Credible research into the demographic situation between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea is starting to gain some attention.
The bottom line is that there is no more of a demographic threat to the Jewish state today than there was 20, 30 or 50 years ago. But that is not stopping Israel’s leaders from using “Palestinian”-supplied population figures to determine Israeli policy.
Unbelievable to most, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert this week ordered the transfer of 375 assault rifles to Palestinian Authority security forces tasked with protecting PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas.
Unsurprisingly, those Israeli-supplied weapons have already been used for a much different task – the murder of Jews. Israel made this same mistake in arming Yasser Arafat’s forces following the signing of the “Oslo Accords.” It was repeated with the signing of several subsequent worthless scraps of paper.
How many times can Israel commit the same deadly blunders as it tries in vain to convince its buddies in the West that the Jews are the good guys in this story?
Jerusalem Post columnist Yehuda Avner has pointed out something that I for one am embarrassed to say I missed – the absurdity of seeking terrorists’ recognition of Israel’s right to exist. Avner quotes liberally from former prime minister Menachem Begin in showing how Israel’s current leadership should respond to international requests that Hamas accept the Jewish state. Continue reading »
Leftist Ha’aretz columnist Ari Shavit has written another sharp piece urging Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to halt the headlong rush to national disaster that his “convergence” policies represent.
Referencing outgoing National Security Council head Giora Eiland, Shavit reminds Olmert that, like him, every Israeli prime minister for the past four decades has initiated and/or entered into “peace” processes believing he could ultimately control the flow of events and especially Israel’s degree of compromise.
Every prime minister has been wrong. Continue reading »
Ehud Olmert’s intention to unilaterally surrender about 90 percent of Judea and Samaria to the Arabs appears to have international power brokers concerned that the era of Israeli-Palestinian bilateral negotiations, and perhaps even official relations, is at an end.
From Washington to Brussels to Moscow, Israel is being pressured to look no further than PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) in its dying search for a true and viable peace partner, and thus avert unilateral action that would put an end to the “land-for-peace” process. Continue reading »
According to the Associated Press, Washington Tuesday reiterated its support for Israel’s right to defend itself following Monday’s Tel Aviv “suicide” bombing, but urged Jerusalem to consider carefully the effects any retaliatory action may have on “peace prospects.”
Umm, would someone mind explaining what “peace prospects” these guys are talking about? Mahmoud Abbas, the “moderate,” is all but irrelevant, and the Palestinian Authority is ruled by a group of blood-thirsty terrorist killers who publicly supported the slaughter in Tel Aviv – a virtual declaration of war.
And even when Abbas did matter and was running the show his positions regarding the need for Israel to vacate 100% of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, including eastern Jerusalem, and to allow millions of Arab “refugees” to flood the Jewish state did not differ much from the Hamas platform.
Only difference is that while Abbas feigned peace, Hamas is open about its desire to see Israel engulfed in an Islamic tide.
How the boys in Washington can look at the situation over here and imagine there is some prospect for peace outside of Israel reasserting full sovereignty over the entire Land of Israel is beyond me.
Israel, America and Europe have taken a good first step by cutting off both aid to and contact with the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.
Yet all three continue this ridiculous charade of dealing with Mahmoud Abbas, head of the PLO and “president” of the PA, as if he were some separate entity capable of making decisions and implementing policy on his own.
The PA is more democratic than most governments in this region because of Western pressure. The West can’t have its cake and eat it too by now expecting Abbas to exercise dictatorial powers.
In fact, it was the West that pushed for Abbas’ current post to either be eliminated or made purely ceremonial.
What they got was a PA equivalent in functionality to a US Congress that appoints all government secretaries and exercises full control over the military, while the president is still considered the chief executive. The result is chaos and instability.
Abbas’ utter impotence in this morass of power was again demonstrated in the aftermath of Monday’s Tel Aviv “suicide” bombing.
The PLO chief condemned the attack for the harm it had done to the “Palestinian cause” (he would take a different route to relieving the Jews of their homeland), while the Hamas government backed it as a legitimate act of “self defense.”
Guess who’s word matters more. In the current set-up, Abbas’ displeasure with Monday’s massacre will result in not even one arrest or any action to prevent additional atrocities.
The reason this untenable situation exists is because the West and the Israeli government in their misguided handling of the “peace” process believed they could side-step Yasser Arafat’s intransigence by forcing him to create and transfer his own powers to the position of prime minister – essentially transforming the PA from a presidential system of government to a parliamentary one.
The only problem was everyone assumed the blood-soaked demagogue Arafat would fully relinquish his lucrative absolute hold on government.
He didn’t, and the vast power he retained for himself then passed to Abbas with the blessing of the West, which had apparently forgotten that it previously wanted the position of PA “president” to be bestowed with no more real political power than the English Throne.
Well, that worked out OK so long as the majority parliament faction, and therefore the prime minister and his cabinet, were all of the same party as Abbas.
But democracy doesn’t work that way, and the people voted in Hamas.
And so the time has come for Israel and the West to recognize the mistake they made when Arafat was in power and either endorse Abbas as an absolute dictator, or acknowledge his irrelevance.
Obviously the latter option would be chosen in line with America’s democracy agenda, which would then necessitate recognizing that the vast majority of “Palestinians” knowingly and willingly chose a group of unrepentant terrorist killers as their leaders – something the West is trying feverishly to avoid doing, at least publicly.
It’s time for some tough decisions. Are Israel and her allies in Washington up to it? I doubt it. Though Hamas through its own actions may take the luxury of choice out of everyone’s hands.
Shimon Peres has finally gained some clarity regarding Israel’s “peace” process with the Palestinian Arabs.
“Israel is proposing to the Palestinians peace according to the road map. I don’t believe Hamas will change and accept Israel’s conditions for talks.” The reason?
“Hamas is an extremist religious movement. Under the demands it is being asked, it should become a secular political party, and I doubt it will implement the demands.”
Here that world? You are demanding Hamas transform from from an extremist religious movement into a secular political party – that it renounce its very core beliefs and adopt yours instead. Just not gonna happen.
Peres’ remarks also indicate recognition that Hamas’ belligerent policies are rooted in its Islamic faith.
Shame Peres didn’t display this level of clarity when trying to transform Yasser Arafat from a dedicated and blood-soaked killer into a diplomat and peace partner.
