It took a reputed right-winger, Menachem Begin, to initiate the logically and empirically flawed policy of territory-for-peace. I say "logically" because that policy requires Israel to relinquish territory whenever the Arabs threaten war. I say "empirically" because that policy simply ignores the 1,400-year record of the mendacity and militancy of Arab-Islamic culture, its contempt and hatred of "infidels," especially of Jews.
In Israel's March 26, 1979 peace treaty with Egypt, Mr. Begin, a democrat, turned over the Sinai to Anwar Sadat, an autocrat who later boasted, in a New York Times interview: "Poor Menachem, he has his problems... After all, I got back... the Sinai and the Alma oil fields, and what has Menachem got? A piece of paper."
Was Begin simply driven by wishful thinking or was he drunk with the ambition to be a "peace-maker"? Let facts be considered by sober men:
Egypt had long been the center of the most obscene anti-Jewish and anti-Israel propaganda in the Middle East - propaganda that incites Muslims to murder Jews. Mr. Begin foolishly believed that Sadat's signature to a piece of paper would put an end to Egypt's long-established hatred of Jews. He also ignored the fact that Egypt was the creator and patron of the PLO, that Egypt's objective in creating the PLO was to facilitate the destruction of the Jewish state. Indeed, the present writer personally warned Mr. Begin of Sadat's phased "peace-and-war" strategy the day before he left for the Camp David Summit in September 1978.
Consistent with that strategy, Egypt has been the primary supplier of arms to the PLO-Palestinian Authority. Five Israeli prime ministers have blinked at this fact: Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, and now Ariel Sharon.
Sharon, another reputed right-winger, is lusting to be a "peace-maker." He desperately wants to fulfill the logic of Begin's policy: unilateral withdrawal from Gaza as a preliminary to withdrawal from Judea and Samaria - the precondition for establishing a Palestinian state. True, Begin opposed an Arab state on Jewish soil, but his Camp David "autonomy" plan, which envisioned functional independence for Arabs on the "West Bank," could not but lead to armed conflict. Failure to incorporate Judea, Samaria, and Gaza (Yesha) into the State of Israel could not but lead to Oslo.
Although it was the left-wing Labor-led government of Yitzhak Rabin that foisted Oslo on the Jewish people, only a Likud government, now led by Sharon, can evacuate the Jews from Yesha. Any attempt of a Labor-led government to uproot these Jews would erupt in civil war. It takes the "right" to lead the sheep to the slaughter.
The betrayal of these Jews will further emasculate Israel and lead to its demise. Many Jews will leave the country, disgusted with the pusillanimity and treachery of their government - to say nothing of the defeatism of all-too-many of their fellow- citizens. Can you blame them? If they see no organized opposition, no serious effort to topple the Sharon government and to establish a new government based on solid Jewish principles and values, should they wait for more and deadlier missiles to descend upon them from a sovereign Palestinian state on Israel's doorstep?
If they see a majority of 200,000 Likud members vote for uprooting 8,000 Jews from their homes and schools and synagogues in Gaza - a mere prelude to uprooting tens of thousands of more from Judea and Samaria - can they live with their heads held high in such a shameful state? Since when does any number of Jews have the right to decide, directly or otherwise, on the deracination of other Jews? How can anyone tolerate a Prime Minister that employs a foreign power - the United States - to bend his government to his ignominious ambition?
A French ambassador called Israel a "sh..ty country." The time to prove him wrong is now!
In Israel's March 26, 1979 peace treaty with Egypt, Mr. Begin, a democrat, turned over the Sinai to Anwar Sadat, an autocrat who later boasted, in a New York Times interview: "Poor Menachem, he has his problems... After all, I got back... the Sinai and the Alma oil fields, and what has Menachem got? A piece of paper."
Was Begin simply driven by wishful thinking or was he drunk with the ambition to be a "peace-maker"? Let facts be considered by sober men:
Egypt had long been the center of the most obscene anti-Jewish and anti-Israel propaganda in the Middle East - propaganda that incites Muslims to murder Jews. Mr. Begin foolishly believed that Sadat's signature to a piece of paper would put an end to Egypt's long-established hatred of Jews. He also ignored the fact that Egypt was the creator and patron of the PLO, that Egypt's objective in creating the PLO was to facilitate the destruction of the Jewish state. Indeed, the present writer personally warned Mr. Begin of Sadat's phased "peace-and-war" strategy the day before he left for the Camp David Summit in September 1978.
Consistent with that strategy, Egypt has been the primary supplier of arms to the PLO-Palestinian Authority. Five Israeli prime ministers have blinked at this fact: Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, and now Ariel Sharon.
Sharon, another reputed right-winger, is lusting to be a "peace-maker." He desperately wants to fulfill the logic of Begin's policy: unilateral withdrawal from Gaza as a preliminary to withdrawal from Judea and Samaria - the precondition for establishing a Palestinian state. True, Begin opposed an Arab state on Jewish soil, but his Camp David "autonomy" plan, which envisioned functional independence for Arabs on the "West Bank," could not but lead to armed conflict. Failure to incorporate Judea, Samaria, and Gaza (Yesha) into the State of Israel could not but lead to Oslo.
Although it was the left-wing Labor-led government of Yitzhak Rabin that foisted Oslo on the Jewish people, only a Likud government, now led by Sharon, can evacuate the Jews from Yesha. Any attempt of a Labor-led government to uproot these Jews would erupt in civil war. It takes the "right" to lead the sheep to the slaughter.
The betrayal of these Jews will further emasculate Israel and lead to its demise. Many Jews will leave the country, disgusted with the pusillanimity and treachery of their government - to say nothing of the defeatism of all-too-many of their fellow- citizens. Can you blame them? If they see no organized opposition, no serious effort to topple the Sharon government and to establish a new government based on solid Jewish principles and values, should they wait for more and deadlier missiles to descend upon them from a sovereign Palestinian state on Israel's doorstep?
If they see a majority of 200,000 Likud members vote for uprooting 8,000 Jews from their homes and schools and synagogues in Gaza - a mere prelude to uprooting tens of thousands of more from Judea and Samaria - can they live with their heads held high in such a shameful state? Since when does any number of Jews have the right to decide, directly or otherwise, on the deracination of other Jews? How can anyone tolerate a Prime Minister that employs a foreign power - the United States - to bend his government to his ignominious ambition?
A French ambassador called Israel a "sh..ty country." The time to prove him wrong is now!