Shalom all,
For those of you who celebrated the Passover last night, my prayer is that you read well, reflected well, ate well and were blessed by your time with family and friends. May God provide us opportunity to celebrate together our freedom from slavery, physical and spiritual, as well as from the power behind the world system that enslaved us, physically and spiritually.
A bit of further reflection on the crisis in the so-called “peace negotiations” brings us back to Netanyahu’s famous Bar-Ilan speech in 2009, which he made during his second term in office. During the speech, he made certain “concessions” and expressed a willingness: (1) to implement a two-state solution; (2) to approve a construction freeze in the settlements; (3) to agree, in principle, to land swaps and (4) to release terrorists. The implications of that speech were broad and politicos argued over the possible ramifications of conceding one point or another.
It is important to note that during his Bar-Ilan speech, Netanyahu emphasized “recognition” as being a key element of his willingness to make “concessions”: “If the ‘Palestinians’ recognize Israel as the State of the Jewish people, then we will be ready in a future peace agreement to reach a solution where a demilitarized ‘Palestinian’ state exists alongside the Jewish state.” (emphasis mine) While it may be difficult for some in the leftist camp and the main stream media to accept, the issue of recognition was actually raised by the Israeli leftists and was raised by none other than the champion of the left, Tzippi Livni herself, back in November, 2007 (when she was serving as Foreign Minister under Netanyahu’s predcessor, Ehud Olmert, at a meeting with senior “Palestinian” Authority officials: “Israel the state of the Jewish people – and I would like to emphasize the meaning of ‘its people’ is the Jewish people…I didn’t ask for recognizing something that is the internal decision of Israel. Israel can do so, it is a sovereign state. [We want you to recognize it.] The whole idea of the conflict is … the entire point is the establishment of the Jewish state.” As Netanyahu stated in a few months back: “Recognizing Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people means completely abandoning the ‘right of return’ and ending any other national demands over the land and sovereign of the State of Israel…This is a crucial component for a genuine reconciliation and stable and durable peace.”
But, following Netanyahu’s Bar Ilan speech, the “Palestinians” didn’t waver in their positions. They affirmed their goal of establishing a “Palestinian” state (which would include land swaps), the dividing of Jerusalem so that it would be the capital of the state to be formed. But, more importantly, they maintained that they would not recognise Israel as the Jewish state and would not yield on their demand to allow the return of the “refugees” (actually, the descendants of those who voluntarily left Israel prior to the War of Independence, in order to allow Arab armies to come against Israel and push the Jews into the sea). These descendants today number in the millions.
Many in the mainstream media had prepared their editorials in advance, trying to blame Israel for the failure of the so-called “peace negotiations”. But, in reality, it is the “Palestinians” who did everything possible to distance themselves from signing an agreement that would end the conflict. This was pointed out by Israel Defense Minister, Moshe Ya’alon, who stated that we need to abandon the concept that we need to continue to negotiate with the “Palestinians”: “I am not a prophet of doom. I am a realist…Unfortunately, I find myself saying ‘I told you so’ again and again. For eight months, Abu Mazen [Abbas] has been saying that he has no intention of recognizing Israel as the Jewish people’s national home, giving up the right of return or holding talks about the end of the conflict and the end of the demands…That is why I have been shouting for 20 years that every time the “Palestinians” need to make decisions, they run away and try to blame us. On the festival of liberation, we need to liberate ourselves from the intellectual slavery of irrelevant concepts about the Israeli-“Palestinian” conflict and understand the essence of the conflict, and deal with it accordingly.”
Ya’alon’s perspective was repeated by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who met with Kerry this past week: “We need to tell the truth: the “Palestinians” in general and Abu Mazen in particular are not interested in reaching an agreement with us.”
The paramount issue for Netanyahu is the “Palestinian” recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. In a nutshell, the reason for this is that once there is such recognition, it permeates other areas of the “Palestinian” narrative and affects the claim for the return of the refugees, as well as invites closure to the endless demands of the “Palestinians”, not the least of which is the claim that all of Israel is “occupied territory”. What most of the head honchos in the U.S. and the E.U. fail to understand is the underlying cause of the conflict. It is not the bogus claim of “occupation” of areas in Judea and Samaria, nor is it the rhetoric relating to the return of Arab “refugees”, the vast majority of whom are dead (in this regard, note the comments in my post of TWTW ending 22 June, 2013, regarding the expulsion of Jews from Arab-speaking lands, which took place at the same time, resulting in a population shift in this region). Rather, it has to do with Jewish presence in what is considered to be Islamic land – not in submission to Islam, but independent of it, and having ownership authority over that land. This is rooted in Islamic thought and instruction, namely: once Islam has conquered any land, that land becomes sacred to Islam, even if Islam is temporarily removed from it. So, if we understand the concept, then we must come to the conclusion that it is the ruling Jewish presence in this area that is problematic. This Jewish presence flies in the face of the Islamic concept of religious superiority over every other religion. As long as our presence here continues, the conflict will continue. Therefore, neither Abbas, nor any other “Palestinian” leader, would be able to yield on the question of recognising Israel as a Jewish state, without risking his life. In a similar fashion, when Abbas met with Barack Hussein Obama a short while back, he could not commit to ending the conflict.
Attention needs to be focused on what the “Palestinians” are saying, how they say it and, particularly, when and why they say it. As noted last week by Muhammad Al-Daya, the former bodyguard of Yasser Arafat (the Chairman of the PLO from 1969-2004 and the President of the “Palestinian” Authority from 1994 until his death in 2004), Islam allows for lying in politics. He added that when Arafat said he was against the killing of civilians, those denouncements were not true, but came about as a a result of badgering by Hosni Mubarak, the then Egyptian president. Mubarak would tell Arafat, “Denounce it, or they will screw you”. So with the situation today, talk is cheap and could be politically motivated, but a written commitment to end the conflict would be binding.
