Doesn’t it strike you as wholly evil when great powers chop up a smaller sovereign state and hand parts of it over to genocidal maniacs, in order to advance their own interests?
The paradigm case was the Munich agreement in 1938, where the British and French agreed to give a piece of Czechoslovakia to Hitler, hoping to satisfy him and forestall war. They didn’t ask the Czechs, of course.
Now apparently the US and Europe plan to do the same to Israel.
The following appeared in Ha’aretz:
Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians will resume next month on the basis of an understanding that the establishment of a Palestinian state will be officially announced in two years.
Palestinian and European Union sources told Haaretz that talks will initially focus on determining the permanent border between Israel and the West Bank…
It is understood that this will be accompanied by a public American and European declaration that the permanent border will be based on the border of June 4, 1967. Both sides may agree to alter the border based on territorial exchanges.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to discuss Jerusalem and the Palestinian refugees in the initial negotiation stages will not be allowed to delay the announcement of an independent Palestinian state.
Likewise, Netanyahu’s demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, and that the Arab world embark on normalizing ties with Israel, will not constitute preconditions to an “early recognition” of Palestine.
In other words, the intention is that Israel will withdraw to the pre-1967 border in two years and the wishes of her government in the matter will be ignored. It is not clear what will happen to the 300,000 or so Israelis living east of the border (500,000 if you count East Jerusalem) if Israel and the Palestinian Authority can’t agree on border modifications. And agreement isn’t likely, judging by the fact that the PA has never budged on its demand for “not one centimeter less” than that border.
Further, the amputation will take place regardless of whether the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world will give up their desire to resettle millions of hostile ‘refugees’ in Israel or will agree to end the conflict — for this is what recognizing Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish People means.
Keep in mind that the Palestinian Authority will almost certainly include Hamas by the time this happens, so my use of the phrase ‘genocidal maniacs’ is quite appropriate.
The analogy to Munich is close, in that this agreement will bring war, not peace.
In truth, the imposed settlement will be morally worse than Munich. Chamberlain and Daladier were probably naive about Hitler’s intentions, believing that their actions would prevent war. The Europeans and the US State Department, on the other hand, understand quite well what the Arabs want.
This is not being done for peace and not for the Palestinians. It is being done for business reasons, and because craven Western leaders are scared to death of the potential for anti-Western terrorism that could be unleashed by the barbaric Arab nations and Iran.
Technorati Tags: Israel, Palestinian Authority, Israeli-Arab conflict
Is Israel so powerless that it can be compelled to accept an ‘agreement’ which undermines its future security?
Is the U.S. really going to do what even President Obama has promised he would not do , ‘force an agreement’ on the parties?
The reports of ‘peace agreements’ which will be imposed upon Israel have appeared quite often through the years. This does not mean that ‘next time’ will not be the real one. But I don’t think it likely.
I tend to agree with Mr. Freedman. Czechoslovakia did not have the most powerful military in the region, or an operational fleet of nuclear arms. Moslem SW Asia hardly has the potential to do to anyone what Nazi Germany was threatening Europe with at that time.
Still, the point is taken and must be taken seriously. Isreal is vulnerable geographically and economically. If she is reduced to a 1970s Rhodesia-like pariah status, this could be fatal in the long run.
I believe Obama is a naive and foolish coward, and is increasinlgy being sized up as such by many leaders in the world community. If Bibi hangs tough, I’d expect a better than even odds chance that he can overcome the scourge of Obama & Co. However, history has shown how single minded and self-defeating the enemies of the Jews often become, so determined as they are to “put those damned Joos in their place” no matter what the cost, even to their own objective interests.