If one were to accept what is today considered Israeli conventional wisdom, all the problems in the Middle East could be solved through financial means. That is to say that if only enough funds were made available to alleviate that which leftist professors and sociologists perceive to be ?abject Arab poverty?, then the terror against Jews in the Jewish homeland would cease.



Buoyed by the warped views of Shimon Peres' New Middle East, these ?experts? continue to beat their breasts, while simultaneously faulting Israel for what they perceive as years of ?neglect of her Arab minorities?, which (they conclude) results in the uprising and ongoing war of terror against the Jewish State.



Needless to say, not one of these learned ?legends in their own minds? can explain why the terror against Jews preceded the establishment of the State of Israel. In l929 and l933, the Arabs of Hebron rose up with the same cry they utter today - Itbach el-Yehud (kill the Jew) - slaughtering scores of innocent men, women and children, many of whom had befriended them.



Nor, I venture to state, can any of these liberal, Jewish, ?peace-now-pay-later? bleeding hearts offer a thesis on how thousands of Jewish refugees, remnants of Hitler?s ?Final Solution?, along with those fleeing persecution in Arab lands, managed, with G-d?s help, to build a vibrant Jewish country, while living in the deplorable conditions of the maabarot (tent cities) and with only the most primitive facilities.



Not to be outdone by their counterparts in seeking to lay a collective ?guilt trip? on Israel are the myriad of renegade Jews who have made Israeli settlements the culprit and ?reason? for countless Arab terrorist bombings, shootings, stabbings and stonings in the ongoing war of terror against the Jewish homeland, Eretz Yisrael. ?Peace can only be achieved if Israel will dismantle the settlements? is their battle cry.



Turning a blind eye to the fact that thousands of their Jewish brethren have been murdered and wounded in terrorist attacks since the Oslo so-called ?peace process?, a contingent of Labor members of Knesset recently had the unmitigated chutzpah and gall to travel to Gush Katif in an effort to convince the dedicated Jewish residents there to leave their homes, in order to help implement the ?peace process? (sic, truly sick).



It is doubtful whether the unequivocal response they received - ?We are not leaving.? - caused any of these myopic and guilt-ridden leftist members of Israel?s Knesset to understand that the residents of Gush Katif, as well as all those heroic Jews living in Israeli settlements, are safeguarding the entire State of Israel from being dismantled ?piece by peace?.



The Sharon government?s obtuse policy of channeling millions of shekels that are desperately needed to alleviate the suffering of many deprived segments of Israeli society to Arab enemies - whose hate of the Jewish State continues to manifest itself in ongoing nefarious terror attacks against Jewish civilians - the folly of Sharon?s policy in scrupulously following the dictates of the ?road map?, releasing Arab terrorists and dismantling Jewish settlements - which he is implementing in order to win favor with the United States - is an ominous harbinger of not a peaceful, but G-d forbid ?final?, solution for Israel.

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Shifra Hoffman, founder of the Victims of Arab Terror International organization (VAT), is a noted journalist and executive director of Shuva (Return), the Israel Emergency Aliyah Movement. She can be contacted at [email protected] or through www.victimsofarabterror.org.