It's become routine by now.
Jewish civilians get deliberately blown up by Arabs on buses or in restaurants, and this next becomes morally equated with Arab non-combatants who die because their heroes used them as human shields. We're then told that all of this starts in the first place because of Israeli "oppression", a.k.a. measures Jews take to try to stop Arabs from butchering their kids. Consider the following sequence of events.
A while back, Molly Moore of the Washington Post reported on progress in talks between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas. In passing, she quoted from Hamas spokesman, Abdul Aziz Rantisi, who held out the possibility of halting terror against Israelis. This, "of course," was contingent on Israel first stopping all actions it has been forced to take to stop the murder itself.
A few days earlier, we had heard that certain U.S. "officials" (translate as State Department) pondered that in acknowledging Israeli concerns regarding the Road Map, new disputes with the Arabs would surface.
This is true. Consider the current debate and pressure being exerted upon Israel over the course of its security fence as just one example.
Arabs think they're going to shove the pre-'67 Auschwitz/armistice lines down Israel's throat again. Among other things, Israel was made a mere nine miles wide by those U.N.-imposed lines. The latter simply marked the point where hostilities ended after the Arab invasion of a newly-reborn Israel in 1948.
As Eugene Rostow and other leading international legal scholars have pointed out, those armistice lines, especially in Judea and Samaria ? the "West Bank" ? were never meant to be permanent borders. Indeed, some Texas driveways are reputed to be longer than that. Most of Israel's population and industry lies within that narrow waistband.
Palestinian Arabs and their European, Russian, United Nations, and other supporters (including friends in Foggy Bottom) are looking for a virtual resurrection of the Oslo debacle. In Oslo I, the more Israel tangibly gave, the more it bled. Without President Bush's assurances that this will not again be the case, Sharon ? or any other Israeli leader ? could not accept this so-called new plan for peace. Indeed, the Road Map now appears dead in its tracks because the Arabs have refused to do the one thing that could breathe life into it ? stop the slaughter of Jews.
Let's get something straight right from the start. The problems that both Abbas and Rantisi had earlier cited ? Israeli incursions, assaults, checkpoints, travel restrictions, and other measures that admittedly cause inconvenience and frustration ? were eggs laid and hatched as a result of Arab rejectionist hens raised on both of their farms. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas have simply been playing a game of good cop/bad cop with the Jews to win as many one-sided concessions as possible. "Moderate" PA spokesmen have described Oslo as a "Trojan Horse."
Camp David 2000 and Taba clearly showed that occupation and settlements were not the problem. While it's been said many times, it must be repeated yet again:
Israel indeed offered Yasser Arafat over 97% of the disputed territories, along with half of Jerusalem, etc. Ambassador Dennis Ross was there and confirmed the offer for a contiguous state ? not "disconnected cantons" as anti-Israel attack dogs now claim.
The sticky point both then and now was/is the existence of a viable Israel, regardless of size. Arabs continue to kill not to "end occupation" ? unless one understands that to mean Tel Aviv as well as Hebron ? but to end Israel. A mere look at either PA or Hamas websites quickly illustrates this. There is no Israel present in maps on either site, and "Palestine" exists in place of Israel, not alongside it.
Arabs blow up Jewish innocents on buses, in pizza parlors, teen night clubs, etc. because, in too many Arab eyes, no Jew living in a Jewish state is innocent.
How dare Israeli Jews, half of whom were refugees themselves from "Arab" lands (where they were known as kelbi yahudi - "Jew dogs"), want in one minuscule state what Arabs have conquered and forcibly Arabized for themselves in twenty-two others? Arabs reject an independent Kurdish state, Berber state, Black African Sudanese state, etc. for the same reasons ? a belief that only they have the right to rule lands where many different peoples have historically lived and live.
Regardless of the chants of the popular anti-Israel chorus, there is no moral equivalency between those who murder and those who try to prevent their loved ones from being murdered. And that's what Israel's reservations over the Road Map are basically all about and why Israel is building its costly security fence.
After 9/11, the United States didn't negotiate with Al-Qaida or the Taliban. It sent in B-52 and B-1 bombers to do the "negotiating." Yet, the world expects Israel to constantly watch its people get blown to bits. Al-Qaida had its gripes with America, too, but that didn't lead us to seek "accommodation" with those who butchered our people.
So, a piece of advice. The next time you read some columnist complaining about checkpoints, or see another picture about those long lines, consider the following:
Before anything can be done to ease up on the measures and restrictions Israel has been forced to take to try to limit Arab terrorism, the Arabs themselves must control those who deliberately disembowel, maim and incinerate Jews.
What other nation would demand less?
In this case, there's no mistaking which came first. As long as Arab hens continue their deadly business as usual, misery for their own people will also hatch from the eggs that are laid.
