Democracy and settling disputes by peaceful means are alien concepts in the Middle East. Liberals who naively pressure Israel to give into Arab demands, are only encouraging further aggression.
The conflict between Muslim Arabs and Jews over a tiny sliver of land remains the most misrepresented conflict in modern history. Headed by the EU and the UN, the world community obsessively pretends that this is a conventional conflict over land and specific borders.
The harsh reality that the world refuses to acknowledge however, is that this unique conflict is an Islamic ideological opposition to the existence of a Jewish state within any borders. Even if Israel would shrink to Tel Aviv, it would still be considered an unacceptable affront in the eyes of countless of Muslims from Morocco to Indonesia. Muslim fundamentalists make no distinction between the Jewish “settlement” Tel Aviv and Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
Many American and Israeli liberals have joined the European ideological bandwagon that regards territorial compromise and kindness as the greatest of human virtues. In a characteristic Eurocentric fashion, the European experience is mistakenly believed to fit the entire world including the Middle East.
Historically, Europe used to be the most violent continent on earth where neighbors were locked in seemingly never-ending wars over borders, resources and influence. Europe was the epicenter of two world wars. World War 2 alone claimed over 50 million lives, including 6 million murdered Jews in the Holocaust.
Post-1945 Western Europe decided to build its future based on democracy and settling disputes through peaceful means. However, this only works with a counterpart that shares your fundamental values. Sweden and Denmark fought for centuries over borders but did not oppose each other’s existence. Today, both countries are peaceful secular democracies that would not dream of waging war against each other. The same thing applies to France and Germany.
The situation in the Middle East is entirely different. With the exception of Israel, genuine democracy and settling disputes through peaceful means are alien concepts. Unlike post-Christian Europe, religion remains crucial to most people’s identity throughout the Muslim world. According to Islamic tradition, Jews must live as submissive Dhimmis under Islamic rule and they are not allowed to bear arms. In the eyes of countless Muslims, Jews are not entitled to any national independence and military power within any borders.
Western liberals naively believe that if only Israel is nice, cedes territory and gives into Muslim Arab demands, peace will automatically follow. In reality, the opposite is the case. In the Middle East, compromise is seen as a sign of weakness and an invitation to further aggression.
In 1974, the terrorist organization PLO adopted a genocidal Phase Plan against Israel that remains in operation to this day. It was adopted because of Arab failures to destroy Israel in the military battlefields. Another reason was to dupe naïve Western observers into believing that PLO embraces territorial compromise and a peaceful settlement with Israel.
According to the Phase Plan, any territory that Israel cedes will automatically be transformed into a new war front against the Jewish state. Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon, Gaza and parts of Judea and Samaria attest to this. Ceding territory did not give Israel even a fraction of the “peace” that only exists in the Orwellian world of Western self-appointed “Middle East experts”. In return for uprooting thousands of peaceful Jewish residents, territories controlled by Hamas and PA have been transformed into failed states and laboratories of genocidal Jew-hatred that will settle for nothing less than Israel’s destruction.
Being nice might work if your neighbors are Denmark and Switzerland, but will only invite further aggression when your neighbors are Hamas, PLO, Hezbollah and Syria.
Western self-appointed “experts” do not merely refuse to admit the fallacy of their Orwellian fantasies regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict. They also hypocritically expect Israel to turn the other cheek, when the vacated territories are used as launching pads for aggression against Israeli civilians. No country in the world would tolerate the launching of thousands of rockets against its citizens, as is the case with Gaza’s aggression against Israel.
When London was under attack during the Nazi German Blitz in World War 2, the British air force flattened German cities. Up to 25,000 Germans were killed during the Allied bombing of the German city Dresden during 13-15 February 1945. That is far more than the number of people killed by the Israeli air force during years of conflict in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza.
Critics that systematically accuse Israel of using “disproportionate” force hardly blinked when NATO bombed Iraq and Afghanistan into oblivion. Unlike Israel, NATO forces do not bother to send mass warnings through leaflets and SMS in order to minimize casualties among enemy civilians. NATO forces do not protect enemy civilians at the expense of their own soldiers’ safety. NATO forces are also not subjected to a fraction of the obsessively hostile international media coverage that is the daily reality for the Israel Defense Force.
Israel has not only been fighting for her existence since her rebirth in 1948. The Jewish state is at the forefront in the epic ongoing battle between civilization and barbarism. By betraying the sister democracy Israel, much of the West is spinelessly betraying its own fundamental values.
Genuine peace based on territorial compromises is only possible when borders represent peaceful coexistence. As long as Israel’s genocidal enemies view borders as war fronts against the reborn Jewish state, only overwhelming Israeli military deterrence will keep the wolves at bay.
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Daniel Kryger is a writer and a political analyst. He lives in Israel.
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A Two Citizenships Solution vs. a Jewish-Arab State >>
The number of Arabs and Jews living west of the Jordan River is approximately the same.
Arab autonomy in Palestine exists for more than 20 years, on the territory of the Gaza Strip and in areas A and B.
All Jews were expelled from there long ago.
A two states solution is meaningless without changing citizenship of Israeli Arabs.
Israeli Arabs obtained Israeli citizenship illegally and against international law.
In 1952, Jews rashly presented the Arabs with Israeli citizenship.
Unfortunately, Israel long ago became a bi-national , it’s an incubator for Arab people.
Arabs hate Jewish state. This can lead to events such as those that occur in Syria.
Jews will not survive in a bi-national state.
Israel must stop to impose Israeli citizenship to the hostile nation.
Immediately after the establishment of a new Arab state west of the Jordan River ( or return Jordanian rule ), the Arabs of Haifa, Nazareth, Lod, Galilee, Negev, Jerusalem etc. must become citizens of their new (old) state.
If the Jews do not want to continue to live in a bi-national state, and within a generation become a minority in Israel, they must prepare for a referendum (as in Scotland) based on the UN resolution to divide Palestine for Jews and Arabs.
Fatah-Hamas government requires land free of Jews.
Therefore, Israeli demands are legitimate and forced:
1. To divide National Insurance for Jews and Arabs, by forming the funds from taxes collected separately from Jews and Arabs.
2. To employ only the Arabs, who will replace Israeli citizenship to the status of Israel’s residents.
3. Deductions from wages ( income tax and health tax) of Arab residents to transfer to the Palestinian Authority , of course along with responsibility for health, education , jobs and pensions to all Arabs who wish to remain in Israel.
It’s possible to separate from the Arabs according to law, as the Irish and the British, as the Czechs and the Slovaks or as the Greeks and the Turks in Cyprus . First to separate economically and then geographically.
Palestinian-Jordanian citizenship to the Arabs, Israeli citizenship to the Jews.
Two Nations – Two States – Two Citizenships !
The only sustainable long term solution is:
The Arabs should be ruled by the Arab administration and the Jews should be governed by the Jewish government.