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| IDF roadblock in the Nablus (Shechem) area (Jerusalem Post) |
I am not a fan of Israeli settlements. At least not those
that are deep into the West Bank. Which are primarily settled for purposes of asserting Jewish rights to all of Eretz Yisroel. I am in fact opposed to them. Not because I don’t believe
we have that right. We do. As an Orthodox Jew I believe we have that as a God given
right. I am opposed because of the
danger to our people living there.
Palestinians believe that what we call Eretz
Yisroel is all theirs. And that the European Jews came there to snatch
that land from them for their own colonialist purposes. They deny our religious claims to the land and counter them with religious claims of their own.
Our secondary claim that Israel serves as a home for Holocaust
survivors is countered by them - saying that Holocaust was not their fault. It was not of their doing. It was Europe’s fault. Why should they
suffer the consequences of housing so many Jewish survivors?
One of the most pro settler Gedolim of the 20th century, Rav Ahron Soloveichik put it this way: ‘If not for the Torah the Arabs would be right’. Those were his exact words.
Who is right? It depends
who you ask. I believe it was Zionist pioneer and Israel’s first President,
Chaim Weizmann who said something like, ‘The Arab-Israeli conflict is between right versus right’.
What is the solution to this conflict? If I knew
the answer to that I would deserve not only the Nobel Peace Prize, I would
probably be the most deserving recipient of it ever!
The question is what do we do with what we have?
How can we achieve a peaceful co-existence with an implacable Palestinian leadership?
It is now over 70 years after the State of Israel’s creation and over 100 years since the Balfour Declaration.
There are 6 million Jews living
in Israel. It is the the most powerful nation in the region. It has nuclear weapons. It has one of
the most stable economies in the world. It has contributed a great many Nobel Prize winners to the world in a variety of fields. It has contributed greatly to the
advancement of science and medicine. It is the only
democracy in the Middle East. Time tested! And it preserves and protects the rights of all its religious minorities. Israeli Arabs can even run for the
Kenesset - and do. There are 18 Arabs serving in that capacity right now!
Palestinians on the West Bank do not have much of
any of that. They blame it all on Israel’s occupation. But the truth is that could
have the freedom to achieve as much as Israel does if they would just be
willing to make peace. No one would stop them from achieving it. In fact I am 100% convinced that Israel would even help them. Common sense dictates that when you have two peoples claiming rights to
the land, the only solution is to compromise and agree to live together.
Israel was more than willing to compromise. They were ready to give Palestinians almost every
single thing they asked for in July of 2000 during the tenure of Ehud Barak. Including East Jerusalem. They turned Israel down
and instead increased their violence toward them.
In August of 2005 under the tenure of the late Ariel Sharon, Palestinians were given
Gaza unilaterally as a gesture and possible first step towards an ultimate peace treaty. They have answered that with a continuous flow of indiscriminate
rocket attacks funded at the expense of their own people.
Terrorist attacks were a common occurrence in Israel - often perpetrated by Palestinians. They would blow themselves up in a
crowd of innocent Jews. On public buses or in crowded restaurants. That
forced Israel to build a wall on the West Bank border so that terrorists could no longer sneak through so
easily. Although sometimes they did and perpetrated mass murders - the frequency of that has decreased considerably.
Even if one might agree that Palestinians have a
legitimate claim to the land, I believe it is obvious that it is they who are mostly responsible for the lack of any serious negotiation between the two sides.
And yet the entire world sees only the Palestinian side of the issue. Which is reflected in the one sided condemnations of Israel
in the UN. Thankfully the most powerful nation in the world now has an
administration that sees things as they are. Not as the Palestinians narrative would
have you believe. I don’t thank anyone denies that Palestinians have legitimate claims. Nor that their
people suffer. The question is why do they suffer? And why can there be no
peace?
I think US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman said it best:
An Israeli father of six was killed last night in cold blood by Palestinian terrorists. Hamas praises the killers and PA laws will provide them financial rewards. Look no further to why there is no peace.
This was in response to the latest terrorist attack on the West Bank. In a drive by shooting 20 bullets were pumped into
Rabbi Raziel Shevach, a father of six while he was driving near the
settlement outpost of Havat Gilad.
Yes, it is dangerous it is to be driving in the West Bank. Which as I said - is why
I am opposed to having settlements there. But there is absolutely no justification
at all for this kind of terror. It was a brutal act of murder by an individual
that is indoctrinated to hate us. An individual that sees every Jew as though
he were a Nazi.
This is the real problem. It is clear as the sun
that Palestinians consider this murderer to be a hero. As they do all others like him.
There is no condemnation. Only praise as ‘martyrs’!
Well… not only. They also reward their families
with financial stipends of support after one of them ‘martyrs’ him or herself.
They may occasionally pay public lip-service condemnation to such brutal attacks.
But actions speak louder than words.
There are those who will try and counterclaim that
there are instances of Israeli terrorism against Palestinians too. Showing that
Israelis are no better than Palestinians when it comes to terrorism.
Aside from the vastly greater number of terrorist attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, versus terrorist attacks by Israelis against
Palestinians - there is the fact that Israel does not reward Israeli terrorists
or their families. They condemn the terrorists. And they prosecute them when
they are caught. In fact some of them have committed acts of terror against
their own government.
And Palestinians
have the gall to say that the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has
killed the peace process?! And the gall to ignore rewarding terror as though it
has nothing to do with it?! This isn’t Hamas doing it. It is the so called
moderate Palestinian Authority!
I am so sick of their perspective being so
embraced by the nations of the world. So much so that they condemned recognizing Jerusalem as harmful to the peace process while completely ignoring the terrorist elephant
(and his admirers) in the room. Thank God we now have an administration that
sees the truth and has appointed people to make sure the truth is spoken loudly and clearly to the
world. It’s just too bad that the world is too deaf to it.
