Going from bad to worse

By Ted Belman

Ted 4The world is totally committed to the two-state solution. European country after country is passing non-binding resolutions to recognize Palestine in principle.

The parameters of the deal which have been set in stone, notwithstanding that all issues are to be decided by negotiations, are the ’67 lines plus swaps and the division of Jerusalem. Never mind that such a deal is not good enough for the Arabs.  Hamas rejects it outright. Mahmoud Abbas, as President of the PA, is still clamoring for the so called right of return and is unwilling to recognize Israel as the home of the Jews while at the same time insisting that “Palestine” be yudenrein.

The EU has already put a boycott on goods from Judea and Samaria and is drafting legislation imposing sanctions on Israel. It is even rumored that the US is contemplating doing the same. That’s ironic considering that both want to ease sanctions on Iran.

Israel, for its part is going along to get along, at least that is, to a degree. Netanyahu has agreed to negotiate the two-state solution subject to three pillars, “One, genuine mutual recognition; two, an end to all claims, including the right of return; and three, a long-term Israeli security presence.” according to his remarks to the Saban Conference.  He did not mention borders. Would he accept ’67 lines plus swaps?  He didn’t say but I think it is implied. Even so, there are no takers.

The Palestine Authority (PA) has turned its back on negotiations which would require it to accept these pillars and instead is getting ready to ask the UN Security Council to recognize the state of Palestine and to call for Israel to evacuate the territories calling for a full Israeli withdraw to the pre-1967 lines by November 2016. The Obama administrations is working to prevent this but at the same time is considering the implications of not vetoing it. From the point of view of Obama, the more pressure on Israel, the better. Europe agrees. The European parliaments, one after another, have favoured the recognition of Palestine in non-binding resolutions.

Congress on the other hand in their spending bill provides, according to the Washington  Post, “The bill stops assistance to the Palestinian Authority if it becomes a member of the United Nations or UN agencies without an agreement  with Israel. It also prohibits funds for Hamas.” and provides “$3.1 billion in total aid for the country (Israel) plus $619.8 million in defense aid”. It has yet to pass.

Meanwhile the PA continues its incitement and lies. A recent poll of Palestinians showed that 80 percent supported individual attacks by Palestinians who have stabbed Israelis or rammed cars into crowded train stations and 59.6 percent supporting rocket fire at Israel. Is this a partner for peace? This poll may have been intended to promote the resistance.

At long last Israel is mounting certain responses. 1) Greater police presence in Jerusalem with fewer restrictions on them, 2) Greater penalties, like longer sentences, for any violent rioters and 3) Enacting zero tolerance laws prohibiting incitement.  The Bill, not yet passed into law, states, “A call to an act of violence or terror deserves condemnation in the criminal realm as well, even if it is insufficient to lead to violence or terror. It does not deserve to be protected by the principle of freedom of expression.”

Wednesday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon attributed  the building freeze in Judea and Samaria to pressure from the Obama administration and suggested Israel has to wait him out.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that objection to “settlements” was longstanding and would not change after President Barack Obama leaves office in 2017 and said “Our policy has been consistent for quite some time,”

I am not so sure. Besides, she misses the point. While all administrations, from President Reagan on have considered settlements, while not illegal, to be an “obstacle to peace”, none of them forced Israel to freeze construction and even planning for construction and certainly not in Jerusalem.

The US and the EU continually allege that settlements are an obstacle to peace. Have you ever heard them claim the same about PA incitement, or its support of terror or its refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state or its unwillingness to forego the “right of return”. Maybe, a little bit in passing, but they have done nothing to change their position and hardly condemned them.

Furthermore, Obama’s decision to back negotiations based on borders along the ’67 lines plus swaps was a big mistake. Doing so was contrary to his often stated position that any settlement must come through direct negotiations. He has forever repeated the mantra that neither side should take any unilateral moves which pre-determine the outcome.  He himself, by predetermining the borders, is pre-determining the outcome.

