Ilhan Omar
Ilhan OmarReuters

It is a terrible mistake that people have made for decades, scores of years, and probably for centuries: “Well, if it does not work out, we always can undo it.”

No, you cannot.

In 1933 many Germans who then were not necessarily motivated by Jew-hatred voted for Hitler to be chancellor. Their country was in unspeakable chaos and economic meltdown, with those tragically famous images of people using wheelbarrows to lug all their devalued currency to buy a loaf of bread. Hitler offered a certain vision of improving the economy and restoring Germany from the depths to which it had been submerged after its ill-fated participation in World War I.

“Yes,” others demurred, “But what about his crazy rantings about Jews, his megalomania? This guy is liable to get us entangled in wars all over the place. He is crazy!”

So many prospective Hitler voters responded, believing their words sincerely: “Look, once he gets into office, he will grasp that he has so much else to fix and to handle that the last thing on his agenda will be to start wars or to bother with Jews. That’s just populist stuff, campaigning to get out votes. And, you know what? If he turns out to be that crazy that he actually takes us into wars and goes after Jews, we simply will vote him out of office next time.”

No, they could not.

Many in Israel had no idea how extreme-left Ehud Barak is. We obviously knew he is a committed leftist. After all, when he rose to Israel’s highest office, he ran for Prime Minister on the Labor Party ticket against Binyamin Netanyahu and the Likud. But many did not know then that, in his heart, Ehud Barak was even more extreme to the left than he showed. He wisely opted then to work within a more mainstream political power structure as he sought high office, so he built his base in Labor. Only years later, when he no longer had any reason or need to hide how extreme left he is, did he abandon Labor for even-more-extreme-left coalitions with Meretz.

During the brief disastrous period when he was Israel’s Prime Minister — probably its worst ever, although Golda Meir deserves serious consideration for that title — he tried to hand the Temple Mount and everything else to Arafat at Camp David. Instead, once Arafat sized him up, that International Terrorist decided instead to launch the Intifada. Arafat correctly saw that, behind the bluster, Ehud Barak was both weak and incompetent. One of Prime Minister Barak’s lasting contributions to Israel was his decision to leave South Lebanon unilaterally overnight after years of Israel's creating a security belt there and to hand that entire region over without even negotiating for security concessions in return.

“But what if Arab Muslim terrorists flow back in to the evacuated South Lebanon and turn it into a base for non-stop terror attacks on Israel?” his opponents asked.

His answer, full of his characteristic bluster, was simple: “Well, if they do that, we can always march right back in.”

No, we could not.

And fifteen years ago, an old and feeble Ariel Sharon, who had not lost his girth but by then had lost his attention span and ability to focus, did the same in the south, uprooting Gush Katif and handing over Gaza unilaterally. Gorgeous farms and hot houses, magnificent synagogues and schools — all handed over unilaterally without so much as a negotiated concession in return.

“But what if Arab Muslim terrorists flow back in to the evacuated areas, set fire to all the shuls, and turn Gaza into a terror haven, converting it into a base for non-stop terror attacks on Israel?” his opponents asked. His answer was simple: “Well, if they do that, we can always march right back in.”

No, we could not.

This week Jew-hating Ilhan Omar won her Democrat primary to run for reelection to Congress this November. Two years ago, when she was first elected, she was much less known in Minnesota, but she already had come to the attention of locals in her district. Her district includes a huge base of Somali Muslim immigrants who came into America with Democrats’ support, as the Democrats cleverly worked to change America, state by state.

Inasmuch as Democrats could not win over Republican voters with their ideas, they astutely focused instead on winning and holding onto states by importing foreign populations that would be dependent on Big Government — welfare, food stamps, free medical care — for their survival. Her district also includes a significant demographic of Jewish voters who are cursed, as are so many other Jewish voters throughout America, with the political blindness of die-hard knee-jerk liberalism.

By the time Omar sought Congressional office two years ago, her Jew-hatred already had surfaced on several discrete occasions in her local district, causing concern to the local Jews. Leftists in the American Jewish community may have lectures and moral messages to deliver to Israel, advising Israelis to risk their national security by giving up land and protections to Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), but those same Jewish liberals prefer not to get killed themselves in Minnesota. Therefore, local Jewish Democrat activists, deeply concerned by Omar’s evidences of Jew-hate, arranged a meeting with her. She managed to assuage their doubts, and they supported her.

“But what if she is lying? What if, as the Somali Muslim she tells you she is, as the person who has made several viciously anti-Israel comments before meeting with you, it turns out that she really hates Jews and Israel?”

The answer from the Jewish liberals in her Congressional district could not be more simple: “Well, if that happens, we always can vote her back out.”

No. They could not. She just won her primary by a spread of approximately 60-40 percent, with some final mail ballots coming in.

As Israel freezes extending sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria in return for a treaty with the UAE, the lessons could not be more clear. Sovereignty must be extended over as much land as the Government can muster Knesset votes to support. And not one inch, not one millimeter, of other Judea-Samaria land can be permitted to be designated for a separate new country to Israel’s east. Because once that would be done, it would not be practicable later to undo the disaster.

Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer, a high-stakes litigation attorney of more than twenty-five years and an adjunct professor of law of more than fifteen years, is rabbi of Young Israel of Orange County, California. In his rabbinical career, Rabbi Fischer has served several terms on the Executive Committee of the Rabbinical Council of America, is Senior Rabbinic Fellow at the Coalition for Jewish Values, has been Vice President of Zionist Organization of America, and has served on regional boards of the American Jewish Committee, B’nai Brith Hillel, and several others. A winner of an American Jurisprudence Award in Professional Legal Ethics, Rabbi Fischer also is the author of two books, including General Sharon’s War Against Time Magazine, which covered the Israeli General’s 1980s landmark libel suit.