On the very day in 1993 that Arafat signed the Oslo agreements on the White House lawn, he spoke the following words on Jordan TV:
"Since we cannot defeat Israel in war, we do this in stages. We take any and every territory that we can of Palestine, and establish a sovereignty there, and we use it as a springboard to take more. When the time comes, we can get the Arab nations to join us for the final blow against Israel."
Ten years later, we find the world clamoring for a Palestinian state carved out of the biblical heartland of Israel, despite hundreds of murdered victims of terror and thousands of people maimed for life.
Future historians may have difficulty understanding the decisions taken by two important political leaders at the beginning of the 21st Century.
George W. Bush was elected United States President by a narrow margin. His most loyal constituency, then and now, are the evangelical Christians. He was called upon to deal with an unprecedented surprise terror attack by radical Muslims on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Terror in the form of suicide attacks was no longer confined to foreign countries, but had arrived in the American homeland in a dramatic fashion.
Actually, 9/11 was not the first Muslim terror attack on American soil. The 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, were forerunners of such atrocities against the United States. There is no longer any doubt that there has been an Iraqi connection to the terror attacks against the United States since the end of the Gulf War in 1991. (See October 2, 2002 interview with Laurie Mylroie, author of "Study of Revenge: Saddam Hussein's Unfinished War Against America")
Domestically, here is a brief review of Palestinian Arab behavior during the first Gulf War: dancing on rooftops and shouting, "Saddam, send missiles to Tel Aviv", "Kill the Jews and the Great Satan (America)." And, of course, at every Arab demonstration, American and Israeli flags were trampled upon and burned.
This time, the hatred is even more virulent. The Arab Palestinians are calling on Saddam to bomb Tel Aviv with chemical weapons. Tens of thousands of Palestinians demonstrate against the war in Iraq, carrying posters of the Iraqi president and chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Bush". The Arabs rejoice over Saddam's so-called victories. They celebrate when the Iraqis capture American and British soldiers, torture and butcher them. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an offshoot of Arafat's Fatah movement, calls on Muslims to attack American and British targets all over the world. They hold special public prayers calling for the destruction of the United States and Great Britain and for the victory of Iraq.
Palestinians have even named the main square in one of the larger Arab cities, Jenin, after the Iraqi army officer who carried out the first suicide attack against US forces in Iraq. Four American Marines were murdered in that attack. After this "success", they intend to send hundreds of Palestinian "volunteer suicide bombers" to Iraq. There have been reports that Palestinian Arabs are training Iraqis in the art of suicide bombing.
So why is President Bush still plugging for a Palestinian state? What is his justification for the creation of an additional Arab terror state? It may be because Bush got into trouble on the international diplomatic front with the United Nations, France, Germany, et al. British Prime Minister Tony Blair went way out on a limb supporting Bush and America. In Britain, Operation Iraqi Freedom is a very unpopular war. Blair desperately needed help. Bush gave Blair Palestine so that he could buy his war out of trouble by using Israeli currency.
This reminds me of how Transjordan - later renamed Jordan - came into being. In 1922, two Hashemite sheikhs were at each other?s throat. When Winston Churchill, then Colonial Secretary, created Iraq for one of the sheikhs, he placated the other tribal chief by giving him 70% of what was supposed to be the Jewish homeland. Churchill, however, didn't have the chutzpah to include the heartland of biblical Israel in his gift. But Blair has no shame. He asked President Bush to pay back the British favors by establishing a Palestinian state, in order to save Blair's political hide.
I did feel disappointed when President Bush, in the beginning of March, said that "the government of Israel, as the terror threat is removed and security improves, must take concrete steps to support the emergence of a viable and credible Palestinian state? As progress is made toward peace, settlement activity in the occupied territories must end." It is saddening to hear President Bush use the mantras of our enemies by referring to Israeli communities as "settlements", and the biblical heartland of Israel as "occupied territories".
Blair and his sidekick Jack Straw, Britain's Foreign Minister, are hell-bent on making Bush pay his debt. What about Bush's debt to the people who elected him in the belief that he was a Bible-believing Christian?
However, I find it easier to understand America's President Bush than Israel's Prime Minister Sharon. After all, as the saying goes, countries such as America have interests, not friends. But Ariel Sharon, by agreeing to the creation of a Palestinian state and the suicidal ?Road Map? dreamt up by Secretary of State Colin Powell and the Quartet, certainly not fans of Israel, has in effect betrayed his own country and his own people.
Ariel Sharon has exhibited puzzling behavior lately. At a Likud meeting, Sharon demanded that his ministers in the Likud show a united front and endorse the idea of a Palestinian state. When the shocked Likud ministers tried to tell Sharon that favoring the creation of a Palestinian state was against the Likud platform, against Likud party bylaws, and against the decision of the Likud Central Committee, Sharon essentially told them to shut up, clearly saying that he will not allow people in his government who oppose him on the issue of a Palestinian state. He is determined to cave in to American demands.
President Bush has said that all Jewish (not Arab) settlement activity must stop. A very disturbing event happened about ten days ago on Hill 26 in Kiryat Arba, which is near Hebron. Was this event - the eviction of a widow and her five children from their home - a portent of things to come? There is no doubt that what happened had to be under the direct orders of Ariel Sharon. Was this a trial run on the part of Sharon, a dangerous portent of things to come for the Jews living in the biblical heartland of Judea, Samaria and Gaza?
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Ruth Matar is co-chairwoman of the grass-roots activist organization Women for Israel?s Tomorrow (Women in Green). This article was adapted from the Women in Green radio program on Arutz Sheva - Israel National Radio, which can be heard on demand at IsraelNationalNews.com.
