites the world over, repeated the term "occupation," until others followed suit. If the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are "Occupied Territories," then Americans live in Occupied Texas and Occupied California, and Poles live in Occupied East Prussia.
But when Arabs and their anti-Semitic supporters speak of "Occupied Palestine," they do not mean the Gaza Strip and the West Bank; they mean all of Israel. In their textbooks, all of Israel is identified as "Palestine." They wear jewelry in the shape of Israel, which they also refer to as "Palestine." They speak always of "Palestine" as running "from the sea to the river."
The reason the Arabs in the Gaza Strip and on the West Bank became a "nation," was because Moslem Arabs have no problem accepting the most oppressive Arab government, but they would and regularly do commit suicide, before accepting the rule of Jews ... or of democracy, for that matter. As Zev Chafets once observed, Arabs don't demonstrate demanding more democracy; they demand more tyranny!
In 1978, Israel, ever hungry for peace, let Jimmy Carter push it into giving up the part of the Sinai that it had won from Egypt, the only oil-rich land that it had ever possessed. To what end? So that Egypt, which could not beat her militarily, could turn a military defeat into a diplomatic victory?
Flying Elephants
Fool that I was, I supported Carter's mischief at the time. I even had the only political dream of my life (that I can recall). Three elephants were floating in the sky, the tail of one linked to the trunk of the one behind it. One elephant was the U.S., one was Egypt, and one was Israel.
It was the fall of 1978. I had just transferred to SUNY Stony Brook, and lived off campus with a couple of Jewish psycho cases. The posted index card for the house they wished to share, identified them as "a couple of Zionist students." At Stony Brook, unless someone stated otherwise, it was taken for granted that he -- whether Jew or Gentile -- supported Israel. For someone to underscore such support, meant he was from the lunatic, JDL (Meir Kahane's Jewish Defense League) fringe.
Stew was from Chicago, and Joseph, who called himself "Jake," was from Brooklyn.
When Jake picked me up at the railroad station to show me the house, he grilled me. "Are you a Zionist?"
Well, I said, nervously, I support the existence of the state of Israel.
"You're a Zionist."
But a few weeks later, when the evening news was discussing the Carter "peace" talks, I mentioned, by the way, "I think the Palestinians ought to have a homeland of their own."
Jake's face instantly revealed homicidal rage.
Well, things were pretty intolerable after that, and Jake told me I'd have to move out at the end of the semester. Either he or Stew even stole some of my things.
As time went on, I learned that the Arabs had no intention of making peace with the Jews of Israel, but intended only to subject them to the death of a thousand cuts, to take concession after concession (the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights ...), until the Jews were too weak to successfully defend themselves.
So, now I'm a "psycho," too.
And now, Ariel Sharon is ultimately rewarding the Arab terrorists in the territories. And to what end? Sharon may seek peace, but his give-back will only strengthen the hand of, and inspire those whose life goal is to annihilate the Jews of Israel. Which is to say, all those Arabs who call themselves "Palestinians."
But they will still want jobs working for the same Jews whom they plan on murdering.
Those Who "Don't Give a Damn about Politics"
On the Wednesday Nightline, John Donvan, whom I usually find honest and decent, did a propaganda piece from the Gaza Strip, on behalf of the Arabs. Donvan contrasted those Arabs who were political, who celebrated with masks and "Palestinian" flags in the streets of Gaza City, and those who "don't give a damn about politics," at the beach.
"You celebrate, according to your style. You go to the beach, if like most Palestinians, you don't give a damn about politics or power games and just want to know what it's like to feel normal someday.
[Masked men wearing military fatigues and brandishing machine guns shout in celebration, in the streets of Gaza City.]
"You march, if you're among the groups actively fighting Israel. Palestinian Islamic Jihad does suicide bombs. There was no getting in their way, when they celebrated the pull-out.
"You put the best face on things if you're the successor to Yasser Arafat, the one that George Bush likes. And your message is peace via negotiation and compromise."
And yet, the images gave the lie to Donvan's words. At the shore, boats cruise by, adorned exclusively with big, "Palestinian" flags. On the beach, stand more such flags. Donvan speaks fondly of nationalist Arab colleagues at Nightline. I'm not sure I saw a single Arab "who [didn't] give a damn about politics" in the entire segment.
Donvan interviewed an armed Islamic Palestinian Jihad "militant" (read: terrorist) in fatigues in Gaza City, who insisted that the "resistance" (read: terrorism) "put pressure" on the Israelis to leave Gaza. Then he interviewed a "moderate" Arab political commentator, who said the Israelis were "not ready to talk about Jerusalem, about refugees ..."
To talk about "Jerusalem" and "refugees"?
Those are the same maximalist demands of those who openly seek the destruction of Israel. They demand that the Jews share Jerusalem with the Arabs, and that the Jews give the Arabs control of the Old City, where the Jewish shrines are situated that the Arabs under Jordanian rule used as latrines, and which they have more recently jubilantly defiled. These are the same Arabs who try to kill Jews whenever the latter seek to pray at Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount, which the Arabs refuse to so much as acknowledge is a Jewish site.
"The refugees" is shorthand for "the right of return," the demand that every Arab claiming to have lived in Israel before the 1948 war, or to be a descendant of such an Arab, be permitted to emigrate to Israel, be granted citizenship, and take over Israel from within, via a combination of bombs and ballots, and kill off or drive off all of the Jews of Israel.
Thus, the difference between an Arab "militant" and an Arab "moderate" is that one wears military fatigues, while the other wears a well-tailored business suit. Mark Steyn once reported that when he asked a prominent "moderate" Moslem if, 500 years after the Moslem Moors had been driven out of Spain, he would recognize the current Spanish government, the "moderate" Moslem replied, Of course, not.
Twenty-three years ago, almost to the day, an American politician -- perhaps the last -- displayed decency and common sense on this issue. "In the pre-1967 borders, Israel was barely ten miles wide at its narrowest point. The bulk of Israel's population lived within artillery range of hostile Arab armies." The speaker added, "I am not about to ask Israel to live that way again." That was on September 1, 1982. The speaker, addressing America, was President Ronald Reagan.
Moslem Arabs will wish to live in peace with the Jews of Israel, when linked elephants float in the sky.