By Ted Belman
I was one of four bloggers asked by The Hill to write a 500 word essay in answer to this question, “Can the Obama administration forge a peace agreement, and what steps should it be taking in Mideast policy?” It picked two bloggers from each side although only two were posted. The Hill has enormous traffic so I was honoured and relished the opportunity to address a large audience.
My dilemma was in deciding how best to use the 500 words. Here’s my essay. Should I have used the words differently? You can go to the link above to read my opponent’s piece of trash.
Time for a paradigm shift in the peace process
By Ted BelmanOne cannot answer this question without regard to the religious, historical and legal context for the conflict. The conflict has continued for over 100 years and for good reason.
More than 3,000 years ago God promised these lands to the Jewish people. King Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem 2,900 years ago. The Temple was destroyed 400 years later, only to be rebuilt less than 100 years thereafter. In 70 AD the Romans destroyed the Second Temple, massacred over one million Jews and sent much of the rest into exile. Thus Jewish sovereignty over the land lasted for 1,000 years with a couple of short interruptions. The Promised Land and Jerusalem are as central to Judaism as Jesus is to Christianity.For 2,000 years Jews prayed for a return to Jerusalem. The Ottoman Empire was defeated in World War I. By international law, the victorious powers have the right to redraw borders, which they did at San Remo in 1920. They awarded Palestine, a province of the Ottoman Empire, to the Jews as their homeland. This decision was reaffirmed in the Palestine Mandate two years later. According to Jacques Gauthier, an expert on international law, who wrote his doctoral thesis on the matter, Jerusalem belongs to the Jews. It was res judicata.
In the seventh century AD, Mohammed founded a new religion called Islam, submission, and wrote the Koran. It mandated on all Muslims, the duty of Jihad, struggle. They must struggle to conquer all the land for Allah and keep it. Thus, the Province of Palestine, which included the Land Of Israel, having been in the past conquered for Allah, must be recovered.
Jerusalem is mentioned 823 times in the Bible (669 times in Old Testament; 154 in New Testament). Jerusalem is not mentioned in the Koran, even once
The Arabs don’t want a 23rd Arab state. They want to destroy the Jewish state of Israel. They want to recover the land for Allah. That is why they have been fighting the Jews for the last 100 years, why they make no concessions and why they don’t want to negotiate. This will never change.
The Jews compromised 63 years ago when they accepted the Partition Plan, which gave them a state on part only of the land awarded to them at San Remo. They are still willing to compromise for peace but demand the Arabs also compromise and sign an end-of-conflict agreement. This the Arabs will not do.
Neither party will make the concessions the other demands. It is for this reason the Arabs have threatened to declare a state unilaterally, President Obama has mooted the idea of imposing a solution and Israel has mooted the idea of annexing Judea and Samaria (The West Bank).
What is needed is a paradigm shift. The U.S. should no longer push the peace process. Instead, she should back Israel and strengthen her to prevent the expansion of Iranian hegemony. With America withdrawing from Iraq, she needs a strong Israel all the more.
No Narvey, it was apparently a lame attempt at sarcasm.
Recognition as a Jewish State? Why? We need their specific recognition?
I don’t need or want their recognition. If our legitimacy depends on their recognition then you can start finding another cause to support.
I don’t recognize them either as a people or a specific nationality and and I don’t care he you Vinnie or Narvey do. Stop with these stupid sophomoric games. In the end whenever it finally comes down to it we are going to have to kill them and drive those who remain out of here and I don’t care where.
We and they cannot coexist and there is no room between the Jordan and the Med for two competing antagonistic ethnic groups. Play your silly mind games it will just result in more dead Jews but then you will say we tried and failed go out and have a good diner and maybe take in a show. Later you can contribute to a new holocaust museum and commiserate with others like you how bad the Arabs are and those fucking Democrats in the States.
Watch the clip I posted of Sowell. No, forget it, you might learn something.
Are you talking to me HWSNBN? Do we know each other HWSNBN?
Narvey is easy but there are at least 4 of us that in any persona you choose will detect and know who is the interlocutor HWSNBN
Vinnie, 2 good points.
Your 1st pt. is not an end point however, but the start of what would still be a long journey.
It would only be a start however, if the Palestinians were convincing of their sincerity in conceding to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Given the emptiness of Palestinian promises and agreements before, it would have to take some act or actions by the Palestinians to satisfy Israelis, such stated recognition was not taquiya and part of a grand manifest Islamic destiny scheme to bring all the lands of Israel, once under Islamic domain, back into that domain.
