By Mudar Zahran, Secretary General of the Jordanian Opposition Coalition
As I write this, many Israeli, Jewish and Arab friends are mourning the horrifying murder of Ari Fuld at the hands of a teenage terrorist.
Stabbed to death at the Gush Etzion Junction shopping center, Fuld left us in honor – he was stabbed trying to save a female worker from an armed attacker. Ari, a proud father of four and a dedicated friend too many, was a resident of the Efrat settlement.
For those who knew Ari, his family was everything, just as his feelings for Israel were. This tragic terrorist act underscores everything that’s wrong with the status quo and “peace process”.
As I reflect on both Ari’s life and Yom Kippur, I wonder what he would do or say if we asked him about his own demise and the soon to be proposed peace plan?
I first met Ari in the summer of 2014. The black belt in karate was a gentle giant, making him warm and easy to talk too. On one hand, Israelis treated him as a patriot, while on the other, his Arab neighbors treated him as a friend thanks to him helping them find work in the settlements.
His work often took him to the mall and spot where he fell. Since the mall is less than a mile away from my in-laws’ Bethlehem home, I have visited it many times, and I can see in my mind where the attack took place. As a shopper, the stores are filled with merchandise, Palestinian women in Hijabs pushing carts next to orthodox Jewish men and Arab workers earning a living alongside their Israeli counterparts. You also see cars with Palestinian license plates parked next to Israeli ones. Both come here for the selection and savings.
Now, I will always see blood out in front of my favorite store in the West Bank.
I can also see the young terrorist from the local Arab village of Yatta who carried out the attack. He knew that he would be able to enter the mall without being stopped by Israeli security because the mall does not discriminate – it welcomes everyone – including Arabs – unlike what we hear from the propaganda machines of regional terror-mongers like the King of Jordan, Muslim Brotherhood, PA and Hamas.
Everyone who knew Ari, knew that he died in the land he loved, but he didn’t deserve to die this way, nor did his kids deserve to be orphaned.
As the world contemplates major changes in the region that will hopefully lead to peace, and his friends mourn his loss, a tragic bell rings: Enough is enough; the status quo cannot go one forever, this lunacy must stop, once and for all!
That said, it needs to be made clear that the 17-year-old terrorist didn’t do this act unwittingly: he was born under the Oslo accord and then brainwashed by the tyrannical Palestinian Authority that grew up from it. In fact, the killer was so brainwashed by the PA propaganda mill that he had not even finished high school before he decided to commit this murder. It also included him knowing that if he was killed or imprisoned, his family would receive a substantial stipend from one of the terrorist entities listed above and if he died as a “martyr,” he would bypass all the suffering and economic hardship brought upon Palestinians and find his reward in heaven.
That understood, I think Ari would agree with me that in the 25 years since Oslo, that the agreement has brought everyone nothing but pain, and the time has come to speak out against it: The Oslo agreement is dead, cannot be sustained and is costing us lives, money and resources.
As my group and I are pushing for change in how we approach the peace agreements, I think Ari would agree that its time that everyone accept that Palestinians and Jordanians are one people, and that no peace can really materialize without recognizing our human rights in Jordan as it is, after all, our legitimate and sovereign homeland.
Several facts support this claim. First, most Palestinians live in 78% of the “historically promised Palestine”. Second, most West Bankers hold Jordanian passports (including the Abbas family). Third, most Palestinians passionately hate the PA and openly yearn for the economic and political freedoms found in Israel. Fourth, over 70% of the Jordanian population is Palestinian in nature, not there is any difference at all between us and our East Bank brothers, whom we love and share blood connections, faith and soil. Finally, 1.1 million Jordanians of Palestinian heritage hold Israeli green or yellow cards; providing them with the right to return should they decide to claim that right. Nonetheless, they are not returning because they love Jordan.
As the US administration prepares to release its groundbreaking Peace Plan – dubbed the Deal of The Century – we have to ask what Ari would say about it.
I believe that Ari would not only support peace between brothers as long as it was based on facts, truth, love and moderation. I also believe that he would support what the media has reported – Israeli sovereignty and a confederation between Jordanians and Palestinians as one people.
