President Bush is heading for Israel, his first trip there as president. He'll try to convince Jews that his Annapolis summit - where Jews were forced to use the servants' door so as not to offend alleged Arab "partners" - is their best hope for peace.
Four Aprils ago, Israel's Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, made a hard decision. After
Arabs must give up their eternal plans for Israel's destruction.
decades of supporting retaining disputed territories acquired as a result of fighting a defensive war in June 1967, the Old Warrior decided that costs outweighed gains in keeping Jews in Gaza.
Arabs must give up their eternal plans for Israel's destruction.
decades of supporting retaining disputed territories acquired as a result of fighting a defensive war in June 1967, the Old Warrior decided that costs outweighed gains in keeping Jews in Gaza.
While it's true that Jews lived in Gaza for millennia; that, since the Pharaohs, Gaza had been used as an invasion route into Israel; that Gaza was a hotbed for terrorists; that Gaza's Jewish communities were not on Arab-owned land; it was also true that many Israelis were looking for a way out. Many others feared this would just bring Arab terror closer to pre-1967 Israel. With thousands of rockets and mortars landing in Israeli communities like Sderot after full Israeli withdrawal, we were correct in our concerns. But the General probably had something else up his sleeve regarding further aggression from a Judenrein Gaza. Unfortunately, he is no longer of this world, in a coma after suffering a stroke two years ago.
In any event, in April 2004, Sharon presented his Gaza withdrawal plan. The world had long clamored for such Israeli moves.
Those who conquered lands hundreds or thousands of miles away in the name of their own nations' security somehow couldn't understand life-threatening problems Israel faced due to armistice lines imposed upon it in 1949 by the United Nations - lines that made it 9 to 16 miles wide at its waist, where most of its population and industry are located. Most people travel farther than that to go to work.
Israel was never meant to be a rump state, but that's how it was left when the lines were drawn marking the point where the Jews turned back the 1948 invasion by a half-dozen Arab nations. The UN got involved after the fact - to limit Arab losses, not to prevent their initial aggression. Arab settlers from elsewhere then poured into these disputed territories. International legal scholars like Eugene Rostow explained that the latter had largely been unapportioned state lands open to settlement by Arabs, Jews and others. After 1949, only Arabs were allowed to settle there, in the aftermath of Transjordan's internationally unrecognized land grab.
Arab Transjordan, comprising all land on the east bank of the Jordan River, had been created by the British in 1922 from almost 80% of the original 1920 borders of the Mandate of Palestine. Jewish communities dating back to Biblical times in Judea and Samaria - the "West Bank" - were massacred by Arabs in the 1920s and 1930s. Annapolis is thus about creating the Arabs' second state in "Palestine," not their first.
The League of Nations Permanent Mandates Commission documented waves of Arabs pouring into the Mandate from Syria, Egypt, North Africa and elsewhere. Many more entered under cover of darkness and were never recorded - more "native Palestinians."
The President took a stand that might yet lead to peace.
Thanks to the Jews, the Mandate was economically booming, drawing Arabs in from the entire region.
The President took a stand that might yet lead to peace.
Thanks to the Jews, the Mandate was economically booming, drawing Arabs in from the entire region.
In the aftermath of the attempt on Israel's life in 1967, architects of UN Security Council Resolution 242 (Britain's Lord Caradon, Rostow, etc.) carefully worded the final draft so Israel wouldn't be expected to return to pre-'67 armistice lines. Instead, it called for creation of "secure and recognized borders" to replace those lines. Most of Israel's official settlements were placed with such a compromise in mind. While some will go as a trade for real peace (not Arab hudna ceasefires), others will stay.
If there will ever be peace, Arabs must give up their eternal plans for Israel's destruction. Having done this, they could have had their second state in Palestine decades ago. Fair plans were rejected over the decades by the Arabs themselves - far more fair plans than they ever offered any of their own national competitors. Just ask Blacks in the Sudan, Kurds, Berbers and so forth. The reality is that Arabs still want "Palestine" to replace Israel, not exist along side it. Hence, their continued post-Annapolis rejection of a lone Jewish state while demanding a 22-member Arab League.
Enter George W. Bush.
At an April 2004 televised news conference, the president took a stand that might yet lead to peace, if he only regains the courage displayed back then. With millions watching him, Mr. Bush proclaimed the two key ingredients:
1. Israel should not be expected to return to indefensible armistice lines (he called them just that, not "borders"); and
2. Real or fudged Arab refugees would have to go to the new Arab state, not overwhelm Jews in Israel. (Recall that half of Israel's Jews were refugees from Arab or Muslim lands.)
And that brings us back to the president's upcoming visit. You see, Bush had indeed visited Israel before, but while governor of Texas. Here's an excerpt from a December 3, 1998, press release from his office quoting him:
"...was able to learn about security needs.... Hard to believe, as a Texan, how small Israel is... we're used to huge spaces.... Just got off the campaign where I spent nearly everyday in a King Air trying to get from one stop to the other. Had I gotten on that same King Air and I took off out of Jerusalem it would have been no time before I'd be in either Jordan or in Syria. It's a small country... important for our host to remind our delegation of how really small it was, so I got on a helicopter... flew with foreign minister Ariel Sharon to see first hand how small... between enemy lines and population centers."
It was on this helicopter flight that, according to his press secretary, Ari Fleischer, Bush
"In Texas, we have driveways longer than that." - George W. Bush
also commented, regarding the tiny strategic waist of Israel, "In Texas, we have driveways longer than that."
"In Texas, we have driveways longer than that." - George W. Bush
also commented, regarding the tiny strategic waist of Israel, "In Texas, we have driveways longer than that."
When arriving in Israel this time, as leader of a nation three thousand miles wide, separated from its main enemies by two vast oceans, Mr. Bush may want to pay his old comatose friend a visit.
I'm convinced Arik had lines in the sand beyond which he would not cave, despite all the pressure. On the other hand, the entire nation is now at risk given the nature of the current crew running Israel's show. They've replaced lines in the sand with heads in the sand.
Annapolis will expose Tel Aviv, Ben-Gurion Airport, Jerusalem and so forth to the same fate Sderot is now facing, and probably worse. Forcing suicidal concessions upon Israel in light of the rejectionist enemies it still faces - despite all the State Department whitewashing being done of Mahmoud Abbas and his latter-day Arafatians - will only backfire on America itself.
When visiting Israel, which can fit thirty-four times into his own state of Texas, it would be proper for Mr. Bush to keep all of this in mind.