 |
| Israel cannot live side by side with this |
To that end, the UK has just issued what can best be
described as one of its strongest sanctions against Israel, banning any
products produced there., regardless of how long ago those communities were
established or how peaceful their inhabitants are - and always have been.
The hubris of claiming the moral high ground on this issue
is breathtaking. It effectively treats hundreds of thousands of long-term,
peaceful Israeli residents as if they were terrorists simply because they live
in communities labeled “settlements.” The word itself has increasingly become a
pejorative, sometimes almost a euphemism for “terrorist.”
And, of course, the blame is placed on the current Israeli
right-wing government. As if any other Israeli government would necessarily
dismantle these communities.
I’m not sure whether this myopia is deliberate or simply the
result of ignorance. But if I had to guess, I would say history plays a role.
Western Europe has a long history of antisemitism, and some of the attitudes we
are seeing today are disturbingly reminiscent of that history.
They are now being expressed under the guise of sympathy for
the “oppressed” Palestinians, who are supposedly suffering “apartheid” under a
cruel Israeli occupation. They may as well have said “Jewish” instead of
Israeli - even if those making the accusation would NEVER admit it.
Thing is, they are not wrong in theory.
The idea of a two-state solution, in which Jews and
Palestinians live side by side peacefully and cooperate for the betterment of
both communities, is an ideal solution to what seems like an ageless and
endless conflict that has caused enormous bloodshed on both sides.
What about the mitzvah of settling all the Land of Israel?
Eventually, that time will come in the Messianic era. Until
then, we have to find a way to end the bloodshed and live in peace with one
another. Arab and Jew alike.
“The devil,” however, (to quote Ross Perot) “is in the
details.”
A two-state solution is virtually impossible under current
conditions, no matter how much some of us might want it in theory.
The reality is that there is deep-seated hostility toward
Israel and Zionism in significant segments of the Arab and Muslim world. That
hostility is particularly strong among Islamist movements and among Palestinian
Arabs exposed to many decades of anti-Israel and antisemitic indoctrination.
Indoctrination that is generational.
That does not mean that every Muslim or Palestinian shares
those views. Clearly, there are Muslims and Palestinians who would prefer to
live peacefully alongside a Jewish state. But Hamas, Hezbollah, and other
Iranian proxies have repeatedly demonstrated that they do not accept that
vision. They have the means and determination to prevent it, as demonstrated by
countless terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, culminating in the worst
terrorist attack since the Holocaust on October 7, 2023.
Muslims deeply committed to Islamist ideology view the very
existence of a Jewish state as religiously unacceptable – a contradiction to
their theology. Is there really any question that this is a goal of the Iranian
regime and its proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah?
Their claim that they simply want to be liberated from
Israeli “occupation” is grist for the mill of the Left, which often buys that
argument hook, line, and sinker. But the record suggests that Hamas and other
Jihadist organizations have no genuine interest in a two-state solution. For
them, Palestinian statehood is instead one step toward the elimination of
Israel altogether.
That is why, even after Gaza was handed over to Palestinian
control in 2005, Hamas took over and immediately began building an
infrastructure designed to attack Israel. It built terror tunnels, accumulated
enormous quantities of weapons and munitions, and organized attacks against
Israeli civilians—all with funding and support from Iran.
Hamas, Hezbollah, and other like-minded jihadist groups
speak of “freeing Palestine” from its Jewish occupiers, but their actions have
provided little evidence that they are prepared to accept the permanent
existence of a Jewish state and live alongside it in peace.
That is the fundamental problem.
Yet the “altruists” among Western Europeans, Canadians,
Democrats, and liberal journalists “KNOW” that the answer is a two-state
solution. And they are willing to boycott or pressure any Israeli government
that does not embrace it…
To continue reading - and/or to comment on this post -
click on this link: substack. You must subscribe to receive new posts. It's
easy and it's free.