Had he not pre-determined the borders of the final settlement, then Israel would have been entitled to build everywhere at its peril meaning that when borders are agreed upon, if ever, the housing on Israel’s side would remain and the housing on the Palestinian side would have to be vacated if the PA insists on the Nazi doctrine of making the land yuden frie (Jew free) and the West supports such a doctrine.

The only unilateral moves proscribed by the Oslo Accords and all subsequent agreements, are those which change the status of the land. By this is meant, to claim sovereignty. So Israel can’t annex the land and the PA can’t go to the UN and ask them for sovereignty, not so long as the Oslo Accords have not been formally abrogated. The construction of housing by Israel in no way changes the status of the land. And neither does land use planning.

And if you think that Israel will agree to divide Jerusalem, their eternal capital, think again. Nir Barkat, the Mayor of Jerusalem, when addressing the JPOST Diplomatic Conference attended by over three hundred of diplomats, gave a very upbeat assessment of the transformation of Jerusalem that is taking place and will continue to take place.  He stressed the commitment by him and the government to maintain the status quo between all religions. He ended by disabusing the audience of any thoughts they might have about dividing Jerusalem. It will never happen he said and I believe him.

Israel is consumed with the issue of whether to pass the nation-state bill which essentially declares that Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people. To do so, claims the left in Israel, is to diminish it as a democratic state. But there is no evidence to support this.

Eugene Kontorovich wrote a two part article in the Washington Post on The legitimacy of Israel’s nation-state bill in which he said the bill was unremarkable when compared to many European constitutions with similar, and stronger, national homeland provisions.

He also argued that:

“The proposed measure must also be understood in the context of Israel’s diplomatic situation. Israel’s biggest diplomatic issue is the status of Jerusalem and the West Bank, and international pressure to create a new Arab state there and in Gaza. The major argument by proponents of territorial withdrawal (including President Obama and Sec. Kerry) is that despite the serious security risks, Israel must retreat in order to maintain a “Jewish state.” Indeed, even foreign leaders, like President Obama and Secretary Kerry have both justified their pressure on Israel by invoking the preservation of the Israel’s Jewish identity.”

And went further:

“Thus supporters of Israel leaving the West Bank believe having a Jewish state is worth security risks, surrendering historical homeland and religious sites, and expelling over 100,000 Jews. That suggests a Jewish state is not merely a legitimate thing, but one that is worth a great deal. Yet the same voices calling for Israel to undertake dangerous diplomatic concessions in the name of preserving the state’s Jewish identity balk at legislation declaring that the state in fact is what they claim they want it to remain.”

According to a Israel Democracy Institute recent Poll, 75% of Israeli Jews see no contradiction between Israel being Jewish and being dermcratic.

MEMRI, the NGO that for years has translated the Arab media to document what the Arabs including the PA say amongst themselves as opposed to what they say in English to the West, prefaced their latest report with this:

“Preacher At Al-Aqsa Mosque In Jerusalem Tells Jews: ‘We Shall Slaughter You Without Mercy’ and ‘I Say To [You] Loud And Clear: The Time For Your Slaughter Has Come’; Says Koran Depicted Jews ‘In The Most Abominable Images,’ Allah Turned The Jews ‘Into Apes And Pigs’; Calls To ‘Hasten The Establishment Of The State Of The Islamic Caliphate’”

Is there any making peace with these people?

December 14, 2014 | 11 Comments »

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11 Comments / 11 Comments

  1. @ Ted Belman:

    “I said we were aware of the treaty but generally don’t mention it because Israel’s legal rights don’t depend on it.”

    It’s true that Israel’s legal rights don’t depend on it.

    However, because it embodies explicit USA endorsement of the Mandate — and with it, every signatory’s protection of the rights therein set forth — Israel’s claim on AMERICAN SUPPORT for those rights (especially, tho not solely, in the Security Council) does depend on it.

    It’s clear that the other Mandate state-signators don’t much care about the legalities, but it’s EQUALLY evident that this US administration has conspicuously trod very lightly about the matter of legality to date (consistently opting for ‘legitimacy’ instead) — an undeniable fact which strongly suggests that it fears letting the legality issue become prominent in the public eye.

