Israeli flag (illustration)
Israeli flag (illustration)iStock

A new round of academic panels championing the idea Israeli victory and Palestinian Authority's defeat continued yesterday at a special conference held at Ariel University in Samaria, featuring Haaretz journalist Chaim Levinson, Im Tirtzu Chairman Matan Peleg, and Jerusalem Post journalist Caroline Glick.

The Israel Victory Project, initiated by the US-based think tank, the Middle East Forum, maintains that a resolution to the conflict can only occur once the Palestinian Authority is defeated, gives up the goal of destroying Israel and recognizes Israel as the Jewish state.

“The current approach to achieving a resolution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict has consistently failed because it allows Palestinian rejectionism to be met by a call for further concessions from Israel, thus pushing peace further away because of the entrenchment of a Palestinian denial of the Jewish people’s right to sovereignty,” said Middle East Forum President Professor Daniel Pipes.

“As Ronald Reagan said regarding the US fight against communism, the only way to ‘win is if they lose,’” he added.

In June 2016, the Israel Victory Caucus was launched in the US Congress by Senators Ron DeSantis and Bill Johnson, with a parallel caucus co-chaired by MKs Oded Forer and Yaakov Peri opening in the Knesset. In October, a joint declaration was signed by both caucuses that declared “the primary obstacle to ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the near century of Palestinian rejectionism of the right of self-determination for the Jewish People.”

The journalist Chaim Levinson began the discussion, asserting that “the insistence on recognition of a Jewish state is extraneous, and hurts the chances of achieving peace. The injustice caused to the Palestinians requires us to reach a solution.”

Caroline Glick said, “The use of the term ‘democratic’ by human rights organizations funded by foreign governments is perverse. They are hurting the only democratic state in the Middle East.”

At the end of the event, Im Tirtzu Chairman Matan Peleg said that “we praise the efforts to advance the issue in the Knesset and in Congress, but strengthening Israeli society’s belief in Zionism and will to be victorious are fundamental requirements for success.”

“This is the reason that Im Tirtzu chose to take a central part in the project. There is no doubt that a strong ideological and moral front will be able to cope with the many challenges that lie ahead.”

Peleg emphasized that "the Jewish people must internalize that the situation in which they live in their homeland as sovereign is not a temporary one. When it does - so will our enemies.”