That said, I join in Ari’s memory and say enough is enough – both sides have had enough pain, lost loved ones and seen children orphaned all under the label of an unrealistic peace agreement that’s structurally impossible to finalize and implement.
From what I know of the man in the White House, he fully understands in Ari’s vision of peace with his brothers, and as such, I have never been more optimistic about the future of Palestinians/Jordanians and Israelis.
@ Bear Klein:
And the land must be nationalized or they will just crowd-fund and rebuild.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Entire building where terrorist lived to be demolished
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/252188
Shows why the whole family needs to be deported after a terror attack!
@ Sebastien Zorn:
This would not be legal under Israeli law by the way. They would need to create a new law to do it.
https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/PA-expels-20-families-from-clan-in-Yatta-after-deadly-gun-battle-567463
@ Bear Klein:
Yes, that would be great but I can’t find anything on such a law. Can you post something?
@ Bear Klein:
Well It doesn’t take much to find out what it stands for. Anyone intelligent enough to write coherently to this site can find out. The very first time I saw it used, some years ago, the user obligingly put in brackets (Yehuda Shomron ve’Aza), so I understood right away.
I also sometimes use Yehuda and Shomron, or Judah and Samaria (I never use Judea -the Roman name.) Depends on my mood or whether I’m in a hurry.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Should apply the Arab Clan Law. Make all the families from a clan move elsewhere and forfeit their homes. I believe 20 families from a clan in Hebron had to move to Jenin because one them killed someone in another family. This was to prevent further bloodshed.
So, I say expel the entire family or families of a clan and they forfeit their land and houses or face the IDF in a battle to the death. In other words move or die!
Eminent Domain should be applied to expropriate the homes of terrorists. These homes and the land on them should be nationalized since Basic Law says nationalized land cannot be relinquished. They should remain empty — and this should be enforced — until enough Arabs are evicted from a neighborhood to safely lease or rent homes to Jews. The Arabs should understand that every act of terror will deprive them of one more plot of land and subtract one more day from their continued presence. It should be made clear to them — and to the liberal fools among us who fear resembling our enemies more than they do falling victim to them, as well, that the Arabs, especially Muslim Arabs, remain on sufferance not by right, and only temporarily.
@ Edgar G.:
Except only people that know Hebrew are familiar with the acronym YESHA I believe. Judea/Samaria is what I use when writing.
Even though West Bank is the most used, I believe when one writes Judea and Samaria or Judea/Samaria people now know what one is talking about.
@ WB:
You’ll find that for every time someone refers to Judea and Samaria, there are 100 who call it the Wast Bank (of Jordan). It slides much easier off the tongue. I myself use the acronym YESHA mostly. So no need to throw away your former goodwill. If you had any I’m surprised that it would be trashed so easily over a couple of misplaced words. He’s not a Jew he’s an Arab. Jews are too quick to take offence and too lazy to do anything about it—except talk and argue…..
Jews….?? Their own worst enemies..
I myself support his cause, (which is OUR cause) and know that of ALL the bean-head plans, it’s the only hope for getting Israel free of most of it’s squatter Arabs, He recognises the Balfour, San Remo, L of N British Mandate, Anglo-American Treaty, Art.80 of UN Charter, and etc, so rather back and encourage him than throw him away…as long as there is any chance that his Plan will succeed. Even then he’s done nothing to you anyway, so why be belligerent towards him.
All the goodwill that was implied faded away when he called Judea ‘West Bank’.
‘Jordan Option’ was accomplished in 1922. The legal definition of the Jewish State is clearly given. Almost 100 years of a Jewish Agency (basis of the State) that is willing to compromise our land for reasons that aren’t clear but are probably related to a huge bribe and.or inherent dislike of the idea of a genuine Jewish State.
Judea and Samaria are the Eastern sections of the land that is designated for the Jewish State and the future Malchut.
The Headline could have been different. We’ve been getting wake-up calls daily for years. Every murder, attempted murder, in fact every Arab attack on a Jew is a wake-up call.
So although you mourn a friend, as so many are, be sure that we are in lockstep with you on this.