…our people have witnessed, and continue to witness, an unprecedented intensification of military assaults, the blockade, settlement activities and ethnic cleansing, particularly in Occupied East Jerusalem, and mass arrests, attacks by settlers and other practices by which this Israeli occupation is becoming synonymous with an apartheid system of colonial occupation, which institutionalizes the plague of racism and entrenches hatred and incitement.
What permits the Israeli government to blatantly continue with its aggressive policies and the perpetration of war crimes stems from its conviction that it is above the law and that it has immunity from accountability and consequences….
Thus Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas characterized Israel in speaking to the UN General Assembly on November 29, part of his successful bid for the West Bank and Gaza to be recognized by that body as a “state.” His words were consistent with incendiary calumnies heaped on Israel throughout the Arab world and in much of the Muslim world.
There is, though, a difference: that it is Israel that keeps Abbas and his PA afloat. Along with the United States and the European Union, Israel gives Abbas the financial support without which his institutions would collapse. And it is Israeli security forces in the West Bank, in cooperation—at least until recently—with Abbas’s own security forces, that keep the West Bank from being taken over by Gaza-based Hamas.
This radical instance of biting the hand that feeds one naturally raises the question of whether Israel has to keep sustaining an entity that shows its gratitude by attacking it diplomatically and cultivating generations of hatred. The question is further sharpened by a recent escalation of anti-Israeli violence in the West Bank (see here, here, and here) amid reports that PA security forces have stopped arresting Hamas operatives there and “no longer seem…motivated to curb their activities in the area.”
One of Israel’s sharper analysts—Prof. Efraim Inbar, director of Bar-Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA)—says: enough already.
Interviewed by Israel’s Besheva Hebrew-language weekly (translation here) the same week that Abbas gave his General Assembly address, Inbar said he was “not too upset” by Abbas’s UN move. He explained:
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The Palestinian Authority is a fictional entity. It continues to exist only because of the IDF, and if we are not there, Hamas will take over take the place. I’m not sure it is right for us to continue to support the Palestinian Authority. We should let it fall apart….
Inbar went on to note that the Palestinian Authority “makes claims against us…runs an anti-Israel campaign all over the world…educates its people toward hatred of Israel…. We have to let them fail.”
When the interviewer noted the “concern that Hamas will take over the area,” Inbar responded:
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We will not allow Hamas to take over the area. We will rule…. We should prepare to put up with some disturbances, and stop paying lip service to the paradigm of two states for two peoples. It simply does not work because there is no partner on the other side.
Asked whether, in terms of international law, Israel would not still be held responsible for the Palestinian population, Inbar replied:
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There’s no need for us to be responsible for them. I am not prepared to be responsible for the food that comes or does not come to them. It’s their problem, not ours. What, must I take care of the whole world? We left their big cities in 1996 and that’s it…. If they want to be nice to us then we’ll help them, if not then we won’t…. Yes. There would be international pressure and we will withstand it. If the Europeans want to help them, let them help them…. We should not help our enemies.
It should be noted, first, that right after Inbar’s interview and Abbas’s speech, the Netanyahu government took two measures: announcing stepped-up building plans in parts of Jerusalem and the West Bank, including the heavily contested E1 area near Jerusalem; and suspending the month’s transfer of tax payments to the PA, using the money instead to pay the PA’s enormous debt to the Israel Electric Corporation.
Naturally, the worldwide diplomatic condemnation was unanimous and particularly nasty from Europe with its burgeoning Muslim populations and tight commercial ties with Arab states. To its credit, the Netanyahu government said it was going ahead with the measures anyway, though to what extent the building plans for E1 are just declaratory or will really be fulfilled remains to be seen.
Second, Inbar’s interview is not, of course, a systematic position paper and leaves some questions open—particularly whether Israel’s retaking full security control of the West Bank would pass the cost-benefit test. Israel’s security establishment has reportedly told Netanyahu such a redeployment would add some $3.15 billion to Israel’s annual budget—at a time when Israel’s fiscal discipline is the envy of most of the West and a paramount Israeli interest.
On the other hand, if the current disturbances continue and Abbas’s forces continue to prove useless or actively collusive with Hamas, Israel will have little choice but to crack down and this question may answer itself.
Third, barring such a scenario, Netanyahu—a cautious leader who faces much graver security challenges from the Syrian and, most of all, Iranian directions, and wants to get along as much as possible with a difficult occupant of the White House for another four years—is not likely to take any drastic steps toward the PA for the time being, even if he emerges from Israel’s January 22 elections with a more hawkish coalition.
Still, the questions Inbar raises are acute. Israel faces a morally upside-down world where it is damned for taking military, economic, or any other steps against sworn enemies who, in turn, are coddled and excused. The question is how long, as the PA keeps biting its helping hand, Israel can engage in morally upside-down behavior.
Israel gives much to the Arab Palestinians and never gets recognized for it because Arab leaders don’t know how to say thank you. There’s example after example of Israel helping them out. In their politics they can’t voice appreciation because it looks like they are weakening toward the enemy. One example is Israel has been handing them over sales tax money even though they are greatly in arrears on their electricity bills. In so many ways they want Israel to take care of them, thanklessly, while they continue their attacks on the Jews and Western Civilization. It never occurs to them to work with other people to elevate their own fortunes, only to grab and snatch what they can.