The more fundamental issue that must be dealt with 1st however, is the source of Palestinian/Arab mistrust, intolerance and hatred of Jews/Israelis. That issue has significance globally for all Western nations and non-Muslims including especially Christians and Hindus who stand close behind Jews in terms of being the target of fundamentalist Muslim mistrust, intolerance and hatred.
Both America and Netanyahu deceive themselves when they say Mahmood Abbas is a moderate Muslim and that Palestinians are secular or at least more secular than their fundamentalist Middle Eastern Muslim counterparts, as if that means they see their current circumstance and future as Western nations see it.
The obvious is ignored. In Western nations, atheists and agnostics while denying or questioning the existence of God and the relevance of religion, still incorporate into their lives Judeo-Christian norms, values, morals, ethics, thought processes and respect for law.
Abbas and the Palestinians, even if secular, still were born into and nurtured in an Islamic culture. Obviously some of what that culture teaches aligns with Judeo-Christian culture, but not all. As has been noted by experts and as we have seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears, some aspects of Islamic principles, especially those that the Jihadists and Hamas invoke to justify their views and heinous deeds, are antithetical to Western culture.
Israel, in spite of its uniqueness as a Jewish state, has adopted much from Western democratic cultures and is in its own eyes and the eyes of the world, a Westernized democratic nation.
Even if Abbas, would come around to a Western Judeo-Christian way of thinking and sincerely made a peace deal with Israel, the reality is that he does not have the authority and power to see that deal through. Abbas’ power does not extend much beyond the gates of Ramallah. The reach of Hamas that governs about 1 million Palestinians in Gaza, extends into the West Bank. It is Israel’s power that mostly keeps Hamas from openly fighting Fatah for control and authority over all the Palestinians.
As I said, a sincere and provable change in position by Abbas to say he is ready to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, is just a 1st step. The fact is that Abbas is openly refusing that. I expect for him, that would be one of the issues for a final status agreement.
Needless to say most if not all Israpundit contributors and many others are concerned that Netanyahu has offered up the issue of Jerusalem as a final status agreement issue, rather then tell the Palestinians and the world, the status of Jerusalem is that it is Israel’s indivisible capital and is not up for discussion.
The hope of the 2 state solutioners possibly is that in spite of all the omens that speak against a secure, stable and enduring 2 state peace solution,
that if such agreement can be realized, the Palestinian attitude will change. With that the hope and expectation is that the Palestinians will reject Hamas, accept Fatah’s/PA’s leadership and authority and real peace will really come to the region.
There is an awful lot of wishful thinking behind that hope.
As to your 2nd point, I agree that is the way things should be. It is however, not the way things are or are likely to be.
North Korea is a poor, weak and small nation. There is much doubt that North Korea, could or would launch a nuclear attack on America. Though it is ruled by an unpredictable Kim Jong Il, Il does not appear harbour a death wish to satisfy some greater manifest destiny vision as some fundamentalist Muslims do, such as Iran. There is little if any risk for America to treat North Korea as an enemy and devise its policies accordingly. Besides, Il’s game of brinksmanship is not to set North Korea on a course of open military confrontation with America and the West, but to get something for his trouble.
Iran on the other hand, declared war against America back in 1979 and has acted accordingly to this day. Americans and Westerners have lost their lives and been injured in that war and American interests harmed. Iran has largely carried out its war by proxies such as Hezbollah. The Iranian Mullahs have convinced the West to take them at their word that they care less about their own lives and the lives of Iranians and other Muslims then acting to ensure their Islamic prophecy is realized.
Though even the Saudis are fearful of Iran, it appears they will not lift a finger to defend themselves or their so called friend, America.
There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world.
America is fearful that if she took military action against Iran, fundamentalist Muslims would side with Iran claiming America’s attack on Iran was an attack on Islam. America would then have to deal with a great many millions of Muslims who likely would be moved by these fundamentalist Muslims to declare their enmity for America and the West and to become a huge army of terrorists bent on attacking their enemy America and Americans.
America has thus been doing a balancing act for decades to ensure the clash of civilizations Huffington spoke of, remains at a very low simmer and does not break out into a war between civilizations. America is handling that balancing act badly however.
America will not even admit that Iran is at war with her, lest just acknowledging that fact, would draw the anger and rouse the hatred of America from many fundamentalist Muslims, who would join the battle against the West and especially the West’s symbolic leader, the great satan, America.
