Obama and Netanyahu, the Quartet, Hamas, Abbas, notwithstanding all of them:
Israel, I fear, is falling victim to its own failure to act in a timely manner on two fronts: after June 1967 all of the conquered territories should have been annexed and the people, so beloved of the Arab countries who incited what they hoped and announced would be a genocidal war to finally end the Jewish problem, should have been forcibly removed across the new borders (a far better fate than would have befallen the Jews had the Arabs been victorious).
Secondly, Israel blew it in the rhetoric war. The new possessions should have been immediately referred to as conquered, parts of Israel, not “occupied.” Labels are everything.
In all of human history when nations, in wars of defense or offense, took an enemy’s land it was immediately known by the conquerer’s name. “USSR”, “Great Britain”, “U.S.” Have Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, or California ever been referred to as anything but states of the U.S.? — or Los Angeles and San Diego as “settlements”? By thoughtlessly acquiescing to our enemies’ choice of labels the myth of a Palestinian people and state have been propagated.
It is annoying, no – infuriating, that many Israeli journalists and leaders refer to the “settlements” and “occupied territories.”
Once the honest discussions of the peace process are under way, at least a moment needs to focus on an egalitarian approach to all issues. No mention of this was made in Obama’s presentation and Netanyahu did not broach it.
For example, in righteous financial zeal the West froze the assets of Al Qaeda, Mubarak, and Gadhafi; why has nobody demanded that foreign aid money, amounting to countless millions of dollars, be returned to the beloved people for whom it was intended by Arafat’s wife?
When Israel targets a terrorist the U.N. meets to condemn the defensive act as offensive. I know they’re busy, but I’m waiting – I fear in vain – for the U.N. Security Council to officially grumble in the aftermath of the Bin Laden assassination by the U.S.’s cross-border assault inside a sovereign member’s territory.
Alas, it may be too late for people alive today. At least two generations of Israel’s detractors have grown up with the myths and inverted history taught as truth, and Israel is complicit by not having acted in its own PR behalf as any other nation would have.
Higher moral ground, confident that the truth will prevail? Don’t want to become like the people we despise? Well, the outcome is what it is. People do not dig for the truth; they consistently, predictably respond to the loudest, most persistent message. The poor downtrodden palestinians; those vicious Israelis.
Nobody remembers what he had for breakfast yesterday, let alone the history of subjugation of the Palestinians by their own people and the terrorism that has been their consistent gift to the world since before Israeli statehood.
Ironically, tragically, the legacy of hatred and thirst for blood that has been embedded in their children will not simply disappear when the longed-for peace breaks out. Where will it find expression? Therein lies the ultimate challenge for this round of peace talks. Proverbs 22:6 understood this: חנך לנער על פי דרכו גם כי יזקין לא יסור ממנה Train a child in the way he should go and when he is grown he will not depart from it. To our dismay it works with perpetuation of evil as well.