************
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"Since we cannot defeat Israel in war, we do this in stages. We take any and every territory that we can of Palestine, and establish a sovereignty there, and we use it as a springboard to take more. When the time comes, we can get the Arab nations to join us for the final blow against Israel."
Ten years later, we find the world clamoring for a Palestinian state carved out of the biblical heartland of Israel, despite hundreds of murdered victims of terror and thousands of people maimed for life.
Future historians may have difficulty understanding the decisions taken by two important political leaders at the beginning of the 21st Century.
George W. Bush was elected United States President by a narrow margin. His most loyal constituency, then and now, are the evangelical Christians. He was called upon to deal with an unprecedented surprise terror attack by radical Muslims on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Terror in the form of suicide attacks was no longer confined to foreign countries, but had arrived in the American homeland in a dramatic fashion.
Actually, 9/11 was not the first Muslim terror attack on American soil. The 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City, were forerunners of such atrocities against the United States. There is no longer any doubt that there has been an Iraqi connection to the terror attacks against the United States since the end of the Gulf War in 1991. (See October 2, 2002 interview with Laurie Mylroie, author of "Study of Revenge: Saddam Hussein's Unfinished War Against America")
Domestically, here is a brief review of Palestinian Arab behavior during the first Gulf War: dancing on rooftops and shouting, "Saddam, send missiles to Tel Aviv", "Kill the Jews and the Great Satan (America)." And, of course, at every Arab demonstration, American and Israeli flags were trampled upon and burned.
This time, the hatred is even more virulent. The Arab Palestinians are calling on Saddam to bomb Tel Aviv with chemical weapons. Tens of thousands of Palestinians demonstrate against the war in Iraq, carrying posters of the Iraqi president and chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Bush". The Arabs rejoice over Saddam's so-called victories. They celebrate when the Iraqis capture American and British soldiers, torture and butcher them. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an offshoot of Arafat's Fatah movement, calls on Muslims to attack American and British targets all over the world. They hold special public prayers calling for the destruction of the United States and Great Britain and for the victory of Iraq.
Palestinians have even named the main square in one of the larger Arab cities, Jenin, after the Iraqi army officer who carried out the first suicide attack against US forces in Iraq. Four American Marines were murdered in that attack. After this "success", they intend to send hundreds of Palestinian "volunteer suicide bombers" to Iraq. There have been reports that Palestinian Arabs are training Iraqis in the art of suicide bombing.
So why is President Bush still plugging for a Palestinian state? What is his justification for the creation of an additional Arab terror state? It may be because Bush got into trouble on the international diplomatic front with the United Nations, France, Germany, et al. British Prime Minister Tony Blair went way out on a limb supporting Bush and America. In Britain, Operation Iraqi Freedom is a very unpopular war. Blair desperately needed help. Bush gave Blair Palestine so that he could buy his war out of trouble by using Israeli currency.
This reminds me of how Transjordan - later renamed Jordan - came into being. In 1922, two Hashemite sheikhs were at each other?s throat. When Winston Churchill, then Colonial Secretary, created Iraq for one of the sheikhs, he placated the other tribal chief by giving him 70% of what was supposed to be the Jewish homeland. Churchill, however, didn't have the chutzpah to include the heartland of biblical Israel in his gift. But Blair has no shame. He asked President Bush to pay back the British favors by establishing a Palestinian state, in order to save Blair's political hide.
I did feel disappointed when President Bush, in the beginning of March, said that "the government of Israel, as the terror threat is removed and security improves, must take concrete steps to support the emergence of a viable and credible Palestinian state? As progress is made toward peace, settlement activity in the occupied territories must end." It is saddening to hear President Bush use the mantras of our enemies by referring to Israeli communities as "settlements", and the biblical heartland of Israel as "occupied territories".
Blair and his sidekick Jack Straw, Britain's Foreign Minister, are hell-bent on making Bush pay his debt. What about Bush's debt to the people who elected him in the belief that he was a Bible-believing Christian?
However, I find it easier to understand America's President Bush than Israel's Prime Minister Sharon. After all, as the saying goes, countries such as America have interests, not friends. But Ariel Sharon, by agreeing to the creation of a Palestinian state and the suicidal ?Road Map? dreamt up by Secretary of State Colin Powell and the Quartet, certainly not fans of Israel, has in effect betrayed his own country and his own people.
Ariel Sharon has exhibited puzzling behavior lately. At a Likud meeting, Sharon demanded that his ministers in the Likud show a united front and endorse the idea of a Palestinian state. When the shocked Likud ministers tried to tell Sharon that favoring the creation of a Palestinian state was against the Likud platform, against Likud party bylaws, and against the decision of the Likud Central Committee, Sharon essentially told them to shut up, clearly saying that he will not allow people in his government who oppose him on the issue of a Palestinian state. He is determined to cave in to American demands.
President Bush has said that all Jewish (not Arab) settlement activity must stop. A very disturbing event happened about ten days ago on Hill 26 in Kiryat Arba, which is near Hebron. Was this event - the eviction of a widow and her five children from their home - a portent of things to come? There is no doubt that what happened had to be under the direct orders of Ariel Sharon. Was this a trial run on the part of Sharon, a dangerous portent of things to come for the Jews living in the biblical heartland of Judea, Samaria and Gaza?
--------------------------------------------------------
Ruth Matar is co-chairwoman of the grass-roots activist organization Women for Israel?s Tomorrow (Women in Green). This article was adapted from the Women in Green radio program on Arutz Sheva - Israel National Radio, which can be heard on demand at IsraelNationalNews.com.
************
Spend Passover with Arutz Sheva at a resort in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Kfar Pines (near Hadera). Click here for info.