Discriminating Against Jews

Gaza-based terrorists are firing rockets at Israeli cities, Hizbullah is plotting against the Jewish state, and Iran is moving ahead with plans to build nuclear weapons – but how is the Israeli army keeping busy these days?

Why, by tearing down Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria, of course.

Soldiers today descended in force on the Jewish community of Sde Boaz, located in Gush Etzion just outside Jerusalem, to tear down a house and stable and uproot the foundations of another home, asserting that the structures had been built without the necessary permits.

Whether or not that is the case is beside the point. What matters here is the unequal application of the law by Israel’s Government vis-a-vis Jews and Arabs.

As anyone who has driven through various parts of Israel knows, there is in fact a wave of illegal building taking place, unhindered and unimpeded by the authorities. Beduin in the Negev, Israeli Arabs in the Galilee and Palestinians in eastern Jerusalem are engaged in a frenzy of illegal construction, yet virtually nothing is being done to stop this “land grab” from taking place out of fear as to how the affected populations might react.

But when a Jew goes ahead and tries to build on Jewish-owned land – whether in Gush Etzion or in Hebron – the security forces are only too happy to pounce, waving the banner of the rule of law even as they trample it under foot.

The fact is that you cannot have it both ways. You can’t deny Jews the right to build, and then punish them when they go ahead and do so anyway, while ignoring large-scale violations by Arabs, Beduin and Palestinians alike.

In Western democracies, they have a word for such policies. It is called discrimination. And it is time for Israel to stop practicing it vis-a-vis its own Jewish citizens.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Special Note to Readers: This blog, Fundamentally Freund, has been nominated in two categories for the annual Jewish & Israel Blog Awards. Please be so kind as to go to the following two links and cast your ballot for "Fundamentally Freund". Thanks.

CATEGORY: BEST ISRAEL ADVOCACY BLOG
http://info.jpost.com/C005/BlogCentral/JIB.2005/vote.advoc.html

CATEGORY: BEST POLITICS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS BLOG
http://info.jpost.com/C005/BlogCentral/JIB.2005/vote.politics.html

Two Million Bullets

Talk about arming your own enemies.

Israel, it was revealed today, has allowed Egypt to transfer an enormous quantity of weapons to Fatah, the Palestinian faction controlled by PA President Abu Mazen.

A total of 2,000 AK-47 assault rifles, 20,000 magazines and two million (!!) bullets were included in the shipment, which is ostensibly aimed at strengthening Fatah in its rivalry with Hamas.

Of course, there is one slight problem with this approach: Fatah has this nasty little habit of turning its weapons on Jews. The very same Palestinian security forces that received the ammunition are the very same Palestinian security forces that engage in terror against the Jewish state.

And so, in a move of astonishing obtuseness, Israel has once again overseen the arming of its foes. Incredibly, according to media reports, the shipment of weapons was actually escorted across the Egypt-Gaza border by Israeli Military Police!!

After 13 years of Palestinian Authority terror, you'd think that our government would have learned by now that giving guns to the enemy is not only short-sighted, but dangerous too.

Sadly, it appears that even this most basic of lessons has yet to sink in.

You Don't Make Peace with Your Enemies

Just the other day, Yossi Beilin was at it again.

In an interview on Israel Radio, the dovish head of the Yahad/Meretz faction in the Knesset spoke about the need to start negotiations with Syria in an effort to reach a peace deal with the Dictator from Damascus, Bashar al-Assad.

It doesn't seem to matter one whit to Mr. Beilin that Assad is a ruthless tyrant who has been busy aiding Hizbullah in Lebanon, the insurgents in Iraq, and Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. Assad's hands may be full of blood, but Beilin just can't wait to shake them anyway.

Nor, it seems, does Syria's beating of the war drums seem to dissuade him. Just yesterday, Syria's Information Minister echoed remarks made by Assad in recent months, threatening that if Israel did not hand over the Golan Heights, Damascus might resort to "other means, which struggling people have used at various points in history, beginning with legitimate resistance".

Similarly, Israel's military intelligence now reportedly believes that Syria and Hizbullah are planning to launch another round of conflict with the Jewish state next summer.

It just goes to show how wrong the left has been in asserting that, "you can only make peace with your enemies." This may be a good sales slogan, but it is intellectually vacuous. The fact of the matter is that you don't make peace with your enemies – you make it with your former enemies. And this is not just an issue of semantics. When someone is out to get you, you can't fool yourself into thinking that smiling at him a couple of times will change his mind.

What Beilin and his comrades on the left fail to understand is that Syria is gearing up for war – verbally, psychologically and militarily. All the evidence points in that direction, and wishful thinking on Israel's part won't make it go away. Hence, Beilin's call for peace talks with a nation that is preparing to strike at Israel is as na?ve as it is dangerous.