  2. Clarifications Required for BBC Reports on Shati Incident…

    Following a thorough review conducted by the FFAM, such a strike by IDF forces could not be identified. However, Israel’s technical systems recorded in real-time the path of a salvo of missiles fired from within the Gaza Strip, seemingly by Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which landed in the medical clinics and in the Shati Refugee Camp at the time of the alleged incident. Under these circumstances, and in light of the fact that the strike on the hospital was the result of rocket fire from Palestinian terrorist organizations, the MAG ordered the case to be closed.”

    http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/12/14/clarifications-required-for-bbc-reports-on-shati-incident/

  3. Do I lose sleep over Europe which has always hated and continues to hate the Jews?

    Not really. This kerfuffle against Israel is a very small thing in the long run of history and will be forgotten.

    As the Arab saying has it, the dogs bark and the caravan moves on.

  4. From the Muslim world’s viewpoint, the entire anatomy of Israel is all occupied waqf, ie all of Israel is illegitimate. This includes the successful towns, villages and suburbs that they call settlements. In In reality, they are strong fingers clutching the historic homeland. To say that “settlements” are an obstacle to peace is to stand with those who would dismember Israel to a level where it could no longer hold on to its terra sancta. These people therefore define themselves as anti-Israel. Remove the rose colored glasses and Chazak, Chazak v’Nitschazak.

  5. The correct paradigm is blackmail. Victims pay off blackmailers in the delusional hope the blackmailer will take the money and go away. But blackmailers never go away, they always return for more. The blackmailers’ threat is economic and political sanctions, and the payment the blackmailers demand today is Yehuda, Shomron and Jerusalem.

    There are five powerful forces that oppose the existence of Israel today, and at least four of these forces will powerfully oppose the existence of Israel tomorrow regardless of what Israel does. 1) The Arab hatred of a Jewish Israel will remain virulent and rock solid, unabated even if every Jew in Israel turned west, walked into the Mediterranean and drowned. 2) European anti-Semitism, if anything, will continue to grow. 3) The Moslem population within European countries and therefore Moslem political power will significantly grow for at least two more generations. 4) The European intellectual perversion that regards Jewish Israel as a colonialist enterprise will remain a primary obsession of European academics, media and artists-intellectuals. The only significant anti-Israel force today that might eventually become irrelevant is the Arab oil weapon.

    The blackmailers aren’t going away. Pay them today with Yehuda, Shomron and Jerusalem, and tomorrow they will come back for Haifa, Eilat and Tel Aviv.

  6. @ SHmuel HaLevi 2:

    There is only one enemy of Israel Glick refuses to criticize or even rebuke emphatically and that’s BB. That she has always been a BB accolade, maybe even more, detracts from her mostly otherwise competent political analytic acumen.

  7. “Preacher At Al-Aqsa Mosque In Jerusalem Tells Jews: ‘We Shall Slaughter You Without Mercy’
    Ted says:
    Is there any making peace with these people?

    Of course not, but that does not prevent the left and that newly forming coalition of losers and foreign stooges to try and branwash the public into believing otherwise.
    Partners for peace,land for peace,etc etc
    the anchronistic babblings of those whose judgment continues to evade facts and produce failure.

  8. SHmuel HaLevi 2 Said:

    Mrs. Caroline Glick harsh proclamations resonate far deeper than Netanyahu’s tip toeing through the tulips.
    Jus’ saying…

    Exactly… enough tiptoeing…
    say it out loud “I’m black and I’m proud”
    Ooooops, sorry, wrong conflict and wrong saying 😛
    here it is:

    “Jewish settlement in ALL of Israel is legitimate and legal”

    I just cant get enough of that lovely statement 🙂

  9. Israel’s biggest diplomatic issue is the status of Jerusalem and the West Bank, and international pressure to create a new Arab state there and in Gaza.