Jewish civilians get deliberately blown up by Arabs on buses or in restaurants, and this next becomes morally equated with Arab non-combatants who die because their heroes used them as human shields. We're then told that all of this starts in the first place because of Israeli "oppression", a.k.a. measures Jews take to try to stop Arabs from butchering their kids. Consider the following sequence of events.
A while back, Molly Moore of the Washington Post reported on progress in talks between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas. In passing, she quoted from Hamas spokesman, Abdul Aziz Rantisi, who held out the possibility of halting terror against Israelis. This, "of course," was contingent on Israel first stopping all actions it has been forced to take to stop the murder itself.
A few days earlier, we had heard that certain U.S. "officials" (translate as State Department) pondered that in acknowledging Israeli concerns regarding the Road Map, new disputes with the Arabs would surface.
This is true. Consider the current debate and pressure being exerted upon Israel over the course of its security fence as just one example.
Arabs think they're going to shove the pre-'67 Auschwitz/armistice lines down Israel's throat again. Among other things, Israel was made a mere nine miles wide by those U.N.-imposed lines. The latter simply marked the point where hostilities ended after the Arab invasion of a newly-reborn Israel in 1948.
As Eugene Rostow and other leading international legal scholars have pointed out, those armistice lines, especially in Judea and Samaria ? the "West Bank" ? were never meant to be permanent borders. Indeed, some Texas driveways are reputed to be longer than that. Most of Israel's population and industry lies within that narrow waistband.
Palestinian Arabs and their European, Russian, United Nations, and other supporters (including friends in Foggy Bottom) are looking for a virtual resurrection of the Oslo debacle. In Oslo I, the more Israel tangibly gave, the more it bled. Without President Bush's assurances that this will not again be the case, Sharon ? or any other Israeli leader ? could not accept this so-called new plan for peace. Indeed, the Road Map now appears dead in its tracks because the Arabs have refused to do the one thing that could breathe life into it ? stop the slaughter of Jews.
Let's get something straight right from the start. The problems that both Abbas and Rantisi had earlier cited ? Israeli incursions, assaults, checkpoints, travel restrictions, and other measures that admittedly cause inconvenience and frustration ? were eggs laid and hatched as a result of Arab rejectionist hens raised on both of their farms. The Palestinian Authority and Hamas have simply been playing a game of good cop/bad cop with the Jews to win as many one-sided concessions as possible. "Moderate" PA spokesmen have described Oslo as a "Trojan Horse."
Camp David 2000 and Taba clearly showed that occupation and settlements were not the problem. While it's been said many times, it must be repeated yet again:
Israel indeed offered Yasser Arafat over 97% of the disputed territories, along with half of Jerusalem, etc. Ambassador Dennis Ross was there and confirmed the offer for a contiguous state ? not "disconnected cantons" as anti-Israel attack dogs now claim.
The sticky point both then and now was/is the existence of a viable Israel, regardless of size. Arabs continue to kill not to "end occupation" ? unless one understands that to mean Tel Aviv as well as Hebron ? but to end Israel. A mere look at either PA or Hamas websites quickly illustrates this. There is no Israel present in maps on either site, and "Palestine" exists in place of Israel, not alongside it.
Arabs blow up Jewish innocents on buses, in pizza parlors, teen night clubs, etc. because, in too many Arab eyes, no Jew living in a Jewish state is innocent.
How dare Israeli Jews, half of whom were refugees themselves from "Arab" lands (where they were known as kelbi yahudi - "Jew dogs"), want in one minuscule state what Arabs have conquered and forcibly Arabized for themselves in twenty-two others? Arabs reject an independent Kurdish state, Berber state, Black African Sudanese state, etc. for the same reasons ? a belief that only they have the right to rule lands where many different peoples have historically lived and live.
Regardless of the chants of the popular anti-Israel chorus, there is no moral equivalency between those who murder and those who try to prevent their loved ones from being murdered. And that's what Israel's reservations over the Road Map are basically all about and why Israel is building its costly security fence.
After 9/11, the United States didn't negotiate with Al-Qaida or the Taliban. It sent in B-52 and B-1 bombers to do the "negotiating." Yet, the world expects Israel to constantly watch its people get blown to bits. Al-Qaida had its gripes with America, too, but that didn't lead us to seek "accommodation" with those who butchered our people.
So, a piece of advice. The next time you read some columnist complaining about checkpoints, or see another picture about those long lines, consider the following:
Before anything can be done to ease up on the measures and restrictions Israel has been forced to take to try to limit Arab terrorism, the Arabs themselves must control those who deliberately disembowel, maim and incinerate Jews.
What other nation would demand less?
In this case, there's no mistaking which came first. As long as Arab hens continue their deadly business as usual, misery for their own people will also hatch from the eggs that are laid.