Logicom, I don’t have a good answer to your question as to what would possess Yamit to be so committed to dissing me, such as his newest suggestion that I see a shrink.
It probably would take a shrink to figure and treat Yamit’s obsessive compulsive disorder that forces him to only see me as his nemesis. The chances of Yamit ever realizing the problem he has with me, lies within him and not me, are slim to none and slim as they say, is already on the train out of town.
With that out of the way Logicom, I asked you and Davidstill 2 serious questions and hoped you both would respond with clear and cogent answers.
Perhaps Yamit could care less about what you have to say, but I do.
Yamit, your question of me is impertinent. You know my views from my extensive writings on Israpundit.
Let me respond however, with a serious question that I have put to you many times and one that you continuously ducked answering.
Aside from pontificating on on Israpundit, why have you not affiliated yourself with a political party, joined an advocacy group or started your own with the objective of convincing others to your views?
She shaved.
Jut call him Sybyl!! He thinks he’s Lon Chaney but Chaney had Talent and was a great actor. This piece of shit is sooo Transparent, has Lousy taste in poetry and music too. Blue Moon echhh.
We rest our case.
Narvey:
My quips are directed at a group of fanatics (certainly not all) of Israpundit headed by Yamit82.
My evidence
Why would this idiot refer you to a shrink in Toronto when you live several thousands kilometers away in Alberta?
There are several sound minded people posting on Israpundit, but we are a small minority.
Great article, Ted. But if I had a similar assignment, while I would not be quite as brief as Yamit, mine would have concentrated on two points:
– First, there is no chance whatever for peace unless the PA amend their national charter so as to formally recognize the legitimacy of Israel as a Jewish state, as Arafat had promised to do at Oslo and predictably reneged on. Abbas says it is “not my job” to define the national character of Israel, but if this were so, why does the founding documents of the national political movement he leads (or is given credit for leading) make it his business to define Israel in the negative with respect to the Jews?
If this does not change, then regardless of what else is agreed on, when the Palestinians renege and renew their attacks, they will be able to logically claim that they could not be held to the terms of an agreement with an “illegitimate entity”.
Indeed, the Palestinian – and larger Arab/Moslem – refusal to recogonized Israel as a Jewish state makes about as much sense as Russia refusing to recognize Poland as a Polish state, or Turkey refusing to recognize Greece as a Greek state (both contentious issues in their day).
The Palestinians could do this without making any concessions on the ground in terms of borders, Jerusalem, etc., and the Israelis could make this demand without any reference to these other issues. But Abbas – or any other Palestinian leader – will never do this anyway, because if they do, they wind up like Sadat. In this way, the Palestinians can be rightly made out to be the “intransigent” ones. Played correctly, this could eclipse the tired old horse of the “settlements” issue, and pave the way for……
– …My second point, which dovetails very nicely with Ted’s. This being, WHAT THE HECK DO WE STAND FOR HERE IN THE U.S.? ON WHAT BASIS DO WE CHOOSE OUR ALLIES? ONCE THESE QUESTIONS ARE ANSWERED (presumably in a sensible manner), WHY THE DEVIL SHOULD WE BE REQUIRED TO BE “EVENHANDED” BETWEEN THE ISRAELIS AND THE PALESTINIANS?!! DOES ANYBODY REQUIRE US TO BE “EVENHANDED” BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH KOREA?
Yes, of course we stand by Israel. We tell the PA, either you recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people (which they won’t), or we back Israel 100% in anything they do to defend themselves against you. Then, the PA – not Israel – is the party threatened with “delegitimization”, Israel doesn’t have to give up a damn thing, and yes, in the short term, this will probably mean war instead of peace, but in the long term, this surely means peace and a secure Israel.
Under Obama, of course, this is never going to happen. He’s just a Saudi poodle, and Bibi might as well be sitting across from King Abdullah when he meets with Obama. So, BB just has to hold out as best he can until January 2013.
BB does in fact keep raising the recognition issue, to his credit, but the Saudi-controlled media barely reports on this at all; you really have to look for it.
Sidenote for “rongrand”: I believe it was you who suggested BB make a speaking tour of the US to get his message out. Biggest problem with this – besides the fact that the man has a country to run and can’t exactly take a month off for such activities – is that the press wouldn’t cover it anyway. His speech at the UJF GA last year was fantastic, but you’d never know it to see how even the WJS covered it, let alone anybody else. There is no quick fix for this problem; we have to get our media back somehow, though.