I’d like to close this part of the post with a quote from Dr. Rueven Berko, who stated on April 3rd: “There is nothing quite like the Palestinians when it comes to negotiating: First they threaten us that if we don’t grab President Mahmoud Abbas by the coattails, we are destined to have a binational state on our hands that will gradually become Palestinian. Then they wave the possibility of another armed uprising. Lately they have begun materializing their threat by taking unilateral action to win recognition of a Palestinian state, to take us to court for war crimes at The Hague, and to boycott us as economic and academic outcasts.
In actuality, the Palestinians are not magicians and they don’t have a rabbit in their hat. They are draped in an Islamic suit of insanity cut from an inter-Arab (Hamas, Arab League) and in-house cloth (pressure from home to ensure the right of return for refugees to Israel), and they are unable to reach any sort of arrangement with us. Therefore, they are more interested in destroying and hurting Israel than they are, or are capable of, in coming to an agreement with us.”
From a strictly human point of view, the only way that the “Palestinian” conflict will end will be when the “Palestinians” desire peace and work towards it. That means that they need to re-educate their people. A recent survey of 150 new Palestinian Authority textbooks revealed widespread delegitimisation and demonisation of Israel and continued to call for violent struggle instead of peace. The books claim that the Jews have no rights to Israel, including to Jewish holy sites. The survey, which was conducted by the Near East Policy Research Center and led by Dr. Arnon Gross, a professor in Islamic Study and veteran Arab affairs correspondent for Israel Radio, also showed that the name “Israel” appeared less than a handful of times on the maps of the schools in the “Palestinian” Authority and is usually replaced with “Palestine”. Areas inside the pre-1967 ceasefire lines are described exclusively as “Palestinian”. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which operates 250 schools in the Gaza Strip and 100 in Judea and Samaria, says there is no incitement in the “Palestinian” Authority textbooks studied in its schools.
As long as “Palestinian” children are being taught to believe a lie, as their parents and grandparents were taught before them, “peace” will be a word that is defined only in an dictionary prepared from an Islamic mentality.
Paying for the Plagues of Passover? Egyptian columnist says “Sue the State of Israel”.
Ahmad al-Gamal, writing for the Egyptian daily Al-Yawm Al-Sabi, urged Egypt to the State of Israel for damages caused by the 10 Biblical plagues: “We want compensation for the plagues that were inflicted upon [us] as a result of the curses that the Jews’ ancient forefathers [cast] upon our ancient forefathers, who did not deserve to pay for the mistake that Egypt’s ruler at the time, Pharaoh, committed.”
The plagues that summarily struck Egypt in consequence included the Nile turning into blood, an outbreak of lice, diseased livestock, boils, and so on, culminating in a darkness that can be felt and the deaths of all the firstborn in Egypt, unless they were under the protection of the blood of the Passover Lamb. The plagues had a prominent role in the story of the Passover and the children of Israel being freed from the power of Egypt and from slavery in Egypt.
Gamal continued: “For what is written in the Torah proves that it was Pharaoh who oppressed the children of Israel, rather than the Egyptian people…“[But] they inflicted upon us the plague of locusts that didn’t leave anything behind them; the plague that transformed the Nile’s waters into blood, so nobody could drink of them for a long time; the plague of darkness that kept the world dark day and night; the plague of frogs; and the plague of the killing of the firstborn, namely every first offspring born to woman or beast, and so on.”
Gamal also urged that Israel should be sued for the “precious materials” used by the ancient Israelites in order to construct their desert tabernacle: “We want compensation for the gold, silver, copper, precious stones, fabrics, hides and lumber, and for [all] animal meat, hair, hides and wool, and for other materials that I will mention [below], when quoting the language of the Torah. All these are materials that the Jews used in their rituals. These are resources that cannot be found among desert wanderers unless they took them before their departure.”
It would not appear that Gamal’s desires are going to brought to fruition. But, if he does convince someone in the Egyptian establishment to pursue Israel for the claims mentioned, the likelihood is that such claims would be instantly dismissed as being barred by the Statute of Limitations. Really, waiting some 3,500 years to pursue a legal claim is a bit much. Nevertheless, if such a claim were to be filed, I would encourage Israel to file a counterclaim for damages incurred by the children of Israel resulting from 430 years of forced labor! Just to put this matter in perspective, Gamal also wants Turkey to pay reparations to Egypt for the damage caused by the Ottoman Empire following from its invasion of Egypt in the 16th century, as well as from France for Napoleon’s invasion in 1798. Not to be left is is a claim against the United Kingdom resulting from its 72-year occupation of Egypt.
Terror Attack on the Eve of Passover leaves one dead and two injured.
On the eve of the Passover holiday, a deadly terrorist attack took place near the “West Bank” Tarqumiyah crossing, which resulted in the killing of a 40-year-old Israeli father of four and the wounding of his pregnant wife and a son, aged 9. They were traveling from their home in Modi’in to participate in the Passover seder meal with the mother’s family, who live in Hebron. The attack was praised by both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, although both refrained from taking credit for it.
So, with whom does the U.S. and the E.U. want us to negotiate? Terrorists shooting guns or terrorists shooting their mouths off?
Other matters, such as the “new” anti-semitism, blood moons and former P.M. Olmert’s conviction for bribery, will hold for later. On second thought, I’ll leave out Olmert.
And
THAT was the week that was.
“You shall tell your son on that day, saying, ‘It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt’.” (Exo. 13:8)
“[Y]ou shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and the LORD brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. Moreover, the LORD showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharaoh and all his household; He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers’.” (Deut. 6:22-23)
Be blessed and be a blessing!
Marvin
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
The Week That Was 