The West has weaned them this way. This is an exhausting situation. For the EU and UN, they want to be rid of this problem and are trying to force Jews to give up their own security and well being. But no one can breathe for another. Were the neo Nazis planning to take over European neighborhoods or the Ku Klux Klan American cities, there would be no end of efforts to prevent this. Yet they want Israel to allow this to happen in the Holy Land.
I stand behind Mr. Netanyahu.
The EU and the US will not allow the PA to fail no matter what Il does. Unless they need no more the ME oil & gas???
Jews are not to be master of their destiny!!! The “white race” and the Muslims are opposed to that.
This will be a conflict that will go till ETERNITY or till our planet hits a huge asteroid (G-D willing!!!).
Then will all be in “paradise” according to the believers! or Hell?
Interesting question!
All the Geneva conventions were created and to be respected specifically by Jews and perhaps by others depending on who has the power.
We need to remember that the Jews from the left want Universalism at any cost. They may end-up with Islamic Universalism.
Duh! Of course. There is no reason to keep it going. The Oslo Accords
are now dead with the Plaestinians going to the U.N. In Canada it is location, location, location. In Judea and Samaria it should be annex, annex, annex. It is not the only the Palestinian leadership but also the Palestinian people who are eager to harm Israel if they get their own area to incompetently rule.
Inbar is wrong to say we won’t feed them. Israel has always maintained that even if the Fourth Geneva Convention does not apply that we would honour the humanitarian provisions which means we would feed them.
yamit82 Said:
That depends not on the Arabs having a change of heart but Israel deciding it wants peace at any price and is too tired to fight any more. With leftist prosecutors vowing to drive Jews out of Beit Ezra in Hebron and the Knesset legal adviser declaring Zionism is racism – Israel’s deadliest enemy is not and has never been the Arabs, it has been Jews within waging war against the Jewish State itself.
@ NormanF:
Normon you are thinking with your heart and not your head.
You think Israels political lemming will buck BB? If BB were to enter into a Land for peace deal with the Palis with or without Hamas 45-50 MK’s on the left including the Arab Mk’s would support him and all he would need is 10-15 coalition votes to pass the knesset.
What you are saying we also said and believed before Sinai was given up and before Gush Katif was given away.
There is an old saying here “Only the left can make war and only the right can make peace ( giving up Land)”
NO COMMENT – Just a column that tells it as it is.
Additional links to the above stories I quoted are being held for moderation.
More links – I did not include them all to avoid ‘moderation’. Here are the others.
Mashaal – http://www.timesofisrael.com/thousands-gather-in-gaza-for-hamas-anniversary/
Ashkenazy – http://www.timesofisrael.com/former-idf-chief-says-israel-should-withdraw-from-west-bank-unilaterally/
Racist towns – http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4316153,00.html
Price Tag is terror, says Court – http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4316253,00.html
NO COMMENT – Just recent headlines:
– Hamas Mashaal: “We are not giving up any inch of Palestine. It will remain Islamic and Arab for us and nobody else. Jihad and armed resistance is the only way” (Times of Israel)
– Former IDF Chief Gabi Ashkenazy at Israeli Business Conference says LET’S UNILATERALY WITHDRAW FROM WEST BANK -“Israel must recognize the limits of its power and cooperate with forces that support Israeli interests| (Times of Israel)
– PA officer punches IDF soldier in Hebron. Palestinians hurl stones at IDF troops fleeing the scene (Ynet)
– Soldiers: Our hands are being tied. Troops being given intentionally vague orders – A commander or an officer sees a camera and becomes a diplomat, calculating every rubber bullet, every step. It’s intolerable, we’re left utterly exposed – http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4317755,00.html
– PRICE TAG AKIN TO TERROR – Supreme Court renders precedent-setting ruling allowing authorities to apply some of the legal practices used in terror cases to ‘price tag’ cases – This was in the case of three “price tag” suspects, saying they could not meet with their attorneys. The three were arrested earlier this week after setting a Palestinian car on fire and spraying “price tag” on its surroundings. (Ynet)
– New expulsion threat for Hevron Jews – Govt prosecutor favors Arabs – http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/162947
– Knesset legal advisor: Jewish-only towns in Negev and Galilee ‘racist’ (Ynet)
we need a courageous leader like the Hashmonaim – a man who faces everybody with infinite courage and infinite faith to the G-d of Israel. a man like this would simply annihilate the world’s opposition. in particular, our REAL leader should talk tough to all those who in WWII collaborated with the germans or at least waited until the last minute to oppose them, and above all we should single out the germans them selves: rather than let them attack us verbally, diplomatically and military (by training and arming our enemies), shouldn’t we let pass over the slightes oppotunity to attack the germans there where they are the most vulnarable and which makes them crazy crazy: their past and their depth to us, in particular should we stress at every single opportunity that germany was ruled by nazis even after WWII, at least in the 50ies and 60ies the enourmous majority of the german teachers, lawyers, physicians and also politicians were nazis (and because of that also the new generation that follows were nazis although they did a lot to hide their real views, but now they are coming oput of the closet, and that’s what we should stress every single timne). we should hit on the germans, hit hit hit and on everybody who was even in a minimal extent on their side. without the slightes fear. HASHEM will give us victory over the whole world if only we believe in Him rather than in the corrupt decadent anti-semitic nations.
Israel should not be making life easier for its enemies.
Netanyahu’s hands are tied by his own party. It does not support the “two-state solution.” And the Left does not have the votes to pass a putative land for peace deal, in the highly unlikely event there is one with the Arabs.
There is no Arab peace partner and no reason at all for Israel to essentially hand over the heartland of the Jewish nation to Hamas in the future.