Good going Ted. That must have been nerve wracking to decide how to sum up the past 3000 years in a mere 500 words. I dont want to sound like a pessamist but I think at some point Israel will be forced to relinquish land to the Palestinians for a Palestinian state. Of coarse it wont end there. They will keep pushing and pushing for more. Once again the Jews will be sifted like wheat and will have to be willing to die to protect the Jewish State as the suicide bombers are willing to die in order to have a license to kill. Even if there was no Jewish state or Jews would this world be more peaceful? Of coarse not. Just the opposite. In World War II why did Hitler want to exterminate the Jews? Is it partly because he was afraid they would thwart his plans for world domination? Think about it. He went after the affluent the educated the wealthy. NEVER AGAIN.
Narvey do you believe in a 2 state solution? If not why and what are your alternatives and if yes, I have a good friend who is a well known Shrink in Toronto I would recommend him to you. You are a personification of the 3 monkeys. My ref is to #10. Kapish?
Good post Ted. I see you kept within the 500 word limit and the Arab three times that number. I stopped reading after the 500th word, fair is fair.
I would have shortened it to: The land of Israel is ours, we intend to keep all of it, even if it means going to war, a war not fought with past Israeli restraints.
Of course The Hill would never re-invite you back!
Logicom,your 2 cents aren’t even worth that. Your sarcastic quips directed against all at Israpundit, say nothing of what you know. Your words speak only to what you feel. What you feel raises a question as to why you would want to be part of the discussion with people you hold in such contempt?
I put two questions to Davidstill that I do hope he answers.
I put those same two questions to you and invite your serious and cogent response:
1. Do you embrace Laila El-Haddad’s views on why there is no peace yet and what it will take for a 2 state peace solution to actually materialize?
2. If your own views differ from Laila El-Haddad’s in any way, then what do you believe it will take for Israel and the Palestinians to come to a real and sustainable 2 state solution peace agreement?
HMMM Who is HWSNBN Thinking of? The Fairy Peter Pan or the Fag pervert pedophile MJ?
Whether or not one is religious, when a people embrace an idea of the promised land or the chosen people over 3000 years do you not think this reflects their resolve and minnd set. You criticse the Jews for clinging to this notion but are silent on the Arabs cling to and killing according to the words of Mohammed.
Do you deny that the settlement of this conflict isn’t governed by the religious as opposed to the secular thinking.
I am simply describing reality and you are clinging to wishful thinking. You want to ignore reality.
davidstill:
David, you are entirely much too sensible, logical and realistic for the folks on this site. Please don’t cloud the facts with your “delusions”. This is after all never, never land.
Davidstill, I presume you are a 2 state solutioner.
While you disagree with Ted’s view and call for a paradigm shift, you have not said one way or another whether you agree with Laila El-Haddad’s views and stated case for her position. I have two questions for you that I hope you will respond to:
1. Do you embrace Laila El-Haddad’s views on why there is no peace yet and what it will take for a 2 state peace solution to actually materialize?
2. If your own views differ from Laila El-Haddad’s in any way, then what do you believe it will take for Israel and the Palestinians to come to a real and sustainable 2 state solution peace agreement?
These are big questions, but I do hope you will take the time to provide us with insight into your views.
With due respect to your position, “promises” made so long ago apply only to the people who accept and believe in those promises. After all, there are many very religious Jews who do not believe in a secular state in the region. The US is concerned with regional security and not with showering its military might upon one state–Israel–to the exclusion of those nation and peoples also in the region. To make a shift as you suggest is not merely naive but in fact most unreasonable. In sum: there will be no security and no peace for Israel till an agreement is reached for all those concerned.
Excellent job, Ted.
Excellent. You said it all, and clearly, in 500 words. Why do other people find it so complicated?
Ted, it’s not a masterpiece, it’s the truth. Nice going.
The reason why it is so important for the Israelis to avoid the secular movement and insist on a constitution based on the Torah.
Ted, kudos for saying so much in only 500 words. That was quite a feat.
Anti-kudos to Laila El-Haddad for saying “Never mind talk (from hamas) of dedication to Israel’s destruction.”
No, she tells us, it is Netanyahu that is the true bad guy.
No wonder the conservatives and the liberals cannot see eye to eye. We are from planet Earth, they are from a galaxy far, far away.