    An yet one must wonder why this statement NEVER flows from the mouths of Jewish political and religious leadership:

    “Jewish settlement in ALL of Israel is legitimate and legal”.

    It goes without saying that if the above staement is true then the US admin, the EU, and the UN are ALL liars, defamers, libelers and delegitimizers.

    We are still whining and whinging about what everyone is doing to us but still continue to maintain silence on the most pressing issue.

    Ted Belman Said:

    austinfreeman911 (signed in using yahoo)
    The American Government and the UN have both been breaking their own laws with “abandon” as if they think that we Jews are not aware of them, or maybe because we’re…”just Jews..” so they don’t care.

    Ted Belman Said:

    I said we were aware of the treaty but generally don’t mention it because Israel’s legal rights don’t depend on it.

    This statement demonstrates the error of the GOI thought process. Israels legal rights only depend on Israels power. However, the tactic of lawfare has the capacity to bring the issue into the public eye, to create internal political opposition to the foreign leaderships criminal actions, to obstruct and impede and even to reverse the criminal and illegal behavior of the political elites of the US, the EU govs and the UN.

    An Israeli gov that cannot even utter the words in bold above is incapable of strategies, tactics, attacks, in the political, legal and diplomatic arena… this is a self evident statement of fact. This is why I recommended that rather than giving money to Sherman and Bennett a more successful outcome would be facilitated by giving money to Shurat ha din.

    The greatest threats to YS and Jerusalem are not physical but are diplomatic, political and legal…..DUH??????? The diplomatic, political and legal bumbling of the successive GOI’s are obvious, only shurat ha Din shows promise in the legal. By refusing to seize the strategic and tactical opportunities presented to attack the Achilles heels of the foreign leaderships illegal and criminal behaviors Israel demonstrates that it is inept and foolish. Cases should be pursued in each nation up to their supreme courts… it is a tactic of attack. NGO’s like shurat can handle such cases based on compelling the observance of agreements and the ceasing of libels which contradict those agreements. there is forever whining and whinging about what they are doing to us, its time to cease whining and hire shurat to file the cases for libel, mandamus and estoppel. I am sure that a good Jewish lawyer can make a case for damages resulting to the collective Jewish people as a result of the direct obstruction of agreements and the indirect libels of illegality and illegitimacy on top of cases to cease, desist and implement.

    Austin Freeman is correct and Israel and the jewish diaspora orgs are derelict in not seizing the presented opportunities to attack the causes which are the main source of Israel’s and the Jews troubles at this time.

  10. This article was also posted on Arutz Sheva. This is the first comment posted there.

    austinfreeman911 (signed in using yahoo)
    TED BELMAN….I read IsraPundit, It selects eclectic material to reprint, and the group of members who regularly comment are second to none.

    Yet…they always omit a certain item. They always mention the 1920 San Remo Conference, the 1922 League of Nations British Mandate for Palestine and the 1945 Art. 80 of the UN Founding Charter.

    They never mention the 1924 Anglo-American Treaty. THis was when both Houses of Congress unanimously endorsed the conditions concerning the Mandate duties towards the Jewish People. They were also signed into American law by President Harding, and after his death, a final signature by President Calvin Coolidge. In each if the above the 1917 Balfour Declaration was included in full, usually in the preamble.

    The American Government and the UN have both been breaking their own laws with “abandon” as if they think that we Jews are not aware of them, or maybe because we’re…”just Jews..” so they don’t care.

    Yet, ignorant as they sound and act, it’s hard to believe that they actually are not fully aware….

    I said we were aware of the treaty but generally don’t mention it because Israel’s legal rights don’t depend on it.

  11. I find the hand wringing not justified.
    Mr. Netanyahu will be re elected and the unJewish sectors further eroded. What is the meaning of that? Not that much. Netanyahu knows he will be in by default, not by right.
    The true paradigm remains outside that. Mrs. Caroline Glick harsh proclamations resonate far deeper than Netanyahu’s tip toeing through the tulips.
    Jus’ saying…